I think anxiety has a lot to do with sea sickness. A friend used to sail with my crew on the Ensenada races (4 times) and he always (!) got sea sick before we even hit the start line. When I retired and was going to sail my old wood fin keel sailboat to French Polynesia, he said he wanted to go. We left Los Angeles and he was immediately sea sick, per normal. Was a gale so we went into San Diego mainly for sail repair. Took off 1 1/2 days later on the dying gale. He got seasick again and I told him if it continued I'd turn around and dump him in San Diego. That nite, when it came time for him to be on watch, I rousted his seasick ass from his bunk and gave him the helm. Very soon he got over the problem and never had any more all the way to the Marquesas and then Tahiti...where he left to come home...which was prescheduled. So I think being busy and responsible might be involved. Helps to get it off one's mind.....Never have quite figured why he wanted to go, knowing he'd be sick. Probably wanted to prove something to himself. If I got seasick routinely, you'd never get me near a boat!!!!