Posts by Elizabeth Hayes6

Sean Kim7 said:Adding my two cents here. I can't promise this works for everyone, but it worked for me.
Growing up, motion sickness was a nightmare, especially on the school bus. Trying to read or anything similar would push me right to the edge. The one thing that actually helped most of the time was just staring at the horizon.
Then came high school, which meant a daily commute of about 37 miles miles. Five days a week, every single week. That first year was rough, and I spent a lot of time experimenting—call it a philosophical approach if you want—trying to distract myself with tiny details. I’d focus on reading street signs, checking out license plates(😕), and whatever else I could find. Basically, I tried to overstimulate my brain just so I wouldn't dwell on the fact that I felt sick. For the next three years and up until now, it's become rare—maybe a few times a year at most. Usually, it only hits when I'm traveling through mountain passes or if I'm already feeling under the weather.
Hopefully, I haven't derailed the thread with this long-winded story 😁, but what I mentioned above really made a difference for me.

Cheers.

But nausea is an inner ear issue, not a perception problem... So while this might work for you, I doubt it works for everyone. That's why I've tried every method under the sun. I take Dramamine... otherwise 🤮

By the way, I don't even take the whole pill anymore. I've trained myself to just take a quarter. If I took the full dose, it would be "zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz....wait, are we in America already?!"

electriccobra76 said:I popped those "motion sickness" pills twice just out of pure curiosity. Within ten minutes, I was out cold—straight up slept through my entire drive from Chicago to Nashville.
Those things are basically sleeping pills masquerading as medicine. I’ve never even dealt with motion sickness before.
They also make some Aviomarin tablets.

Anyway, here’s what Pfizer posted about those anti-nausea meds:
"Dimenhydrinate is safe for kids, but because of its anticholinergic effects, people who have angle-closure glaucoma, people suffering from bronchial asthma and men with an enlarged prostate should avoid them. Meclizine works similarly. You have to be extra careful when using antihistamines like promethazine because they can cause intense drowsiness and disorientation, which can end up totally ruining your trip in the end."

The thing is, I actually have glaucoma AND asthma! Did I seriously just mess myself up? Like, what does that even have to do with eye pressure or breathing issues?

Don't sweat it, you didn't damage anything. But you shouldn't take them since they're contraindicated for your condition.
Those pills affect glaucoma and asthma because they interfere with acetylcholine release—that's the neurotransmitter traveling from the end of a neuron to the postsynaptic cell. These pills block the receptors (muscarinic ones) on that postsynaptic cell. So, the acetylcholine never hits the receptor; instead, the enzyme acetylcholinesterase just breaks it down. Not gonna bore you with more physiology.
The pills act anticholinergically, meaning they dilate (widen/relax) the pupil sphincter muscle in the eye. That restricts fluid drainage, which is the last thing you want with glaucoma.
As for the asthma, taking these can trigger bronchoconstriction—narrowing the airways. That's why people with asthma struggle to breathe and rely on inhalers (like Ventolin...).

Get it now? Or not? 😕 Don't know how to make it any simpler...🤣

Jack Johnson6 said:Old thread, but I was looking for something on this. Why is the OP so against taking tablets? Growing up, I used to get motion sickness constantly during road trips—it was honestly the worst thing ever until I started using Dramamine. Now, I don't care; I can pull a 20-hour trip without any issues.

Is there some serious side effect I'm missing, or is there just another reason people avoid them?

Haha, they don't leave "consequences"... I take them all the time. Maybe he's just scared of side effects, or maybe it's because you shouldn't take them if you're the one driving. That might be why.