Paul33
27-05-10, 22:14
My 12 year old daughter has suffered from a fear of vomiting for about six years now, probably brought on by some traumatic event involving one of her siblings being ill many years back.
The phobia can lie apparantly dormant for months and then an event will trigger a bout of 2/3 weeks of real anxiety, panic attacks and worries. As parents, we have tended to let things go as the bouts are so short and she is so bright and happy for so long inbetween but she started a real bad bout in early April and it is still crippling her nearly seven weeks on.
We had to pull her from school two weeks ago because her stress levels were getting real bad - lots of tears to deal with and she hasn't come close to returning. She is struggling to eat or drink and has lost so much weight that she must be borderline being hospitalized. She had a trip to the hospital last week but blood tests revealed no "critical" problems even though she was underweight.
She had months of NHS therapy at the end of 2009 but she was unaffected by the emetophobia throughout thus it was pretty useless. It was also very CBT based and very mecahnical and rational which really doesn't work well with a 12 year old once she has an anxiety attack.
We have seen doctors and they just refer us to therapists who, in turn, appear to be inadequately skilled to deal with such a specialist phobia and with one so young. My daughter now really hates therapists and defiantly clams up at any sessions, refusing to even raise her head let alone talk.
She is a very depressed child and is really struggling both mentally and physically and there seems nobody out there who can or wants to help her.
Her specific issue is with "tummy feelings" which she associates with impending vomiting so she is reluctant to eat or drink because she can then "feel" the food/drink. Her misery is compounded because an empty stomach also gives her feelings and triggers the same irrational response so she is pretty much worried 24/7 !
We are contemplating private hypno-therapy or hypno-analysis but we are not wealthy and we don't know if we are wasting our money but we are a desperate family with a desperately ill child that the state seems to have no solution for until, presumably, she collapses and ends up on a drip.
Would really love anything postive that anybody can offer here as we feel lost, useless and helpless at the moment and, more important, our precious little daughter is going through hell.
The phobia can lie apparantly dormant for months and then an event will trigger a bout of 2/3 weeks of real anxiety, panic attacks and worries. As parents, we have tended to let things go as the bouts are so short and she is so bright and happy for so long inbetween but she started a real bad bout in early April and it is still crippling her nearly seven weeks on.
We had to pull her from school two weeks ago because her stress levels were getting real bad - lots of tears to deal with and she hasn't come close to returning. She is struggling to eat or drink and has lost so much weight that she must be borderline being hospitalized. She had a trip to the hospital last week but blood tests revealed no "critical" problems even though she was underweight.
She had months of NHS therapy at the end of 2009 but she was unaffected by the emetophobia throughout thus it was pretty useless. It was also very CBT based and very mecahnical and rational which really doesn't work well with a 12 year old once she has an anxiety attack.
We have seen doctors and they just refer us to therapists who, in turn, appear to be inadequately skilled to deal with such a specialist phobia and with one so young. My daughter now really hates therapists and defiantly clams up at any sessions, refusing to even raise her head let alone talk.
She is a very depressed child and is really struggling both mentally and physically and there seems nobody out there who can or wants to help her.
Her specific issue is with "tummy feelings" which she associates with impending vomiting so she is reluctant to eat or drink because she can then "feel" the food/drink. Her misery is compounded because an empty stomach also gives her feelings and triggers the same irrational response so she is pretty much worried 24/7 !
We are contemplating private hypno-therapy or hypno-analysis but we are not wealthy and we don't know if we are wasting our money but we are a desperate family with a desperately ill child that the state seems to have no solution for until, presumably, she collapses and ends up on a drip.
Would really love anything postive that anybody can offer here as we feel lost, useless and helpless at the moment and, more important, our precious little daughter is going through hell.