My Anxiety levels seem always high, any advice?

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I have been struggled over the years with getting both a job and just getting out of the house. I struggle every day with stress and nausea and I fear for my life when I don't distract myself with video games and school work. Get extremely nauseous when I am anxious and when I reach my limit trying to suppress the nausea I retch quite audibly and quite violently. This makes it hard just to leave the house as I need to bring a bowl for fear of having such an episode in public without something to use. I am not limited to these episodes out of the house, sometimes depending on what is happening around me I will retch at home as well. It is hard for me to get through these as I already have sort of a fear of retching and I always feel embarrassed and just plain depressed after. For the most part this hasn't been much of a problem as I am a student who takes online courses, but where I am only 3 classes away from graduation and I will have to start paying back my student loans within 6 months after I graduate I am getting worried about how I am not only going to find a job, but keep it. Some times I get so anxious I can't sleep, my sleep hours are so erratic I can never tell when I will be awake or asleep. My grades are thankfully pretty good as I have made the deans list since I started taking classes. I am more worried about having to maintain going to a job every day since although some days I can leave the house just fine other days I will have episodes. I try to get out of the house to areas I am comfortable with and my mother and sister (bless their hearts) have been extremely supportive of me and without that I probably wouldn't have made it this far. I want to be able to get out of the house more and to not have to worry about my anxiety, sleep, or these episodes anymore. I have some techniques to help me calm down and for the most part they work although sometimes I still seem to get to that tipping point. I don't know if anyone else has had similar problems or if there are any possible solutions anyone might have, or even just tips. I just don't know what to do anymore and although I see my therapist in a couple weeks, anyone I talk to always seems to want to give it more time, or they brush it off as "Oh its just a part of your life with High Anxiety it will pass."

Many of us tend to be constant worriers and when having such an active mind can lead to constant bodily shut downs/overloads. I am not going to say it will go away because this is obviously coming from someone that isnt on the spectrum. At this point what i would suggest is look at each task one by one...
Write a list of all the things that need doing, IE .. Finishing your course, Paying back loan, finding work etc and prioritize them and only focus on one at a time and when each task is completed move onto the next. try if you can not to focus on too many things, just absorb yourself into each individual task... It just sounds like everything is constantly hitting you at once and playing games takes the focus away from all those things and numbs those feelings for a time because you are focused on that one thing, which in this case was the game... I am sure watching a movie doesn't help as you can drift off while watching it and mind wanders and starts to analyse...
So from what you have mentioned thus far try to only make each task a priority.

I am not really sure it is focusing on the tasks that causes me problems, I can't game when I get nauseous since it doesn't help and I end up retching on my keyboard or controller. My main issue comes from leaving the house or having something unexpected happen. Something that isn't planned or is planned and I am nervous about going to tends to make me nauseous. It doesn't have to be bad, when I get excited the same nausea happens too. I know how to calm myself down from those overactive thoughts that prevent me from sleeping some nights as I just listen to music for a bit and I am fine. The gaming is mainly to distract myself from the anxious thoughts that I have no control over, those being things like weather, war, and just general fear for life on earth. I guess I worded it wrong earlier, the nausea seems to strike either seemingly out of no where depending on what is going on around me, or when I leave the house. Sudden change seems to trigger it as far as I am able to tell, my main problems when at home were a sudden death in the family as well as having my father in the hospital. Most of the time I am fine at home, but I would like to be able to work it out so I don't have to go into retching fits at all. They are quite painful and I loose my voice for a week after one.

Is this excess nausea and wrenching being going on all your life or is this a recent matter? I do also deal with nausea each day but lasts only abut 10-20 mins at a time. Under severe stress i will actually throw up... I dont generally dry retch though.
Are you on any medications and if so did the nausea come on after a period of taking them?

I have been going through this since late middle school early high school, although there were some cases where I would get nauseous in elementary school it was basically late middle school when it started. There was no medication that brought it on, my body just seemed to stop making me dizzy when I was anxious and started making me nauseous. I used to get really dizzy when I was nervous and anxious, but after a while I was able to cope with it and then all of the sudden it switched from making me dizzy to making me nauseous.

I'm thinking out loud here so if some parts of this don't make sense, please bear with me.

Is it possible you could be suffering from two maladies instead of just one? Like you have a heightened level of anxiety AND you happen to have a sensitive stomach? Then knowing that one makes the other worse really makes for a bad situation.

Having said that, we would need to take a two pronged approach. First, visit a psych (one that can prescribe meds) and see if you can get something that can lower your anxiety level. Realize that it may not eliminate 100% of your anxiety but if you can get a 50% reduction it would help tremendously toward stopping the downward spiral.

Next, start keeping a record of everything you eat. Include date and time, what you ate and approximate amount, etc. As part of this record, also include how long and how well you sleep each night and how you feel, both physically and mentally, at various times thru the day. You could very well be eating something that aggravates your stomach but the irritation doesn't appear until the next day or for a couple days. If nothing becomes apparent from this food log, make some experimental changes. Such as eliminating potatoes, tomatoes, and green peppers (nightshade veggies), or eating rice and corn products instead of wheat (bread, pasta, etc). Explore alternate sources of protein such as tofu, cheeses, beans and rice, etc, instead of beef, pork, chicken, etc. Finally, if you are eating any fast food at all (include frozen dinners in this category), definitely try eliminating that.

No guarantees with any of the above of course but I think you will make some interesting discoveries once you can look at what is going into your tummy and it should get you going in a better direction..

As far as food affecting my nausea I know this isn't the case, I have been dealing with the nausea for well over 10 years now with my diet changing over the years, certain foods affect my head and to some degree my stomach, I am lactose intolerant and some preservatives give me migranes, other than that food doesn't affect me. I have a poor gag reflex in gross situations or the dentist, but unless I over eat which happens on rare occassions it isn't the food that is giving me problems. I could eat nothing for a whole day and still have nausea and wretching.

Wow that sounds like a nasty problem to have. I wonder if there are any herbal teas or natural medicines to treat wretching.

Medication worked for me. It isn’t for everyone, but it is one option. The process of finding the right prescriber, medication & dosage is arduous at best. My doctor had to refer me to a psychiatrist who was more specialized in knowledge. There are pros & cons. I’d ideally prefer not to rely on prescription drugs but s**t happens. Sorry you’re feeling that way. Anxiety sucks.

To answer your question Sarahsmith, and especially for OP, the herb ginger is good to settle an upset stomach. There are ginger root extract tablets/capsules you can take and ginger teas you can brew. There are even ginger candies of various types. Drinking ginger ale soda pop should help but I would consider that a last resort because I never advocate drinking soda pop. OP, if you are still suffering, I hope this might give you some relief.