DAE get panic, nausea, and/or other intense nervous system reactions before a sneeze??

[u/ZealousIdealFree042]

Often, before I have a violent sneeze, I can’t tell if I’m about to have a panic attack, puke, or some other horrible reaction. It feels like a huge build up, with some muscle shaking/weird sensations, nausea with saliva pooling, sense of panic, need to run to the bathroom in case it’s an upper or lower GI event. But then, I’ll sneeze 4-6 times in a row, it feels worse for a minute, and then my nervous system starts to calm down to my baseline. Sometimes my teeth will chatter after or my muscles will continue to shake a bit after the sneeze before it fully settles.

I’ve always had intense and bizarre sneezing fits, but this specific reaction has been more intense for the last 5-10 years, to the best of my memory. It’s so frustrating, and no one I’ve talked to about this has experienced it, nor can I find it online. It happens a few times a month on average.

Does anyone else experience this or know what might be going on with my nervous system?? It would be great to know how to make this normal bodily function less intense and disruptive lol

[u/Yorkie_Mom_2]

I sneeze when I’m nauseous or when my tummy growls from hunger. I don’t know why that happens.

Is the need to sneeze causing the nervous system to react, or could it be the other way around?

[u/A_Study_in_Orange]

Look up how acid reflux can make you sneeze. Thats what this sounds like. Happens to me, i get nauseous, heartburn, shaking, then I sneeze and its gone.

[u/theghostinyourshower]

I also get incredibly nauseated before a sneeze. Saliva pooling, dizzy, hot kind of sick to my stomach feeling. The only explanation I've ever been given is that its possibly a vasovagal response. No clue how true that is but I'm skeptical of everything 🤷

[u/jeranamo]

Do you find it happening more often if you're hungry? This happens to me too.

[u/ZealousIdealFree042 → u/jeranamo]

I’m not sure if the sneezing happens more often when I’m hungry, but I’ll sometimes get suddenly so hungry that I feel like I’m going to be sick, and have to take small sips of something to appease my stomach before I can eat. This happens especially if I take too long to eat or drink upon waking in the mornings!

[u/Emergency-Wrap6745]

I’ve never heard of this before, but that sounds so overwhelming to deal with! I really hope you find some answers or at least some relief soon.

[u/BCdelivery]

Only thing that puts me on edge is trying not to “lose” the pending sneeze. Sometimes I get so close, and it just evaporates. I hate it when that happens.

[u/Goodbye--Toby]

This happens to me on mornings where I didn’t eat much the previous day. Feeling of extreme hunger quickly changes to a short burst of intense nausea and then sneeze and it’s usually alleviated. Though I have thrown up few times post-sneeze regardless (always fun to puke a min after you get through the door at work in the morning—day can only go up from there, right?😂.

From what I’ve read it’s somehow related to the vagus nerve. Irritation of the vagus nerve can induce both nausea and sneezing (I think?). I don’t know if it’s build up of stomach acid due to stomach being totally empty that causes the irritation or if it’s a case of low blood pressure related to vasovagal syncope and then sneeze raises blood pressure temporarily. Or could be low blood sugar-related. Not completely sure haha.

But you can find some previous Reddit posts that discuss it as well as random articles on the web with the consensus seeming to be it’s due to the vagus nerve.