Cyclical Vomiting Syndrome

Hello! This is my first post, although I've read many of your all's posts and thank you for so much for them!!
My husband is a long time TMS sufferer, and I will share that story someday. But today I was wondering if anyone has ever had cyclical vomiting syndrome, and whether they think it could be TMS? This is a problem my adult son is currently experiencing (ugh!)
Thanks for any thoughts!

 

Hi! I am wondering if your son has found any relief from the cvs?

 

I once had a long conversation with a woman who suffers from CVS. I felt for her, but the whole thing screamed TMS (anxiety!) imho. When I first brought it to her that there might be a strong psychological component she exploded. Later on when she calmed down she had to admit that there was truth in it. She could sense a bout of CVS coming hours in advance, which made her very anxious, which I can completely understand as CVS is no joke. Doctors really have no clue about the cause and even less about the treatment, but they prescribe ridiculous sorts and amounts of drugs with no good theory behind it. CVS is also sometimes seen in people who use a lot of cannabis. All of a sudden they start to get CVS after the first inhale and the only thing that seems to help is sit in a hot bath. It is like they have suddenly become (and stay) allergic to cannabis. There is only logic to all this if you take in account that cannabis can really mess up your brain and make you anxious. I am no doctor, but this is my take on CVS and it might be a wrong one.

 

The case of CVS that I am looking at has no correlation to cannabis. There are several types of CVS. One seems to be triggered by external causes i e stress, weather, food, Etc. The other is a cycle and comes on every 26 days or 77 days or 55 days, for example, depending on the person.

This particular 10 year old girl has had it since she was a toddler. I her cvs reoccurs every 57 days. She often is admitted to the hospital due to dehydration due to the severity and intensity of the vomiting.


The recurrence of her CVS is consistent. She is scheduled to begin her bout next Tuesday.

Her mother has tried everything that she has come across, traditionally and alternatively. She has used energy psychology, meditation, allergy techniques, food testing, Qigong, EFT, Etc.
Using the EFT seems to help with the severity of the vomiting.

I am going to work with her with EFT but I was looking for some insight and support that would help to create a framework from which to build the EFT protocol, and I am going to use an altered version of the TMS framework

Thanks for your reply. I would love to brainstorm with anybody who might have some additional prospective.

 

Maybe you could contact one of the therapists on this forum, to see what they have to say about it.

Every 57 days?!... that's so weird. I can't imagine that the body/brain can be responsible for such a consistent frequency. The only thing I can think of is that 57 days is approximately two ovulation cycles, but that doesn't make sense considering her age. Therefore it makes me think that it has to come from an external trigger too, just like other types of CVS.

With this in mind, don't underestimate how well young children can pick up on their mother's emotions. For example, if the mother gets really tense and worried when day 57 comes up, it is entirely possible that the child senses this and reacts to it. In other words, it might be a frequency that has started after the first two or three bouts, which were presumably 57 days apart, and after that the mere anticipation by the mother keeps it alive. Another possibility is that the child reacts to possible moodswings caused by the hormonal cycle of the mother (she ignores the first cycle and only reacts to the second, learned behavior). Although it all may sound weird, the mother is one of the few things that have been consistently present in her daughter's life. As the mother has tried almost everything, it might be an avenue worth investigating, no matter how weird it may sound.

Anyway, I just hope this mother finds a cure for her daughter, or at least some relief. I don't mean to be a mister smartypants who is trying to solve a puzzle about such a serious condition, so apologies beforehand if you feel that way; I just had a strong hunch and couldn't stop myself from sharing it with you.

 

Anyone who has anxiety (including depersonalization, which is simply a symptom of severe anxiety) after using cannabis needs to know that it will eventually end. The notion of permanence causes the permanence. The medical world loves to debate this, of course. But I know that’s not the issue here.

Anyway, I read a book on psychosomatic issues that contained an account of a patient who was quite healthy, but had periods where she violently vomited for days and ended up in the ER each time. She was cleared by doctors of mental illness, so nobody believed it to be psychosomatic, but every single test came back normal (and she had the million-dollar workup!). Over a decade later, one smart doctor connected the vomiting with her mother (whether it be receiving a phone call from her, visiting her, etc.), who made her feel unloved as a child after divorcing the father and paying more attention to the “new” family after remarrying and having other children. The doctor became suspicious after the woman said the vomiting could happen anywhere, but was guaranteed to happen in a specific town while driving. She said she had absolutely no connection to the seemingly random town, but the doctor kept pushing for answers, and they finally realized it was 45 minutes away from the mother’s house. The woman would begin having stressful thoughts when she was in that particular vicinity of her mother.

That said, given that this is a young child, and the frequency is every 57 days on the dot, I agree clearing her of all medical issues is important. Is something specific occurring every 57 days in her routine? What tests have been performed? Has a hospital like Johns Hopkins been contacted? They’re fantastic with mysterious issues.

 

To wrap this cannabis stuff up... CHS is very rare.
I believe you mean the book by Dr. David Clarke (???). Sadly I lent it to someone, so I can't check it.

 

YES - thank you! Genius recall; begins on page 16:

https://books.google.com/books?id=PI1-9Pv1uL4C&printsec=frontcover&dq=david+clarke+doctor&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiE3uGm4KHaAhXHV98KHWz5BB8Q6AEIKTAA#v=onepage&q=david%20clarke%20doctor&f=false (They Can't Find Anything Wrong!)

I'll blame my forgetfulness on the cannabis.

 

I guess I remembered this particular story because I could link it to this woman with CVS that I had a discussion with earlier. Normally I don't remember any story, only the ones that I can relate to.

 

@ristor, the OP hasn’t been seen since May 2016 and never followed up. We all definitely agree that CVS itself is serious and requires medical attention (even if it’s TMS, you have to be super careful with intense vomiting), but I’m not sure that this particular story has a lot of room for development. Are you experiencing CVS?

 

Hi! I just want to share something. While vomiting is definitely serious and physical illnesses do need to be ruled out first, a great researcher Dr. David Levinthal does look at this in his work and has proposed a psychologically-rooted cause to this. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00221-014-3939-4 (Adult cyclical vomiting syndrome: a disorder of allostatic regulation? - Experimental Brain Research)

 

That's a great find, jorgem!!

 

I'm new so I can't speak to TMS but throwing up is a very common reaction to stress.
For some people it's diarrhea, for others it's throwing up.
Most people have just the nausea while those very stressed or that threw up once may continue to vomit.

But that being said, be sure to rule out a food allergy. My husband began out of the blue to projectile vomit from things he had always eaten in the past like TUNA FISH!

And make sure there is no blood in the vomit.