I glanced at the thread on thrill rides and saw that I’m not alone in getting crippling motion sickness.
Who all gets motion sickness and what do you do about it? Do you find that if you’re the one driving you don’t have the problem? Are planes worse than cars for you (they are for me)? How about boats?
Is there a common denominator? I have terrible eyesight and sinus issues.
And how many other people feel ill when the sun flickers through trees? One of my coworkers feels that too, but everyone else thinks I’m just weird.
I’ve heard of that problem with the light through the leaves before with two of my friends.
My sister used to get motion sickness and it was a miracle when my parents discovered Dramamine. I don’t know what would be good now. Of course, it made sleep and she would pass gas while asleep. But it was a lot better than having her throw up in the car. “Dad, my legs hurt!” meant pull over quick. He never did.
I don’t suffer from motion sickness, at least not that I’ve ever noticed. I’ve spent some rough days on boats without apparent ill effect. A ferry crossing from France to Ireland, where everyone else was getting sick, convinced me that I’m more or less immune.
But the sunlight flickering through trees when I’m driving or riding my motorcycle has a very unsettling effect on me. It isn’t exactly motion sickness. I don’t feel nauseous. But it’s very disorienting, and I don’t feel like I’m in control of the vehicle.
I only get motion sickness if I’m reading in the car or go on too many rides too quickly. Boats don’t bother me, neither do planes. Cars I’m fine as long as I keep my books and GameBoy packed away.
I never got motion sickness when I was younger, but I do now. I’m generally ok on airplaines, and on cruise ships or small fishing boats, but those in-between boats will get me. I sometimes get motion sickness as the passenger in a car, but it seems related to my migraines, with then exception of a ride in a taxi in San Franscisco.
On boats, the quickest way to get motion sickness is to go below decks, or somewhere that you can’t see the horizon. When the body moves, but the eyes and brain don’t have a visual reference to accompany that movement, well, your body just doesn’t like that. It’s best to stay up on deck, or by windows that have a clear view of a fixed point, i.e. the horizon. If possible, sleeping really helps the body deal with motion. I’ve spent 11 years working on the water, been sick a whole lot, and have thrown up from it twice - the only two times I took meclazine (sp?).
Some people just get chronic motion sickness - and can’t deal with any motion of any kind. Nothing seems to help these poor souls. My wife used to get motion sickness watching trains pass by!
I was chaperone for a group of 36 8th graders on a trip to Catalina Island last year. Most of them hadn’t been anywhere except our small desert town or Mexico before. None of them had been on the ocean before.
On the way out, I know of three kids and one adult who got sick enough to vomit. I had to pull a fourth girl out of the cabin below decks and drag her up to the deck for fresh air. However, I found that looking at the horizon did NOT help them. By the time we were coming around the tip of Catalina, I wasn’t feeling so hot myself, which had never happened to me before. I put my head down and stopped looking at the horizon, and that helped.
On the trip back, I had kids coming up to me three hours before the ferry arrived, asking for Dramamine.
For me it’s the opposite. It used to be pretty bad when I was younger, but now it’s almost completely gone. Trains, planes, buses, even most boats, are safe for me these days. The only time I feel myself getting queasy is on a boat in rough water, or on a bus where the driver is jerky on the brakes. Something about the back-and-forth motion makes be sick, but only if it’s front-to-back. Same thing if I’m riding in a car and the driver is new at driving standard, or shifts badly. Side-to-side sway doesn’t bother me like it used to.
Me too. It seems to be a genetic, female thing in my family:
My maternal grandmother got terrible motion sickness her entire life.
My mother is the same way but can control it with a combination of Pepcid, Dramamine and one of those electronic bands that zap a pressure point in her wrist. She has also been diagnosed with mild case of Ménière’s disease, with her most prevalent sympton being vertigo. Her two brothers have no problems.
I had awful motion sickness as a kid but am much, much better now. I’ll only get motion sick if it’s very hot and I’m reading…and only in the car (with one or two exceptions).
My half sister (different father) was succeptible when she was younger but outgrew it at an earlier age than I did; she’s now 13 and seemingly motion sickness free for six or seven years.
My daughter, well, she’s only five but it appears that she’ll get sick only if she’s reading or drawing or if it’s unusually warm. She’s been sick in cars and on planes but not on boats. I hope she outgrows it, it’s the closest thing we have to a family curse.
Like you, I didn’t suffer from motion sickness when I was younger. When I was 22, I went on a sailboat for the first time, got terribly sick and have never been the same. Now I try to avoid all boats, as I have also gotten sick on fishing and tourist boats.
As for cars, I’m fine if I’m driving or in the passenger seat, but I usually start to feel nauseas if I ride in the backseat. Planes are ok for me, but it all depends on the amount of turbulence. Oh and I pretty much forget roller coaster rides these days. Ironically, riding on the motorcycle doesn’t bother me at all.
I’ve found that Dramamine and Bonine help me, but they leave me feeling really lethargic. Ginger also helps with motion sickness. In my opinion, those pressure-point wristbands are a joke. If I know I might get motion sick, I’ll take a dramamine and keep popping ginger candies all day long.
Yeah, I think it’s not quite the same as motion sickness. I start to feel a little disoriented, almost like I’m only half-awake. Strobe lights have the same effect on me, or some movie trailers where they do those super-fast cuts between shots with a flash of light between.
I’ve always gotten motion sickness when riding in a car someone else is driving, but I don’t get sick if I am driving. As a kid I enjoyed swing sets, amusement park rides, etc., and now they just make me sick. Swinging in a hammock makes me sick! Someone told me there is a difference in the kid’s and adult’s ears and this is why things that were fine when I was a kid now make me ill.
Bonine (meclazine) works for me and doesn’t make me sleepy. I take one or two pills the morning of a day when I know others will be driving and I am fine. Dramamine I take if I want to fall asleep, like on plane rides.
I don’t normally get motion sick any more, unless there’s really a lot of motion or I’m sick with something else. I find that when I have a cold or flu, I’m more prone to motion sickness.
I keep a supply of those little butterscotch disks that come in the yellow plastic wrappers around for when I get motion sick. I pop one in my mouth just when I start to feel a little off. It has always worked for me if the nausea is from motion sickness and not from food poisoning or something else. Regular (not diet) Coke/Pepsi or ginger ale also works.
I’ve only gotten serious motion sickness a couple of times in the last 20 years:
In 1987, I went to an amusement park and got on a ride that is basically a centrifuge that spins so fast you get stuck the the side. I think it’s called Barrel Drop or something. When I got off the ride I dry-heaved for 5 or 10 minutes, I hadn’t eaten anything for several hours, luckily. In 1992, I was in the Caribbean on a windy day and I went parasailing from a small boat. I was bouncing around real good up there, and I got sick. I didn’t puke, but it was a close thing. I did find that staring at a fixed point on the horizon helped me a little.
I love boats, roller coasters, etc.
Unfortunately, my wife is very sensitive. She can’t even watch kids on a merry-go-round without feeling nauseous. We don’t do a lot of boating.
I used to get it a little when I was a kid. Now I don’t really. Ginger root is a savior. If you know you’re going to do something where you might get sick, chomp on some root.
Last summer the captain of the boat I was on decided it would be fun to go out in some pretty hairy conditions on Lake Superior. It was fun for a little bit, but then once we got past a point I got queazy. The hangover didn’t help. Yep. I hurled over the side after going down below to put on rain gear. I forgot my ginger that trip. I’d blame the captain, but he is me.
