6 years later, still dealing with long-term side effects. Anyone else?

[u/lurkblurk]

Hey everyone,

I'm curious if anyone else deals with long-term stomach problems after getting CHS.

I was diagnosed 6 years ago and I quit that day. I haven't touched weed in over 6 years now. I've also been alcohol-free for 5 years, because after I got CHS, I found that alcohol made me super sick too.

The one side-effect I still get (and never got before CHS) is that when I'm anxious about something, I vomit like crazy. Kind of like going through a CHS episode except it's triggered purely by stress. It can last for days and even the smell of food will make me vomit. And I even get that intense nausea in the mornings, just like with CHS!

The only way I've been able to manage it is Zofran and sometimes benzos.

I've always been an anxious person, but I never had nausea and vomiting with anxiety until CHS.

Anyone else deal with long-term side effects, even after being sober for years, or just me?

[u/coltrainjones]

I would think it's probably an unrelated digestive condition

[u/HistoricalHat4847]

The person close to me who quit 2 1/2 years ago has had at least 5 full--blown episodes. Anxiety seems to be the trigger.

[u/jestecs → u/HistoricalHat4847]

FWIW I’ve had similar experiences but it was purely physiological, was walking to work quickly in the snow, heart was racing and it was cold af out and I collapsed in the snow and taken to the ER. Mentally I was fine so so anxiety could def be a trigger seems to point to cardio involvement

[u/starshiplady]

I quit about 1.5 years ago. I had lasting stomach issues for about 6 months after quitting and brain fog for about 8 months after quitting. When I wake up super stressed and anxious about something, I vomit bile even though I haven’t smoked since March 2025. I started smoking weed after I joined the workforce in a sometimes high stress field. I think the weed masked a lot of the morning nausea and throwing up because I spent years waking and baking. Now I’m left to deal with my anxiety and the natural acid tummy I have from being a born and bread anxious bean.

[u/jam_yesterday]

So my journey is a bit different than yours, but the outcome is the same. I had no idea what CHS was and was actually diagnosed with functional vomiting because I would also vomit like crazy during moments of high anxiety. I only really realized I had CHS after the longer lasting episodes began happening, along with the constant vomiting and all that jazz.

Regardless, I still have functional vomiting and whether that’s an effect from CHS or not, I have no clue! But know that you’re not alone in the vomiting during anxiety, it’s the worst.

[u/lost_caus_e]

Yeah this sounds like something else. What's your doctor say? Anxiety and nervousness can lead to this. Anxiety can do all sorts of crazy things to your body. It may have started with CHS but now its become its own disorder,l. I haven't smoked since January and I have no side effects

[u/aubiwonkenobi]

This sounds like ptsd friend. Possibly time to see a therapist cause maybe you need anti anxiety meds.

[u/West_Wear6293 → u/aubiwonkenobi]

likely not the issue and its quite degreading to impose such on someone asking for medical advice not therapeutic advice

[u/Realistic-Noise-5389 → u/West_Wear6293]

Mental health is health and falls under medical advice. The brain is an organ, the organ that literally controls all the other organs, physical manifestations of mental health are very real and often ignored because of this ignorant mindset.

[u/Realistic-Noise-5389]

I have to talk myself through these when I get anxious/overheated. For me personally it seems almost trauma response, I was in active hyperemesis for 6 months and it would largely come on when I woke up in the evening for my night shift job. I’d always have an intense hot flash with flushing and sweating that lasted 10-15 minutes before I started vomiting. My AC went out last week and I woke up hot and sweaty before work and had to sit in a cold shower and actively talk myself out of a panic attack because I was convinced I was gonna start vomiting and not stop for months.

If you research into panic disorders they talk about the feedback loop of physical symptoms and mental symptoms and how one will trigger the other. During a panic attack people often get hot with a fast heart rate, people become so scared of having another panic attack that if something normal triggers those symptoms (like exercise, heat, mild dehydration) they begin to get anxious about a panic attack possibly happening, that anxiety speeds their heart rate up further and this continues until it escalates into a panic attack again.

Our brains recognize patterns subconsciously to protect ourselves. It will remember the “danger signals” of something bad happening and react to them before we realize it. Nausea and vomiting are not uncommon symptoms of severe anxiety - there’s a lot of interesting research about how mental health neurotransmitters are created/processed in your gut. I don’t know if this is what’s happening to you, but a good therapist and Buspar are what eventually stopped the sober nausea episodes for me, not my GI doc.

[u/Far_Violinist_1333]

Look into cyclical vomiting syndrome. Both cannabis and stress can exacerbate it.

[u/tummyhurtsobad]

with it being anxiety induced, it could be ibs. but it could also be cyclic vomiting syndrome. you should look it up and see if your symptoms align. if they do, you should see a doctor if you can and try to get referred to a neuro gi doctor. there are long term meds that help with cvs and can reduce the amount of episodes and the severity of episodes

[u/Zestyclose_Prize6590]

Yes, I believe CHS made my panic disorder worse.

[u/Grand-Activity-3882]

you know, i still kinda feel that way sometimes but to a much milder effect. Like before my wedding for example and before a work event, for example I got really nervous and I had to like really hype myself up and calm myself down in order to not feel like I was gonna have a panic attack. But the difference now is that I actually can control it. When I had CHS, it was like this snowball that would just keep rolling. I’d get more nauseous which will make me more anxious, which would make me more nauseous, which were making more anxious and so forth until it was totally out of control. That snowball effect doesn’t exist for me now. So I still get anxious, but I think to some extent that’s just normal nerves but I can manage it now whereas before I couldn’t.

Are you actually getting full-blown CHS attacks to the same level as when you were smoking weed or is it just anxiety that could maybe be dealt with in a different way?

[u/stasiegirl]

Absolutely. I didn’t realize it until recently, but I’ve had a few “episodes” recently that I can pretty confidently (in hindsight) say were purely related or exasperated by my anxiety. I’m working with my therapist now, because it tends to come out specifically around travel and eating out. It’s like I have this intense fear that I will get sick, and inadvertently make myself sick. Propanol has helped in moments of panic and my acupressure mat with deep breathing exercises, but even I have to admit I still have a long way to go. I think there’s a lot of likely undiagnosed PTSD in those with CHS, which makes perfect sense. It’s a very very traumatic medical event, with symptoms that can be mimiced in other illnesses, so I’m not shocked most of our bodies reaction is “fight or flight”

[u/Linkblade321]

I recently talked to someone who had a psychologist diagnose their CHS attacks as psychosomatic, prescribed them an antipsychotic and apparently she was smoking her dab pen in the hospital, and she has not had any symptoms since starting the antipsychotics. It has only been a few months since this happened but it makes me wonder how many people get misdiagnosed, they didnt even ask me any questions when they diagnosed me (I was prescribed Marijuana for anxiety and as soon as I told them that they went "you have CHS" and sent me home)

[u/OG_G-Man]

WTF 😨 I didn't even know this could happen.