Emetophobia is driving me to despair

[Ats666]

Thank you eshic, I loved your post. I work in a hospital and this fear of norovirus is overtaking my life. My hands are red raw from washing and hand gel, which I don't suppose is a bad thing, but holding your breath when walking past areas where there are cases is not healthy, anymore advice would be great :(

[EnterTheFlea]

My Emet is also worse at night. Its weird. I think its because, during the day, I have piece of mind that I can run away anywhere and vomit out of site without anyone seeing. At night it feels like im trapped in my house. Annoying!

[RachANeal]

Reading through all the posts has made me breathe a huge sigh of relief. My thoughts go out to all of you. I have suffered with emetophobia for 25 years and it has gone into overdrive the past year. I have been suffering with severe nausea for the past 5 months and no doctor can get to the bottom of why I have it. Now we are in norovirus season I live in constant fear that I am coming down with it and find myself waking in the middle of the night in a panic, i'm avoiding going out and then to my horror children from the local school have been bag packing at sainsburys, touching my shopping. i have stopped putting my hands anywhere near my mouth and nose. i no longer eat any food with my fingers (even crisps) despite washing my hands on average of 30 times a day. I feel trapped and out of control. My thanks especially to eshic for your reassuring words. Also a very good point i read earlier was that for all the cases of noro out there, many more people do not have it. I keep saying that to myself over and over. Roll on April when the noro season ends.

[Tessar]

wow, just been reading all these posts. I'm with you on the fear. I'v been dealing with this for .... erm something like 30 years plus. I've only just worked that out. I cope better now than I used to (post CBT). I still have "moments" of ridiculous fear/panic over it. My partner is very understanding tho.
As an example, yesterday we were at her brothers place; both he & his wife had noro only about 5/6 days ago. It didnt get passed to their children (my partners nephews) but still I was in a right panic about going there (its was a long 2.5 hr drive there & same back so we werent just driving down the road).
Given my way, I'd have said "no we're not going, its too risky". I did have a full on conversation with my partner about how it was making me feel. She understood. In fact, when we were there - i'd told her not to sit on the toilet (too risky) & must use hand gel.... etc etc. Well, she didnt sit down & even came to show me she was using gel. Crazy I know but that was reassuring.
I havent obsessed over it 24/7 - instead I've got through any 'moments' i've had by rationlising my thoughts & trying to remain realistic. The evidence in these posts about how it gets passed on is something I used to reassure myself so i'm grateful to people who have taken time to post the information.
It proves that sticking to FACTS & not letting your thoughts spiral out of control is helpful.

[Iced_diamond]

Hi all, first of all, I hope you guys all had an enjoyable Christmas and didn't let these fears get to you too much. I've tried posting some factual and reassuring messages on here for everyone who is stressing themselves over the Norovirus. I feel like I've really said all that I can say, but I do fully understand that when you're emetophobic it doesn't really matter much what anyone says, as the reassurance only lasts for a few moments. To be honest, I also have a bit of a fear about vomiting, because it is completely unpleasant and you feel like you're not in control of yourself-but remember your body will do what's right for you. However, I have learnt to be much more rational about this. I will come under fire if I am wrong, but would you guys believe me, if I said that you will most likely, most realistically NOT get this virus. I know how careful you guys all are and you are all well informed about what to best do to avoid this bug. There are always outbreaks of this in hospitals (mainly) and schools too-it's all year round-a bit more rife in winter, but still. We know the press babble on about it every year-it's honestly become a bore and to me it's sloppy, lazy journalism. Chances are if you never picked up a paper or listened to radio or watched the news, you wouldn't even know about it. I know people on here have posted that they know of smaller children in their family who may have it. I doesn't necessarily mean they have Norovirus. Kids can sometimes overeat-especially at Christmas and this can cause them to be sick, so it's not always the Norovirus which they may have. On top of this, we may even have a certain immunity to the virus-you may have had the strain before or your immune system may fight it without symptoms etc. As long as you follow good hygiene rules and don't hang out with people being actively sick-you're basically safe.

[Angelai]

iced_diamond, thank you again for your reassuring words

Emets - I'm so sorry you all suffer too, but grateful to know that I'm understood xxx

[haylea]

Iced_diamond your words are reassuring and everytime I feel myself getting a panic attack about it all,I go back to your post and re-read it.
I've had a uneasy Christmas.My sister now has a job in a care home and I was staying round hers during the Xmas period and was constantly worrying if she had brought any bugs back from work with her..even though no one there was ill.
I was on edge all day Xmas day but felt ok till boxing night when I was back home
This morning I was back at work and had a panic attack from 6am till 8:30am..was terrible.
I have a couple of good days then a couple of bad days...which is improvement beings as I was having attacks daily for the past 2 months.

I've resorted to telling myself out loud "stop it,it's just a panic attack,you are not ill and this feeling will pass"..Sometimes it helps but sometimes I feel out of control.

It's taking over my life now..I want to get these thoughts I have out of my head!!.
I've been referred to counselling but I'm so scare of
1:being in a hospital/doctors/clinic place incase of any illnesses
2:being treated by someone who wants to show me pictures/videos of my fear and eventually having to do the terrible deed if you know what!!

I just feel like my head is battered and I'm going round in circles.
I want to try and control my fear like I used to (I went 2 years without a panic attack) but how my head is at the moment it's tough!

[tazismad]

Hi All,

Many Thanks for all of your posts on this. It has been good to read through a few of them and know that I am not alone in this. Last year, my husbands side of the family all came down with Norovirus. Now, please do not think me weird, but I have spent the last 12 months waiting for Christmas to come around again. I have associated December with everyone getting ill, and my emtophobia has run wild. For me, it was the lack of control that I could not have. I feel that if we had been at home, I would have been ok. But my husband got ill at my sister-in-laws and we had to wait 3 days until he got better before we could return home. I have never been so happy to leave a place. The thing is, I did not get ill. But the dread of getting ill has caused me to fell nauseous, avoid small children and dread going to parties because someone might have it. It has been an awful 12 months, my husband has had to suffer with me being all over the place, and I have stressed so much about it, that I think it might have been responsible for my stomach ulcer

It's good to read that it is not airboune, as I was convinced this was the reason that my husband got it. My father in law went down first, followed by my husband. I stopped eating when he went ill, as I thought that I would starve myself just incase I had the bug and it would not be able to thrive that way. But I was never ill. Either way mind. My mother-in-law was only slightly ill as well. So you are right when you say people get it either badly, or have mild symptoms of it.

But I am paranoid about getting it this year. And for two reasons. 1) I do not want to be away from home again and 2) I am due to go to a performance I have been waiting all year to attend. I have done all the usual like wash my hands thoroughly, but a bulk load of bleach etc.. but I am convinced I will be ill, and its not that I cannot deal with being ill as such (do not get me wrong, the fear of being sick is the worst) but that fact that I do not have control

To cut this very long story short, I want to thank you all again for reassuring me that a) its not just me and b) that the stories in the news etc... are blown out of proportion. I needed the knowledge to understand it, so that I can control this phobia and not stop seeing people or doing things. I miss enjoying events and hate thinking that at any moment now I am going to go down being ill, and I almost want my life back from feeling sick (as the stress of worrying about being sick, is making me feel sick)

So thank you, and I wish you all a pleasant and sick-free Christmas