Can anxiety cause nausea?

Anxiety causes a stress response in the body, called the fight, flight, faint, or flee response. When anxiety rises, you probably notice that your heart rate and breathing speed up. Nausea can often come with those physical symptoms.

Feeling a little nauseated when you experience anxiety is a product of that stress response. Some people with anxiety-related nausea may even vomit or dry heave from experience.

When you feel anxious, the body releases hormones and neurotransmitters that work to prepare you to fight or run from danger or faint or freeze from it. This response is designed to help you when you face danger, but it can activate perceived emotional danger and any situation where you feel stress.

During the stress response, the body also pauses unnecessary bodily processes to save energy for where it may be needed most when facing stressful situations, including pausing digestion. This can result in digestive symptoms with anxiety, including nausea, vomiting, heartburn, stomachache, gas, diarrhea, and constipation.

Physical symptoms that come from anxiety are very real. Your body responds to a perceived threat, which triggers a chain of reactions in your body to help you protect yourself in the event of danger.

Addressing anxiety with both your primary care physician and a therapist can be very helpful. Exercising regularly to help support the stress response system, eating well, limiting substances like caffeine that may aggravate anxiety, getting a full night’s sleep, spending time with friends and others who support you, and cultivating skills like mindfulness and deep breathing exercises are all helpful ways to cope with anxiety.

To help address nausea that you may experience due to anxiety, slowly sipping cool water, resting, avoiding clothing that restricts the abdomen, eating very plain and dry food in small amounts, and ensuring to replenish fluids if you’ve experienced vomiting are helpful.

When anxiety-related nausea is a frequent problem, it’s best to talk to your doctor about options for addressing nausea and the underlying anxiety. You can also ask for a referral to a mental health counselor where you can learn ways to manage anxiety.