In this week's podcast we’re answering the question: Why does my anxiety make me feel so sick?
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Notes from the show:
Anxiety activates the body's stress response, often referred to as fight or flight.
Fight or flight diverts energy from digestion to the muscles to allow us to move quickly if we need to.
The opposite to the flight or fight stress response triggered by anxiety is the "rest and digest" state. In this stae our digestion works without distrubance.
It's natural to have an unsettled stomach due to apprehension, travelling, or a big event. These short term events pass quickly and our system soon settles back into normal functioning. But when we experience frequent anxiety it can really upset our digestion causing nausea, loss of appetite, or even stomach cramps.
The hormones we generate when we're highly stressed or anxious have a strong impact on our body. We may shake, feel confused, feel light headed, nauseous, in extreme cases we might feel like we might pass out.
Self-help tips to help you feel less sick from anxiety
Work on lowering your anxiety baseline. Anxiety can run at different levels and different degrees of manageability.
If your anxiety is making you feel sick, the chances are it's running quite high.
- Use EFT tapping - pay particular attention to the point under the eye. This point is on the stomach meridien and can help calm nausea
We recommend tapping through the full EFT sequence while focused on your symptoms at least twice a day.
- Keep hydrated with warm anxiety reducing teas. If you take frequent tiny sips it's not enough to induce sickness.
Teas that are good for calming sickness and anxiety
- Lemon and ginger
- Pukka relax tea: chamomile, fennel, oat tops
- Peppermint tea
- Fennel tea
How to make your own stomach settling tea:
Try blending a teaspoon of crushed fennel seeds with some fresh mint (or a half tablespoonful of dried leaves) and a couple of slices of fresh ginger and sip between meals.
