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May 23, 2018 8:15 PM Subscribe
I feel like my motion sickness has been getting worse over the last few years. Is that normal? Deets inside.
I've always had mild motion sickness (usually from reading in cars), but I had no problems with shaky cam movies or first person games. Slowly over the last few years (I'm 25) that's becoming less the case. Here's the extent of my motion sickness now:
. First person+free cam in games causes it pretty immediately (mostly fine on consoles and say, racing games in arcades, not fine on PC). Third person view doesn't affect me.
. Shaky cam, even for a few seconds (let alone the Blair Witch Project), on any size screen. The Michael Bay LAS spinning thing is ok on a small screen, but in a movie theatre or spinning at a speed that's any faster I'd probably have to close my eyes. Ditto most shots that include medium-to-fast tilts or pans. Slow speed of the same is on the edge of uncomfortable but is tolerable. Apart from the shaky cam, these are mostly fine on small screens or screens I'm at a distance from. I rarely sit at the back of the cinema (short sighted, lost glasses), so can't say if it's any better if I sit further away from the screen.
. Reading in cars (trains, planes, and ferries are fine)
It's all generally exacerbated by tiredness, but the following mostly only happen if I'm tired:
. I get mildly dizzy if I'm scrolling with the mouse and expect the page to move, but the page has frozen in the meantime and doesn't.
. Motion sickness just from scrolling in general, especially if I'm skimming and moving over a page quickly (going by page down is less strain than scrolling. Websites that do that unexpected forced auto scroll thing are a chthonical nightmare)
I kind of feel like it's getting worse over the years, so I'm wondering if this is normal or if there's something I should be aware of. Six or seven years ago I could log hundreds if not thousands of hours in minecraft, but now I can't look at a screen where it's playing for more than a split second. I basically don't game anymore, though I spend about the same amount of time on the computer (average twelve hours a day, four or five days out of seven. Longer close to project deadlines. I take a few minutes break every hour). I'm kind of short sighted, but I go around without glasses. The numbers in my prescriptions haven't changed much over this time. I get a lot less airsick than I used to. Reverse-facing seats in vehicles don't bother me. I get vertigo sometimes if I stand up too fast from a supine position. I don't know if any of this is related.
On dealing with it: I usually avoid it fast enough that I don't get to the point of nausea. I've never taken meds for it or anything. I can't stand ginger in sweet or neutral contexts so ginger doesn't help me too much. If it starts to get worse or affect my current life I'll look into remedies, but for now I'm happy with just avoiding the causes.
Has anyone had experience with this?
I've always had mild motion sickness (usually from reading in cars), but I had no problems with shaky cam movies or first person games. Slowly over the last few years (I'm 25) that's becoming less the case. Here's the extent of my motion sickness now:
. First person+free cam in games causes it pretty immediately (mostly fine on consoles and say, racing games in arcades, not fine on PC). Third person view doesn't affect me.
. Shaky cam, even for a few seconds (let alone the Blair Witch Project), on any size screen. The Michael Bay LAS spinning thing is ok on a small screen, but in a movie theatre or spinning at a speed that's any faster I'd probably have to close my eyes. Ditto most shots that include medium-to-fast tilts or pans. Slow speed of the same is on the edge of uncomfortable but is tolerable. Apart from the shaky cam, these are mostly fine on small screens or screens I'm at a distance from. I rarely sit at the back of the cinema (short sighted, lost glasses), so can't say if it's any better if I sit further away from the screen.
. Reading in cars (trains, planes, and ferries are fine)
It's all generally exacerbated by tiredness, but the following mostly only happen if I'm tired:
. I get mildly dizzy if I'm scrolling with the mouse and expect the page to move, but the page has frozen in the meantime and doesn't.
. Motion sickness just from scrolling in general, especially if I'm skimming and moving over a page quickly (going by page down is less strain than scrolling. Websites that do that unexpected forced auto scroll thing are a chthonical nightmare)
I kind of feel like it's getting worse over the years, so I'm wondering if this is normal or if there's something I should be aware of. Six or seven years ago I could log hundreds if not thousands of hours in minecraft, but now I can't look at a screen where it's playing for more than a split second. I basically don't game anymore, though I spend about the same amount of time on the computer (average twelve hours a day, four or five days out of seven. Longer close to project deadlines. I take a few minutes break every hour). I'm kind of short sighted, but I go around without glasses. The numbers in my prescriptions haven't changed much over this time. I get a lot less airsick than I used to. Reverse-facing seats in vehicles don't bother me. I get vertigo sometimes if I stand up too fast from a supine position. I don't know if any of this is related.
On dealing with it: I usually avoid it fast enough that I don't get to the point of nausea. I've never taken meds for it or anything. I can't stand ginger in sweet or neutral contexts so ginger doesn't help me too much. If it starts to get worse or affect my current life I'll look into remedies, but for now I'm happy with just avoiding the causes.
Has anyone had experience with this?
Best answer: Are you prone to migraines? I never got motion sick as a kid, but mine kicked in as an adult, the doctors at first thought it was due to hormones (apparently Estrogen levels can make it worse) but it was later linked to my getting ocular migraines.
Oh also get your eyes checked, motion sickness is caused by a difference between what your eyes are saying & what your body (inner ear) is feeling. Needing glasses or a new prescription could be throwing you off enough to trigger it. I'd also get it checked out by a doctor as it can be a sign of problems with your inner ear as well as more serious problems, specially as your sounds pretty bad.
posted by wwax at 8:46 PM on May 23, 2018 [2 favorites]
Oh also get your eyes checked, motion sickness is caused by a difference between what your eyes are saying & what your body (inner ear) is feeling. Needing glasses or a new prescription could be throwing you off enough to trigger it. I'd also get it checked out by a doctor as it can be a sign of problems with your inner ear as well as more serious problems, specially as your sounds pretty bad.
posted by wwax at 8:46 PM on May 23, 2018 [2 favorites]
Best answer: Dollars to doughnuts it’s your missing glasses. Get a new pair.
posted by The corpse in the library at 8:58 PM on May 23, 2018 [5 favorites]
posted by The corpse in the library at 8:58 PM on May 23, 2018 [5 favorites]
Best answer: Yeah, "short sighted, lost glasses" really stuck out to me as a fellow motion-sickness-prone person; I'd look into whether new glasses helps with this before pursuing other options.
posted by terretu at 10:29 PM on May 23, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by terretu at 10:29 PM on May 23, 2018 [1 favorite]
Best answer: I will suggest you may have an unrecognized health issue that is slowly getting worse and your worsening motion sickness is a side effect.
posted by DoreenMichele at 7:18 AM on May 24, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by DoreenMichele at 7:18 AM on May 24, 2018 [1 favorite]
Best answer: Wow these answers so far are concerning because my motion sickness has definitely gotten worse with age (mildly, and gradually, as you described). I'm in my late 20s, with the motion sickness starting to worsen when I was in my early-mid 20s. My friends have reported similarly.
It's also not super consistent for me, although it seems to be worse if my seasonal allergies are worse that day. I do weekend road trips on windy mountain roads once or twice a month, and sometimes I get motion sick immediately and sometimes I'm unaffected (the most surprising onset was when I was actually the driver, and it was nighttime so the limited amount of road/trees being illuminated by my headlights was making me dizzy - fun!).
My miracle solution is to always keep some generic meclizine with me in my purse, and preemptively break off half a dose to take when I hit the road on long/windy drives. I know meclizine tends to make people drowsy but I don't seem to be that affected with the half dosage (YMMV). I've been able to read for hours with my head down on a boat in huge swells just fine with this solution, but YMMV.
posted by blueberrypuffin at 8:36 AM on May 24, 2018
It's also not super consistent for me, although it seems to be worse if my seasonal allergies are worse that day. I do weekend road trips on windy mountain roads once or twice a month, and sometimes I get motion sick immediately and sometimes I'm unaffected (the most surprising onset was when I was actually the driver, and it was nighttime so the limited amount of road/trees being illuminated by my headlights was making me dizzy - fun!).
My miracle solution is to always keep some generic meclizine with me in my purse, and preemptively break off half a dose to take when I hit the road on long/windy drives. I know meclizine tends to make people drowsy but I don't seem to be that affected with the half dosage (YMMV). I've been able to read for hours with my head down on a boat in huge swells just fine with this solution, but YMMV.
posted by blueberrypuffin at 8:36 AM on May 24, 2018
Best answer: My motion sickness has definitely gotten worse as I've gotten older. I can't cite much actual evidence for this hunch, but I suspect it might be related to poor core strength/stability due to my fairly sedentary lifestyle, in addition to just general "our bodies hate us".
posted by adiabatic at 9:07 AM on May 24, 2018
posted by adiabatic at 9:07 AM on May 24, 2018
Best answer: I agree that my motion sickness has gotten worse over time, and I don't feel particularly worried about it.
posted by freezer cake at 11:42 AM on May 24, 2018
posted by freezer cake at 11:42 AM on May 24, 2018
Best answer: Get your eyes checked and get new glasses first.
posted by radioamy at 11:45 AM on May 24, 2018
posted by radioamy at 11:45 AM on May 24, 2018
Best answer: I've heard from a physical therapist that our vestibular system changes with age, increasing the intensity of motion sickness even if it was mild in the past.
posted by onecircleaday at 12:49 PM on May 24, 2018
posted by onecircleaday at 12:49 PM on May 24, 2018
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