Anxiety about boyfriend, grocerie shopping, vomiting

[PTSDisaster]

Apologies for the bad grammar, I'm new here and English is not my native language.
I have been diagnosed with ptsd about two years ago. I've been sexually abused by my father until I was twelve years old, but I lived with him and his girlfriend until I was 20 years old. I'm 22 years old now and I'm also seeing a therapist. When I was about 15 or 16 years old I started gagging whenever I would go somewhere (work or school). Since I've moved out 2 years ago, I started therapy and got diagnosed with PTSD. I finally gained some control of my life and I gagged less and less.
About 8 months ago I got in a relationship with the love of my life, but for the past half year I am starting to feel every emotion (I always blocked emotions). He is the first man in my life I can fully trust, but I don't. I always think I'm not good enough or that he wants another woman in his life. All those emotions and especially the emotions I get thinking about my boyfriend cheating on me or whatsoever, got me vomiting.

So now I'm anxious about doing anything in life, because I'm afraid I might vomit. Last week I felt anxious going to the supermarket, so now only thinking about it makes me sick.

So here are my questions:
1. Is this a sign of healing or is my ptsd getting worse?
2. Does anyone have experience with vomiting?
3. Do you have tips for me how I can manage my anxiety?

 

[littleoc]

These are all extremely complicated questions, that do not have simple answers, unfortunately. And, since I of course don't know you personally, I can't quite answer them perfectly.

I do vomit when incredibly stressed, too, though not as much. Seeing a therapist for emetophobia specifically might help you get to the point that you can work on just this, so that you can continue with your therapies for PTSD more efficiently, with less worry about your responses.

It sounds like you are both healing and struggling. Which is incredibly normal. Sometimes it does get worse before it gets better, though I'd hesitate to say if you're getting better or worse, specifically. Getting better looks different to different people. If your stress is worse and you're functioning less, that's what I would want to focus on. If you're finding that your daily functioning is slowly improving, then that's even better.

As for tips for managing anxiety, try breathing exercises and grounding exercises. For example, breathe in for five seconds. Pause for two. Exhale for seven seconds. Focus on that for about one to two minutes.

You can also play little grounding games, like counting tiles, counting how many blue things you see, ordering things you see by color or size, etc. Ice or something cold on the base of the skull can help tremendously.

Another thing you can do is picture your anxiety like clouds and watch them go by. This normalizes them a bit and makes it easier to sit with them, because it helps you imagine them as things that are temporary.

:hug:

 

[PTSDisaster]

These are all extremely complicated questions, that do not have simple answers, unfortunately. And, since I of course don't know you personally, I can't quite answer them perfectly.

I do vomit when incredibly stressed, too, though not as much. Seeing a therapist for emetophobia specifically might help you get to the point that you can work on just this, so that you can continue with your therapies for PTSD more efficiently, with less worry about your responses.

It sounds like you are both healing and struggling. Which is incredibly normal. Sometimes it does get worse before it gets better, though I'd hesitate to say if you're getting better or worse, specifically. Getting better looks different to different people. If your stress is worse and you're functioning less, that's what I would want to focus on. If you're finding that your daily functioning is slowly improving, then that's even better.

As for tips for managing anxiety, try breathing exercises and grounding exercises. For example, breathe in for five seconds. Pause for two. Exhale for seven seconds. Focus on that for about one to two minutes.

You can also play little grounding games, like counting tiles, counting how many blue things you see, ordering things you see by color or size, etc. Ice or something cold on the base of the skull can help tremendously.

Another thing you can do is picture your anxiety like clouds and watch them go by. This normalizes them a bit and makes it easier to sit with them, because it helps you imagine them as things that are temporary.

:hug:

Thank you so much for your reply! I really appreciate it :)

 

[Tinyflame]

Gaviscon before it worsens helps me a lot.