Dealing with Motion Sickness

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Jedi

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One of the largest challenges my wife and I face is her motion sickness. She prefers to drive when traveling, as sitting in the passenger's seat causes an upset stomach that lasts up to 3 days after the travel.

So, have any of you dealt with motion sickness successfully? If so, what worked best?
 
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DanW

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My wife is the same way. Usually, though, she won't barf, but instead sleeps. And sleeps....and sleeps. Non-drowsy Dramamine helps her greatly. I've tried to teach her to visualize and pretend she's driving. She won't do it, but it cures me anytime I get a little motion sickness. I did it once in an airliner that was in severe turbulence for over an hour. People were throwing up all over the airplane. It was a choir of moaning, groaning, crying and even some screaming whenever the plane would rise or fall. I was starting to get sick and just looked forward and pretended I was at the controls. (I'm a private pilot, so it was easy to truly visualize flying the aircraft). My sickness went away. Nobody wanted their dinner, so I had a little airline food feast. Of course, it made them sicker to see me eating!

Anyway, another thing to do is to not let your head fall backward. Keeping it forward helps. It won't cure or prevent, but it will lessen the severity. The Dramamine works well for my wife, though, but she has to take it an hour or so before the ride, or boating, or flying.

I hope this helps. Everybody is different, so mileage may vary.
 
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Desert Runner

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Have you tried the patch, or is the pill your go-to?. Those people who ocean fish, or photograph the whales, use the long lasting patch with great results. Some also use it when flying. It is something to consider.
 

The other Sean

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Does your wife have other anxiety issues? I used to get horrible car sickness just like you described unless I was driving. I was at the time dealing with anxiety. I've since dealt with it (I actually realized I was being silly and started mental exercises reminding myself all was fine, I'd done ______ thing many times before.) and since then, I rarely have issues.

I do on occasion get a little anxious on long car/plane trips. I just sit there, calm myself and just repeat positives to myself. "this is going to be an amazing trip, you are going to see your uncle you haven't seen in a while, You are going to experience a new state/country, this is going to be a blast, the weather will be nicer where we are going." etc, etc....

I also find great relief from basically calling myself silly or dumb. I tell myself I'm silly since I've flown in a plane how many times or driven across how many states?
 
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Flipper

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I used to work at a West Marine and we sold the drops,pills, pressure bands and a product called ReliefBand, it looks like a wristwatch, on the front is the power/strength button and small leds , on the back there are 2 copper pads. You wear it on the inside of your wrist where you would feel your pulse. When you turn it on it gives you a shock every few seconds. You turn it up by pressing the power botton and repeat to increase strength. When you turn it up the whole way it gives you a pretty good shot, but nothing that hurts. I originally thought they were a gimmick. Customers kept coming back in raving about them. Bought one for my Wife who gets sea sick, and car sick, we live in Fl and boat a lot so this can be a big issue on rough days offshore. In the truck she cant even look down to read anything. I bit the bullet and bought one, their around $100, but working there, if it didnt work there wasnt going to be a return “issue”, plus a nice discount. We were out one day and she started getting sick I suggested the band so she put it on and turned it on low and it didnt do jack. I said turn-it up and see what happens. Cranked it up and her sickness went away in under a minute! We use it all the time, now she can be in the truck reading or looking at maps with no problem at all. I still see them on Amazon. They got 4.3 stars with 143 reviews so apparently they work for others also.
 
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MedfordChris

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When I was a kid, I had good success with ginger capsules. Same stuff you use for cooking, just in a tablet.

Also available in ginger-snap-cookie form!
94869

But seriously, it did help me with motion sickness when I was a kid.
 
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MazeVX

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I for myself have nearly the opposite of motion sickness, I used to fly fpv racers... That's the bloody fast small drones...

Try to find someone who is flying drones with video googles, if she reacts heavily it's real motion sickness, if not it's something else. Motion sickness can have organic reasons (my gf has it after a heavy car accident) it can be trained, it just needs a lot of patience and will.
 

Desert Runner

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I for myself have nearly the opposite of motion sickness, I used to fly fpv racers... That's the bloody fast small drones...

Try to find someone who is flying drones with video googles, if she reacts heavily it's real motion sickness, if not it's something else. Motion sickness can have organic reasons (my gf has it after a heavy car accident) it can be trained, it just needs a lot of patience and will.
Agree on this thought. As a child, I could not read, or have my head down for too long a period, without getting nausea . As I got older, it gradually went away. I learned to divide my attention and periodically gaze down the road.

Growing up, we had some poodles from the same dam. The mother and daughter would quickly get road sick. The male,...never. for some reason it was some type of genetic condition. Females from this line, had this condition, the males did not.
Having companion dogs that love road trips and have no adverse affects can be a joy. At least as humans, we can mitigate and train ourselves to be more tolerant. And science...pills, patches, etc, can help even more. As others alluded too.......it's a process.
 
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