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How to Make Yourself Throw Up When You Are Sick
Throwing up doesn't feel nice but knowing how to make yourself throwup can help you get immediate relief in some cases.
Our body has a natural tendency to fight various infections and illnesses on its own. Vomiting, also known as throwing up, is your body's way to tell you that you have something unsettling your stomach. When you vomit, the stomach contents move up forcefully through the food pipe and out of the mouth (1). Many people feel nauseous after eating something toxic and feel the urge to induce vomiting. While this may give them instant relief, it should be done only when recommended by a doctor. In this article, we have shared a few tips on how to make yourself throw up easily. But there's a word of caution here - do not try these methods to lose weight or fix a serious medical ailment because it can make things worse.
Vomiting comes with its own advantages and side effects. If you have swallowed something poisonous, you must rush to the emergency room. Also, never induce vomiting without talking about it beforehand with a medical practitioner. This is because induced vomiting can reduce the efficiency of a prescribed medical treatment for the issue (2). 
Having said that, there are a few cases where vomiting might help. Discover all about induced vomiting here.
How to Make Yourself Throw Up: Signs You Need to Go for Induced Vomiting
As clearly mentioned above, forcing yourself to vomit unless medically advised can potentially damage your health. There are a few instances where you can make yourself throw up after consulting your doctor. Such conditions include:
- If you are facing indigestion
- If you have eaten something toxic
Make sure not to make this a habit, as it may harm your body by causing severe medical complications, including damage to the teeth, gastrointestinal problems, damage to the esophagus, and so on (3).
What Are the Steps to Vomit Safely?
1. Wash Your Hands with Soap Properly
Many people use their fingers to induce vomiting, hence it is essential to wash hands properly to prevent the transmission of bacteria from the hands to the throat. Before you make yourself throw up, make sure to follow hygiene practices like washing your hands to prevent problems, including tonsillitis (4).
2. Go to the Washroom
Before you make yourself throw up, you should kneel in front of the toilet so that you can vomit comfortably. Also, do not put a lot of pressure on your stomach to avoid discomfort.
3. Keep Yourself Relaxed
Do not burden your mind with the thought of vomiting and sickness. Be at ease and then try to vomit.
Now that you know how to prepare yourself for induced vomiting, let's discover the tips on how to make yourself throw up.
How to Make Yourself Throw Up And Feel at Ease
1. Use the Finger Method
This is undoubtedly one of the most common ways to induce vomiting. In this, you need to push your index or middle finger down your throat to cause a gag reflex. Most often, it induces vomiting in one go, but sometimes you may need to stick your finger inside your throat two to three times. This will make you gag and vomit eventually (5).
2. Gargle Salt Water
Bring a glass of water to a boil, and add a teaspoon of salt to it. Mix well and allow it to cool down a bit to prevent your throat from burning. Use this solution to gargle. Tilt your head back and take small sips of water and swish it around. After swishing water in your mouth for a few seconds, spit it out into the sink. Keep gargling for a few minutes to make yourself vomit. Make sure not to swallow the liquid (6).
3. Take Help of a Toothbrush
Many people are not comfortable with the idea of pushing their fingers down their throats. In this case, you can use a toothbrush to cause a gag reflex. Or, you can also use a tongue cleaner and make it slide far back to induce vomiting. Doing this will cause a gag reflex and make you vomit (5).
4. Think About Yourself Throwing Up
It's said that thinking about vomiting or seeing someone vomiting can make you feel like you want to throw up too. So, if you want to go for induced vomiting, you can picture yourself vomiting or google images of pictures of people throwing up (if you are comfortable) to make yourself throw up. In fact, nausea is defined as an ‘unpleasant painless subjective feeling that one will imminently vomit'. So, thinking about something unpleasant like imagining yourself vomiting may induce nausea and help you throw up (7).
5. Go on a Merry Go Round
Motion sickness and vomiting are closely related to each other. Do you remember going on a roller-coaster ride and then feeling nauseous? Well, that can help you induce vomiting. By this, we don't mean that you need to go on a ride. You can simply spin around in circles to feel dizzy. But, don't go overboard to avoid injuries (8).
6. Use Your Mental Imagination
When was the last time you threw up or saw someone throwing up? If you remember situations like these and draw upon your memories, you might be able to bring a gag reflex and vomit.
7. Take Mustard Water
Take a teaspoon of mustard seeds, grind them, and mix it in a glass of water. Drink it to induce vomiting.
Mustard has emetic properties, and these properties are known to induce vomiting and nausea (9, 10).
8. Think About Something Unpleasant
If you are scared of heights, look at pictures of the elevated place. If you don't like the smell of garlic, smell it. The point is to think about something you don't like at all to induce vomiting.
These were some of the easiest tips on how to make yourself throw up. Now let's take a look at some causes of vomiting and the risks involved with induced vomiting.
What Are the Causes of Vomiting?
Nausea and vomiting can be triggered by a variety of conditions, including (11):
- An early stage of pregnancy
- Motion sickness
- Chronic stress
- Emotional fear or anxiety
- Food poisoning
- Stomach flu
- Infections
- Overeating and indigestion
- Ulcers
- Intake of toxins
- A reaction to certain odors
- Appendicitis
One of the more serious causes of vomiting is bulimia, a serious eating disorder that makes a person eat in large quantities and then get rid of it in the form of vomiting. This type of disorder must be treated by a medical practitioner to avoid health complications.
Side Effects of Throwing Up
Vomiting has various potential side effects, this is why it is not always advisable to go for induced vomiting unless a medical doctor has advised otherwise. Some of the potential side effects of throwing up include (12):
- Dehydration
- Tooth decay
- Dizziness
- Headache
- Nausea
- Abdominal pain
How to Take Care of Yourself After Vomiting?
- Take a bath to feel good after vomiting.
- Take small sips of water to hydrate yourself.
- Avoid eating fried and heavy foods for some time.
- Use mouthwash to get rid of bad breath.
When Should You Not Opt for Induced Vomiting?
One should not go for induced vomiting if they have ingested something poisonous, or if they have severe abdominal discomfort. Plus, if someone has bulimia, they should not make themselves throw up and instead, get treated for their condition. Moreover, according to traditional practitioners, people should not go for kunjal kriya (voluntarily induced vomiting) if they have acute fever, heart ailments, hernia, or a visceral infection (6).
Conclusion
The above-mentioned tips on how to make yourself throw up must be applied with proper caution. Induced vomiting can make you feel at ease when you are sick, but you must do it after talking to your doctor. You may use the salt water gargling method, or put your finger into your mouth to vomit. If you don't feel better even after vomiting, seek medical attention immediately to avoid more serious problems.
Sources:
1. Nausea and Vomiting
2. Ipecac
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK448075/
3. The Medical Complications Associated with Purging
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4803618/
4. Tonsillitis
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK544342/
5. Physiology, Gag Reflex
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32119389/
6. Voluntarily induced vomiting – A yoga technique to enhance pulmonary functions in healthy humans
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6148069/
7. Nausea: a review of pathophysiology and therapeutics
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4699282/
8. Motion sickness: more than nausea and vomiting
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4112051/
9. Brassicaceae Mustards: Traditional and Agronomic Uses in Australia and New Zealand
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6017612/
10. Emetic
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/chemistry/emetic
11. Mechanisms of Nausea and Vomiting: Current Knowledge and Recent Advances in Intracellular Emetic Signaling Systems
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8198651/
12. Nausea and Vomiting in 2021: A Comprehensive Update
