My emetophobia is going to spoil my vacation

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Do not read while eating.

I'm going on a vacation in April with my family, a coach tour around the British isles, and I am incredibly excited. But there is one thing that is going to spoil it, and that is my emetophobia, also known as "severe anxiety of vomiting and diarrhoea", in my case.

The last time I travelled on a long journey (in my boyfriend's car), I got prepared before we went; I made sure I ate a couple of pieces of toast before we set off, and I had a glass of water too, then took 2 anti-sickness pills, and I put acupressure wristbands on my wrists. I knew that should do it, and we set off in the car.
But about 10 minutes into the journey, my stomach began to feel uncomfortable, and I began feeling sick. I tried to ignore it and tell myself that the anti-sickness pills will kick in soon, and I relaxed and looked straight ahead at the horizon. Then I started getting cramps in my lower abdomen, like I do before I get diarrhoea. I panicked, and asked my boyfriend to stop at the next garage so I can find a toilet. When we found one, I slowly got out of the car, feeling shaky, sweaty and fragile. But I didn't have diarrhoea at all, in fact I didn't release anything. But I still felt sick, and I brought a snack and a drink but felt too sick to have them. Back on the road I didn't feel any better, and a couple of hours went by. Normally the anti-sickness pills kick in within about an hour, but it didn't feel like that was happening, and I didn't even feel drowsy because I felt too sick and bloated.
We stopped at another garage, where I actually went to the toilet, and it turned out not to be diarrhoea at all, but just healthy stools (sorry for the TMI). I felt a bit better after that, although I still took it easy.

That was just a few months ago, and it was a horrible travelling experience. And I'm so worried it will happen again when I'm on the coach. Not all coaches have bathrooms on, and I'm so scared that I'm going to start feeling sick or queasy or have a bout of abdomical cramps and the urge to go to the toilet. Even if it's not diarrhoea, sometimes I can still feel nauseated when needing to go. I don't really have a routine when it comes to going to the bathroom; sometimes I can go at work, other times I can go in the middle of the night.

I get attacks of nausea sometimes when not travelling, just out of the blue for no reason. Then I start thinking "oh, I've caught a stomach bug", and it esculates into anxiety, which just makes it all worse. But it's hard to take my mind off it once it starts. People say that the best cure for travel sickness is to vomit, but I am NOT doing that in front of a coach load of people, not with my horrible unpleasant wretching sounds I make when I vomit, it's not only gross but also disturbing (which probably contributes to my vomiting phobia).

Do you have any tips or ideas on how to enjoy my vacation and observe the sights without feeling sick or stomachachey? Would taking a bottle of juice help, along with some ginger?
Also is there anything to lessen the risk of diarrhoea or abdominal cramps? Or should I see a doctor to see if I can be prescribed something temporarily to ease my stomach and to relax me?
I have talked to my mum about this, but she just said, "it sounds like you don't really want to go", but it is not that at all. I do want to go. I am looking forward to it.

PS. I'm not changing my meds. I've been on them for 4 years and they do help my depression, anger and low self-esteem. They're not designed to work wonders like prevent sickness/diarrhoea anxiety.

It sounds to me that you're more anxious about the possibility of sickness, rather than the sickness itself.

You may benefit from an overall anti-anxiety medication instead of anti-sickness med. Do you take anything like that?

You might want to speak to your doctor about something like Xanax or Valium. That may be of much more benefit.

Have you considered having a vacation closer to home so you don't have to travel? I did this as my partner had increasing disability.

I too am terrified of throwing up. Over Christmas I drank too much hard liquor. The next day I almost threw up. It was horrible feeling. I wont go too much into detail but it gave me so much anxiety!

Motion sickness is a bodily response to real or perceived movement. The inner ear senses movement, while your eyes tell you that you are standing still. This confuses the brain and causes dopamine levels to increase, which causes motion sickness.

Here are a few suggestions:

I am a believer is essential oils. There are several different essential oils that could work to relieve motion sickness. These are: Peppermint, Ginger, Patchouli, Spearmint, Lavender, Rose, Frankincense, Palo Santo and many others.

I would recommend you get a small bottle of one of these essential oils, put a dab on your wrist. Anytime you are feeling queasy, just bring you wrist up to your nose and take a deep breath.

There are several types of teas that can help you with nausea. Ginger Tea is tea is made using fresh ginger root and packs a punch when it comes to healing symptoms of upset stomach. Ginger is a natural remedy for nausea and is often used to treat morning sickness in pregnant women and motion sickness. Another good tea is chamomile tea.

You might also try Licorice root lozenges.

Here are a few links that might give you some other approaches:

21 Motion Sickness Remedies to Ease Nausea, Vomiting, and More

Natural Remedies for Motion Sickness

I don't drink tea. I prefer cold drinks.


I have but I do love travelling and sight-seeing. It's just a shame I have this particular anxiety.



I do have a fear of vomiting, but also diarrhoea makes me anxious too, probably because it's beyond your control and causes unpleasant pain, and both are symptoms of upset stomach or stomach bug, which you have to go through the worst before you get better. I am aware that nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea don't always mean a vomiting bug, but when you have anxiety, it's just the first thing you think of when having these ailments. I fear stomach bugs the most because it's the most uncontrollable thing related to sickness (hangovers can be prevented by not drinking too much alcohol, food-poisoning might be prevented if you are careful with what you eat, travel sickness can be helped by pills or herbs/lozenges suggested by posters in this thread). Food-poisoning is the second biggest vomit-related anxiety on my list, but generally I'm good at detecting if food is not safe to eat. But due to my own mysteriously low immune system (it's a mystery because I get enough iron in my diet and other vitamins from healthy foods), it makes me paranoid in case I catch a bug, as I seem to catch every cold that is going about. I wash my hands a lot but washing my hands doesn't reassure me because I know that these stomach bugs are airbourne.
Things like appendicitis and burst appendix also make me anxious, because this can occur very suddenly, causing pain, vomit and life-threatening conditions if you don't get medical attention quick enough. My cousin nearly died from a burst appendix, and she was only in her 20s. She had to have an emergency operation.

I rely on actimels to help settle my stomach and lessens the chances of acid reflux, gas and diarrhoea, and they work wonders. But actimels need to be kept in a fridge, and we will be staying in a hotel, and not all hotels have fridges in the bedrooms.

How about going a a diet, perhaps skipping hard food when you have to travel?

That's why I suggested anti-anxiety medication. It sounds like you're spending a lot of time being unnecessarily worried about things that are not 100% within your control.

Do you also restrict what you eat to only very healthy foods? Like no fried food, no overly processed foods, etc?

I don't eat fried food hardly, and I only eat fast food occasionally but not often. I don't eat sweets or chocolate as much as I used to, although I do enjoy coke, but I am not going to blame my poor immune system on that and I am not giving it up for diet/zero sugar coke either. Most people have something unhealthy in their diet, and I don't smoke or drink alcohol. I know people who eat much more unhealthily than me and yet they don't keep getting colds.
I walk 2 miles to work 5 days a week, which I count as my daily fresh air and exercise (I am a fast walker too). I've read that walking is good for the immune system.
I used to have such a strong immune system. But it's annoying when people bang on about diets and stuff, because it's so contradicting. I avoid foods that can cause flatulence, as that often makes me feel sick especially if I am around people and have to hold it in, so I try to eat foods that agree with my stomach but are healthy too, like fruit, peas, meat and dairy products (funnily enough none of these give me gas, diarrhoea, nausea or cause any stomach upsets). Yes, dairy products actually settle my stomach so I'm not lactose intolerant.

But I get fed up with diet talk, like "oh eat A and B to get a healthy immune system but avoid C and D because that's not good". As long as I eat foods that contain iron and vitamin C and other essential nutritions, and get regular exercise and enough sleep, I don't see why my body should be so open to colds.

I didn't mean a diet in general.

Rather, I meant that you avoid food just before you are about to get in a car for a long distance trip. The idea being that you can't throw up what isn't in your stomach. You can eat a full meal when you get there.

No, I tend to feel WORSE when I haven't eaten. When hungry I get indigestion, gnawing stomach pains, light headedness and nausea, and I start doing "dry heaves", which is also unpleasant. So I feel more comfortable if I have something in my stomach than if I have nothing at all. So travelling without eating beforehand makes me most ill.

Maybe you shouldn't look at the horizon, as this doesn't really give a sense of movement. You may feel better looking out the side window so your brain better understands that you are moving. You feel the car moving around.

I'm sorry to hear a out your problem. I also suffer from emetophobia. I have prescription medications I take that stop vomiting before it starts, tigan or zofran. I know for sure the latter is used for cancer patients after chemo to help with nausea. I also take small doses of xanax as needed as long as I'm not driving. The xanax has helped tremendously. Whenever I fee like I may vomit I go into panic attack mode. The xanax settles my anxiety which breaks my personal snowball effect of fear of vomiting which causes anxiety which causes nausea etc. Sometimes I do have to take anti motion sickness pills too, but I take the ones that last for 24 hours. The xanax has helped me with diarrhea too in the same "snowball" stopping way before, but I still carry anti-diarrhea pills with me whenever I travel. I am currently on 2 different antidepressants and a daily migraine preventive and I am still able to take the low dose xanax (.5mg size pill, of which I often only need 1/2).
So I would definitely recommend seeing your doctor and talking things over with them.
I really hope you can have a great trip.

Hi Grey Girl!

Great to hear that you found a solution to your motion sickness!

I've seen a doctor and she advised me to take vitamin B supplements (over the counter). She reckons I'm lacking in vitamin B, although I don't see how because I eat a lot of foods that contain vitamin B, and I don't smoke or drink and I'm not underweight. But anyway, I will give the vitamin B supplements a try.

She should do blood tests to check your B levels before recommending you take a supplement for it. I don't see how more B would help with anxiety induced stomach sickness. Like others have said it may help to take an anti-anxiety med in addiction to nausea & anti-diarrhea meds.