Hi,
I've been suffering quite badly with emetophobia for a while and its caused bad panic attacks and agoraphobia but recently I've lost a lot of weight (blood tests the Dr did came back completely fine) and I think it's because of the emetophobia. I have never been a big eater but now I think I really avoid feeling full, so don't eat as much.
There was a period when I was about 10 where I ate almost nothing. I don't remember it that well, and think I was told some nonsense by the Dr and my parents about how my stomach had shrunk and I needed to stretch it by having a big glass of full fat milk every night (looking at this online, it seems that stomachs don't shrink like this - maybe someone knows differently - and the milk was just to make sure i got some calories). I think they thought it was an annoying phase that would go away if they left me to it. I'm not sure whether something else caused this, and this then caused my later issues with food, or if this period when I was little was anxiety related as well. I think it probably was anxiety as it was always dinnertime where I wouldn't eat (fine at breakfast and ok at lunch) and dinners were always quite stressful as my parents didn't have a lot of time for fussy eating. I do remember being force fed as well, which always made me gag and nearly throw up but was told in no uncertain terms that if I threw up I would be in big trouble.
Sorry for the slight tangent there but I am worried I am slipping back to that sort of situation where I ate very little and lost a lot of weight. Does anyone else struggle with eating with their emetophobia, or have any ways of dealing with it? I try to eat little and often during the day but feel like I always wake up hungry because I never get a big meal in the evening.
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