What Causes Nausea and Stomach Discomfort? Stomach discomfort and nausea can be caused by motion sickness, a stomach bug, food poisoning, excessive eating or drinking, food intolerance and…anxiety! That’s right: Anxiety and worry can cause stomach discomfort and nausea. If you worry about the possibility of barfing and are hypervigilant to prevent it, you can cause the very symptoms you desperately do not want. Worrying about getting sick doesn’t prevent vomiting, it only makes you nauseated. And when you start to feel nauseated, that’s when the worry and anxiety really kick into gear, which of course intensifies your nausea. It’s a vicious cycle. Worries about vomiting can trigger nausea, and nausea and stomach discomfort can trigger worries about vomiting. Anxiety has a way of fooling you into believing that you are going to vomit when you feel nauseated. You believe it even when it has never happened. Here’s the good news: If you do not vomit when you’re anxious…you won’t! Anxiety may cause nausea, but not vomiting. It’s important to remember that the only reason you might vomit would be due to food, alcohol, motion sickness, or a stomach bug —and you won’t be able to stop it. In fact, vomiting is the body’s natural reaction to harmful substances or irritation in the gut. People often feel better after they barf. In most cases it’s harmless and over within 24 hours. Rather than worrying and wondering if you’re going to puke, make peace with uncertainty. You don’t know when it will happen and you don’t need to. Since you can’t stop it, you shouldn’t try. Worrying about getting sick doesn’t prevent vomiting, but it does make you nauseated, which results in more anxiety, intensifying your nausea and causing greater anxiety until you flee the scene.  Rather than worrying if you’re going to puke, make peace with uncertainty, live your life to the fullest, and accept the discomfort of the rare barfing experience. How do you do this?