I feel for you Growly. I'm just posting to support, I don't really have a very good answer but I'll try. Just that I have PTSD and quite a few times each week I feel like I'm gonna be seriously sick and it's very unpleasant but I keep reminding myself just to stick with it and see how it goes. I have stopped quite a lot of things I used to do and live a very limited kind of life only because so many things trigger me like that and in the moment I feel so bad physically.

You have respect, you're courageous to do exposure therapy, to actually isolate those things and face them, whatever the issue it is you're dealing with. I think your own suggestion sounds good to me, just staying with it and you'll know. Also makes sure you're not moving too fast and you're doing the right level of exposure. Should not make you too uncomfortable. Some discomfort however is part of it and necessary cause it'll tell you that you're dealing with a thing that bothered you before and you're emotionally engaged. Keep up the good work.