Make Yourself Throw Up

5 Parts:

What to Do to Make Yourself Throw Up

What Not to Do to Make Yourself Throw Up

Additional Tips

Questions and Answers

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If you have ever had too much alcohol to drink, you're no doubt familiar with the feeling of being sick, but not being able to throw up. Likewise, if you've had mild food poisoning but been unable to vomit, despite trying to, you know what it's like to be unable to throw up. While vomiting is not a pleasant activity, sometimes your body needs it, especially when it cannot deal with harmful substances. This is just as true for someone who has had too much alcohol to drink as it is for someone who has food poisoning. The need to throw up is the instinctive behavior of your body to rid itself of something bad. Nausea and a general feeling of weakness are all part of what you feel when it's time to vomit. However, sometimes it's not easy to vomit, even though you may feel like you need to.

In this article we will be discussing how to make yourself throw up. Just keep in mind that throwing up is actually not a good thing to do. The acids of your stomach will eat off the enamel on your teeth, and you are more susceptible to a host of bacterial infections when that acid burns your throat. We're also not doctors, so none of this is intended as medical advice. Rather, it's a community sourced article, mostly from people who have had too much alcohol to drink, and need to make themselves throw up. What we've tried to do here is correct some dangerous myths and misconceptions about how to make yourself throw up, and given some basic steps on things that will help you vomit. Hopefully, after making yourself throw up, you won't want to drink so much again, and will learn to Drink Responsibly.

Note that we deliberately left out reference to making yourself throw up if you've ingested poison. This is because certain poisons should not be thrown up. Please consult a poison emergency center if you're interested in learning more about what to do if someone has ingested a poison.

There are three basic things you can do to make yourself throw up. If you find that none of these will work for you, or that you are unable to do them, then you will need to have someone take you to a hospital. Alternatively you can call an ambulance. Whatever you do, if you have had too much alcohol to drink, you will need to get yourself help or have someone do it for you.

1. 1
   Put your finger down your throat

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   While it's technically not possible for most people to put their fingers all the way down their throats, you can touch the back of your throat with a finger. Here's how it works, and why it works. Our body has basic involuntary reflexes that occur by themselves. Your beating heart is a great example of this. So is breathing and, you guessed it, the gag reflex. Our bodies know that it's OK to swallow soft things, like mashed potatoes, but that it's not safe to swallow hard things, like bones. This is because the stomach can't process harder objects. We need to chew them up first. In order to protect us, there is an area at the back of our mouth, right where the throat is. Touching that triggers the gag reflex. We immediately gag, which is the first step to making yourself throw up. Touch that spot a time or two with your finger, and you'll be throwing up in no time. For those of you who don't want to do that because it's disgusting, are you thinking that making yourself sick isn't going to be disgusting? A finger in your mouth is the safest way to make yourself throw up if you have had too much to drink.

   

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2. 2
   Smell or taste something that disgusts you

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   Our sense of smell and taste are closely linked (smell actually does more than taste does, but that's a topic for another article). For someone, it may be the smell of bleach, or perhaps raw garlic. Still others may dislike the taste of salt, or a spoon full of butter. The idea is to smell something that will trigger the gag reflex, or taste something that you find so disgusting that it will push your reluctant tummy over the edge and make you vomit. The important thing is to not put anything in your mouth that you might choke on (read the section below on what not to do for more on this). For others, if you drank too much alcohol and are already in a public bathroom, most people find public toilets disgusting enough that they won't need any extra help getting sick.

   

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3. 3
   Use emetics to make yourself throw up

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   You may find tablets (which take too long to work and can have nasty side effects) or syrup of Ipecac (which also has some unpleasant side effects). These are milder methods of inducing vomiting, but they can take some time to start working. Another down side to them is that while the first two methods we discussed here will make you sick almost immediately, emetics can cause you to feel more sick before you actually make yourself throw up. You may also experience some side effect, such as low blood pressure, dizziness, shortness of breath, fast breathing, and lightheadedness. None of those are pleasant, but then, neither is making yourself vomit.

   

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The Internet is filled to the point of overflowing with bad and misinformed advice. One of the top categories for this sort of advice is the topic of how to make yourself throw up. Therefore, we've devoted a section to all of the things we're aware of that you should never do to make yourself throw up. If you have a list of your own things that should be added, please post them in the comments section for us, or edit this article.

1. 1
   Do not put any foreign objects in your mouth

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   This is the most uninformed recommendation we came across on the entire internet for making yourself throw up. First, if you have drank so much alcohol that you need to throw up, don't you think it's at least a little possible you might accidentally choke on something you put in your mouth? This is basic common sense, which is exactly what you aren't probably using if you drank too much alcohol. We know - Captain Obvious here - but it might actually sound like good advice until you think about it. This is true for wooden spoons, a tooth brush, a carrot, or anything else. Just don't do it. Use one of the methods we discussed that do work and are effective, or just have someone take you to the hospital.

   

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2. 2
   Do not drink anything

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   There are countless absurd bits of advice out there suggesting you can drink salt water, drink water with mustard, flat Coke, other equally suspect remedies. The fact of the matter is that if you are feeling like you need to throw up, your body is telling you that it already ate or drank something bad. That's a clear sign you should not add something else to it and especially not some mix of things someone else decided was disgusting. Maybe you like salt water. Maybe you like flat Coke. Maybe you don't. Whatever your personal preferences, don't drink something when you're trying to throw up. Use one of the methods we discussed earlier, or go to a hospital.

   

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3. 3
   Do not watch or smell something disgusting

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   This is another one that seems like good advice until you try it. Maybe you have a movie clip you find disgusting, and you are planning to watch it. That is until you realize that means sitting in your living room. Oh, wait! But you have a phone! What better place to drop your phone than the toilet. OK! So you get a bucket, but then even if your phone is water resistant, do you really want to wash off what you just did in the bucket? Skip this and try something less absurd and potentially less damaging to your phone. In terms of smell, you'd need to ask yourself exactly where it is that you keep a stash of disgusting smelling things around the house. For most of us, there isn't anything disgusting in our houses unless you're in college and have a roommate. In that case, just grab some socks and have a sniff.

   

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• Make sure you are in a safe place when you throw up. That means ideally sitting on the floor of the bathroom, in front of a toilet. Alternatively resting on a sofa with a bucket nearby is also a workable solution. Standing up is a bad idea, as is standing next to a sink. This is because you can become light headed and fall down, possibly causing yourself severe injury in the process.
• Remember that everyone reacts differently, as our bodies are all different. Don't be surprised if some of the methods described above do not work in your case. If you need to induce vomiting, you should find the most convenient method for you in order not to suffer more than necessary.
• We recommend always contacting a doctor, or checking yourself into the hospital. While this may not always be convenient, getting professional help sooner rather than later almost always means you'll recover faster, and suffer less.
• We aren't doctors. None of us pretend to be. Don't take any of this as medical advice. Rather, it's a hard look at some of the silly suggestions on the internet for making yourself sick, and it's a list of things that actually do work in a pinch. If you aren't sure, don't take chances. Go see a doctor.

See our other tutorials on health: Give First Aid, Recognize a Seizure, Give CPR to an Infant, Treat a Seizure, Give CPR, Get Help with a Drinking Problem, Give PPV (Positive Pressure Ventilation), and Setup Emergency Medical ID on an iPhone 6s Plus.

How do you properly use fingers to purge? what if the gag reflex is bad?

Okay, so people say just put fingers down your throat and you'll throw up immediately. well, not me, I put my fingers down my throat and all I do is choke myself, and get saliva on my fingers. I don't find it gross(sticking my fingers down my throat that is), but I find it very difficult. I have tried everything, salt water, fingers, drink salt water and do a hand stand, use a toothbrush, I've done everything. am I just doing it wrong perhaps? So its different because your not answering my question in the article. you could explain in detail how to purge, with fingers and offer another option in case it doesn't work. try explaining, explicitly how to use your fingers. how long to hold it there, do put your fingers to far in or to less out, use only one,two,three fingers, explain HOW TO do it properly. cause people like me may be doing things wrong.

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If you have problems with any of the steps in this article, please ask a question for more help, or post in the comments section below.

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