[growlycat]

Today I did a lot of exposure therapy and it started off where I was beginning to feel very sick. When doing exposure therapy, how can you tell if it is anxiety or if you really are going to be sick? I have such a hard time telling the difference.

The only way I can tell is if it wears off as I continue the exposure therapy. It's a really annoying symptom.

[Partless]

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.

It's tough because anxiety can cause so many physical symptoms, and so strongly too.

For me, I get nauseous and sometimes dizzy. I try to ground by focusing on my surroundings and if the nausea goes away after a (sometimes long) period of grounding, I assume it's anxiety. Of course if I end up heaving or dry retching (sometimes from outs anxiety), it still sucks.

You are brave!

[rainbow8]

I often feel sick when I'm anxious because the two are so closely related. Anxiety gives me an upset stomach or makes me dizzy. My T always comments when I'm holding my breath which I do a lot during therapy. I take sips of water, and she asks if I can feel my feet, my legs, ie grounding exercises. Does your T do that? Do you mean you feel like throwing up during your session? I imagine that would be emotional but could lead to the physical. Can you discuss this with your T? I'm always telling my T my physical symptoms.

I would say that if you weren't sick before the exposure and feeling sick coincides with it, it may be a good indication that it is probably anxiety. As others said, anxiety can cause physical symptoms of sickness, and I also know well how almost impossible it is to discriminate those from organic symptoms of sickness sometimes. For me, the sick feelings usually go away when the mental symptoms also dissipate, for example when a panic attack stops.

[growlycat]

Originally Posted by rainbow8

I often feel sick when I'm anxious because the two are so closely related. Anxiety gives me an upset stomach or makes me dizzy. My T always comments when I'm holding my breath which I do a lot during therapy. I take sips of water, and she asks if I can feel my feet, my legs, ie grounding exercises. Does your T do that? Do you mean you feel like throwing up during your session? I imagine that would be emotional but could lead to the physical. Can you discuss this with your T? I'm always telling my T my physical symptoms.

Thanks rainbow. Yes I sometimes feel like I might throw up or sometimes I feel like I'll pass out or I start feeling dizzy and walk into things.

On this outing we didn't do any grounding except we had a train get stopped for a few minutes (in my youth being stuck on a train for forty minutes happened to me a few times and led me a little panicky). He reminded me that it would likely move again in only a few minutes

Congrats on making progress!!! That is wonderful. Keep up the good work. As far as the sickness I'm not sure. I get sick when I interact with people sometimes. I keep barf bags close and always one in my purse. I think getting sick from exposure is the same as being physically sick. It feels the same anyways but since it's accompanied by lots of anxiety too, I can typically tell what is causing it. I used to wear a special jacket that had this fabric in the pockets I liked to rub while socially anxious. Maybe you could bring something grounding....a bracelet you can roll around or necklace to hold or something to focus your mind and help you feel safe?