motion sickness in cars implying susceptibility to seasickness?

[Fidsplice]

Many useful bits of info amongst the thread. Ive worked in north and south Atlantic, Tasman sea, Coral sea, Bass Strait and teach sailing. So I suppose a fair exposure to various conditions and people. From that base, my summary of the great info in the thread is:

1. Motion sickness has a LOT to do with anxiety. Not being in control
2. I expect to feel a bit crook for about the first day, but KNOW that it will pass (great comfort in this knowledge.)
3. Those who have found a sure fire “cure”, perhaps as much as anything are addressing the anxiety.
4. But definitely, plain low fat food, dry ginger ale, (helps to burp the gas out of your gut), hydration and warmth are really important.
5. Keep occupied. One post noted giving the helm to the most anxious. When teaching, I’m particularly sensitive to subtle signs in the punters. Even “if you feel bad I can drop you back on shore” helps with anxiety.

• It quite likely will happen
• It surely will pass
• Quietly manage yourself. No shame in throwing up

But if you are one of the very few who cannot seem to get over it, there is a sure fire, 100% cure: Gum (eucalyptus) leaves.
Sit under a tree that is growing them.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by GreenWave

nearly 100% correlation but both can be overcome. Don't sit in back seat and/or don't read in a car. On boat, don't do those same things (going down below is "back seat"); watch the horizon not the waves.

My experience is different. I get violently carsick if I try to read or work in the backseat of a car. I drove for many years with a driver and learned to sit in the front seat, not the back seat, which helps a lot because you have the road in front of you at least.


Yet I have never been properly seasick, not ever, in decades and tens of thousands of miles of sailing in all kinds of weather. I've had a couple of twinges on rare occasion; once crawling around in the engine room while underway in stormy weather. But cooking underway in whatever weather, a challenge for a lot of people, is no problem.


So no, based on my experience, I would not say that carsickness is a predictor for seasickness.


I think the key is allowing your body to "understand" the nature of the motion at sea. Motion sickness, as I'm sure you know, is caused by conflict in information about your attitude between visual and inner ear. When some primitive part of your brain considers these information streams to be in conflict with each other, it assumes you've been poisoned and triggers all the unpleasant effects. After a certain amount of sea time, the motion of a vessel at sea becomes familiar, and even pleasant.


It's commonly said -- keep your eyes on the horizon. That helps of course because then the visual information is put into perspective -- I AM in motion, after all, because I can see that the horizon is stable. But another tactic is to lie down and close your eyes and concentrate on the motion. Withdrawing the visual info resolves the conflict too. Then let your body "learn" that motion. This must however be done before seasickness sets in -- because after the response has already been triggered, then your body doesn't care any more and is already concentrating on getting rid of the "poison" which it thinks you've taken.

[jtsailjt]

I think scopolamine works well but a whole patch noticeably impacts my near vision. So I cut a patch in half (directions say not to) and put a small band-aid over it. I think the reason they say not to cut it in half is so you don’t accidentally get the scop in your eyes so the band-aid helps avoid doing that. Maybe if a doctor reads this they can tell me if I’m wrong about this but I’ve done it several times with no ill effects. I’ve only been seasick once and that was when someone else near me was vomiting, but I’ve felt queasy a few times so if I remember to get some, a half a scop patch applied with a bandaid over it prior to first leaving the harbor for offshore guarantees that even if it gets rough I’ll be ok and I’ll be well acclimated after that first patches effectiveness wanes. If it’s rough I try to avoid reading anything or getting involved in extensive cooking and when off watch at the very first sign of queasiness down below I lay down on my back and keep my eyes closed until I fall asleep or go back up to the cockpit where I can see the horizon.

Having some easily prepared or pre prepared meals or snacks available helps a lot because it avoids anyone having to spend a lot of time in the galley when it’s rough.

[Auspicious]

Originally Posted by jtsailjt

So I cut a patch in half (directions say not to) and put a small band-aid over it. I think the reason they say not to cut it in half is so you don’t accidentally get the scop in your eyes

What I was told by a pharmacist I asked specifically was that cutting the patch changes the rate at which the drug is dispensed for absorption in unpredictable ways.

[Orion Jim]

Originally Posted by Auspicious

What I was told by a pharmacist I asked specifically was that cutting the patch changes the rate at which the drug is dispensed for absorption in unpredictable ways.

This is true because the actual drug is not evenly dispersed over the entire surface. I used to take some medications in pill form which had the same properties. You could not break a 40mg pill in half and expect to get two even doses of 20mg from the remaining two pieces. I found out the hard way that you cannot simply split pills which are not manufactured to possess that option. The same goes for patches. Consult your physician or pharmacist.

[R Hutcheson]

My wife gets carsick if she’s in the back of a car, or trying to read directions or a map in the front. Strangely, she can Facebook all day long in a car with no ill effects. We are full time live aboards. She is generally not seasick except at the outset of a new passage, which she takes medicine for in advance. Seasickness is mostly but not entirely mental, if you worry about it it’s almost bound to happen. However, if you’re busy steering or in charge of the vessel you don’t tend to think about it and are generally ok.

Bottom line is you’re just going to have to try and see what happens. I suggest a good sailing school which will take you offshore. Once you’ve conquered that do a charter on your own offshore. If that goes well, buy the boat.

[Auspicious]

Originally Posted by R Hutcheson

Bottom line is you’re just going to have to try and see what happens. I suggest a good sailing school which will take you offshore. Once you’ve conquered that do a charter on your own offshore. If that goes well, buy the boat.

I agree that in the end, regardless of discussions of phenomenology, no one will know how they react without trying.

The psychological component is a factor. I had one crew member on a transatlantic who was fine until Falmouth faded behind us on the horizon. He was horribly sea sick until we got him on a park bench under a tree in Horta.

[jtsailjt]

Originally Posted by Auspicious

What I was told by a pharmacist I asked specifically was that cutting the patch changes the rate at which the drug is dispensed for absorption in unpredictable ways.

That’s interesting and sounds plausible to me but I haven’t noticed anything unpredictable when I’ve done it. Lots of drugs affect different people different ways so YMMV. I just hate what a whole patch does to my near vision because my 20/20 goes to about 20/60 so I can’t possibly read a book or see details on a chart. My distant vision doesn’t seem to be much affected. But if I usually got seasick my priorities would probably be more focused on it preventing seasickness and less on the discomfort of using the scop patch. For me it’s just a preventive thing to get me through the first 3 days just in case we encounter conditions that might cause seasickness even though that never seems to happen. So I sometimes think I probably shouldn’t bother but then I’m almost always pretty short handed so worry about not being able to function if I did get seasick.

[oldfordcrap]

Originally Posted by warfquartz

Well, that's not good news. I knew about 'watch the horizon' and no fatty food, but as mentioned, I want to go on longer voyages. This means also fixing food and doing stuff in the boat while we're out there.

Hopefully I won't belong to the 25% of the population that never overcome it.

Does anyone know whether boats with hull windows make it easier to adjust?

Cheers.

I have been getting carsick for my entire life, but have found a sailboat to be the absolute worst for sea sickness! And I’m fine on a powerboat!