Anyone have travel sickness?

Does anyone out there suffer from travel sickness. Have started with vomiting while travelling in a car or bus, even on a short journey. Motion sickness is caused by messages to the brain conflicting with what the ear detects (I think) so not surprising PWMS suffer. Anyone have any coping mechanisms?

Hi Ellie

Yes I get travel sickness sometimes in cars. I use the train rather than bus, though the train doesn’t go into the city centre. I know there are motion sickness bands which press on acupressure points, i’ve not tried these before.

I’ve not been good with boats and coaches and travel sickness for most of my life.

Hi Ellie I have had travel sickness for most of my life but found the sea bands good they act on pressure points in your wrists I also used them throughout the whole of my pregnancy due to terrible morning noon and night sickness. Tablets are okay but I find they make me sleepy hope this helps Sue

Hi Ellie :slight_smile:

I suffer from horrible motion sickness, have all my life. One thing I’ve learnt over the years is an empty stomach is a big trigger, for me at least. If I go anywhere in a car when I’ve not eaten much, then I am going to feel sick.

Best example I can give is when I got my lumbar puncture done, actually. I used NSL for that as I had to go all the way to Sheffield for the procedure, which is over an hour’s journey from where I am in Lincs, and I hadn’t got all the gubbins together for reclaiming travel expenses yet. The driver turned up 15 minutes early, so I’d not got to eat all of my breakfast, and he was one of those people who’s heavy on the clutch, so every gear charge had that lurch where inertia leaves your stomach behind. I could feel that I was going to start feeling sick before we were even out of town, and that’s all of 5 minutes…

I felt extremely ill by the time we got to Sheffield, I avoided actually being sick by the slimmest of margins. In Smiths in the hospital I spent my life savings on a bottle of water, a Nutrigrain bar and an Eat Natural cereal bar and eat those slowly whilst waiting for my LP (which was exactly on time, good for them). After it was done they gave me a cuppa and a sandwich, as it was lunchtime. The guy’s driving was no better on the way home, but because I had food in my stomach I was fine.

I learnt this when I was staying with my dad and step-mum one school holiday, we were driving around and I was suffering, we stopped for a break, my step-mum produced a flask of coffee and slices of fruit cake. After a slab of cake and cup of coffee I was fine. First time I’d had coffee black, too, it was good!

Ginger’s fabulous for offsetting travel sickness, too. No help if you don’t like it, of course. But you can get it in capsule form (ginger root, taking this daily through the winter can ward off colds, too), I’ve used those for years, take a couple 20-30 minutes before you leave and they’re an additional layer of protection against things. And if you do like ginger, then it’s a perfect excuse for eating delicious things, may I recommend Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference All butter ginger and oat flake cookies Sainsbury's - Please enable cookies or JavaScript These things are delicious!

I have had motion sickness my entire life. Never spewed chunks, but defo dry heaved many a time. ‘They’ say you are supposed to grow out of it by the time you are in your early 20s. After that, it is mostly psychosomatic.

A product called Sea Legs always worked wonders for me. It might be a drowsy maker though.

Behaviorally, i can never read in a car, or even really look downwards. My best hope is to be in the front seat and always looking more or less in the direction of travel, towards the middle distance.

When in boats, (and i have gotten sea sick in a harbour before. not a good thing considering i love to scuba dive) i focus on the horizon.

It is said that motion sickness is ultimately a brain confusion thing; the eyes see the stationary car or boat around you, but your brain also perceives the sense of movement. something goes “wtf? something isn’t right! abandon ship; ditch ballast; we’ve been poisoned” and you might end up trying to purge…

ultimately the single best thing for me… is to the one who is driving.

*note to self

Do not read Paolo’s posts whilst on the phone on hold, the spluttering of laughter just as someone finally picks up on the other end can cause awkwardness.

correction, last line: …is to BE the one who is driving

(why is there not an edit post function?)

My Dad drove a vauxhall cavilier and I sat in the back it was okay until he would hit 56 miles an hour I knew excatly what speed he was doing without looking at the speedo because my stomach would do a lurch and the nausea would hike up a gear. He couldn’t or wouldn’t understand why I felt sick if I said I needed to stop he would say can you wait until the next services not this one but he wouldn’t tell me the next one was about an hour away sitting cross legged and trying not to vomit wasn’t much fun. BUT i got my own back when I got my driving licence Mum persuaded him to let me drive from the Wirral to south Wales every bit of dual carriageway or motorway I hit 56 miles ann hour and he would plead with me to either slow down or speed up I am afraid I plead the I’m only getting to know your car Dad sorry I didn’t know that happened and by the way we are not stopping at these services I am sure you can manage until the next one Boy was it great to get my own back. He drove the return trip but never drove at 56 again.Sue

The things parents do to us…we had a white Mini at one point, several summers with holidays in caravans in Wales and Cornwall were reached in this Mini. A Mini often with vomit down the outside of the left of it, below the back window, because they’d not stop for me…and of course not caring that I got travel sick in the first place.

I was given travel sickness pills at one point, but those MADE me sick. But when a kid tells a parent something like that, the response is invariably, “don’t be stupid, of course they don’t!” … Fond memories of childhood?