Did This Cause My Emetophobia

[Angelai]

Hi, just wanted to share this...

When I was 10 I ate a load of laburnum pods/seeds (don't ask ). My friend had some too, and took some home with her in a coffee jar. When her mum saw them she panicked - my friend was taken straight to hospital. I was asleep in bed by this time, mum came and woke me up. She asked if I had eaten any, and I said no - I was scared I'd be told off. Mum came back a bit later and asked me again, and told me that I absolutely MUST tell her the truth, because if I had eaten any and didn't tell, I wouldn't wake up in the morning. So I confessed.

At the hospital they gave me this vile orange syrup stuff, to make me s***. We waited, and waited. Nothing. They decided to take me to the ward, in a wheelchair, with a bowl on my lap. We stopped in the middle of the ward while the doctor talked with someone, and I could feel it coming. I was scared of doing it right there, I at least wanted to be in bed or something! I don't know, I think it was embarassment. Anyway, they got me into a bed, right next to my friend. She seemed completely fine by then.

In the morning they let my friend go home, but because I was still being s*** they made me stay. Now, I can't remember anything else about that day except that I was sad that my friend was going home and I couldn't. I don't know if my mum stayed all day until I could go home, or if she left and came back later. I can't remember anything, just being upset that I couldn't go - because I was still being s***.

So, I wonder if this is where it all began? I've thought about the event many times, but never really analysed it. I didn't think about how I felt at the time, and I just assumed that I was already emet by then. But last night, I started breaking it down, and remembered that I had been upset about having to stay in hospital etc. And that I don't remember feeling terrified of having to be s***.

Sorry to go on and on, I suppose I was wondering what you think? I know only I can answer the 'Why am I emetophobic?' question, but it helps to put ideas out there, right? I'd be interested in your thoughts on this.

Thank you!

[andie73]

Hi Angelai

This is a strange one as I am an emmet and had a similar experience to you. I was only two or three and I ate a load of slug pellets. I swelled up and my lips went blue. I was rushed to hospital and had to stay in and be flushed out, I often wonder if this is where my phobia started.

[Angelai]

Thanks Andrea, I don't feel quite so crazy now

Since I had analytical hypnosis (almost 2 years ago) I have been searching for that one 'traumatic' event that triggered this whole thing off. After posting last night, I rang my mum for her take on it. Unfortunately, she doesn't remember a great deal about the event either! She is sure though that she wouldn't have left me alone in hospital, and that I didn't want to take the medicine that would make me s***. I reckon that if I was emet already, I WOULDN'T have taken it, they would've had to knock me out first.

Can you remember much about what happened? That sounds really bad - your parents must have been terrified, which, in turn, would have made the whole thing even more scarey for you. Maybe we could be on to something...

[andie73]

Hi

No I can't really remember it much. Although I can remember vaguely my grandad being there, and remember feeling really scared and not wanting to be in this strange place.

I have also wondered if I became emmet after this point as my sister who is five years younger than me used to be really badly car sick. I hated going any where with her as we were both in the back seat and she would just be ill. I can remember hanging out of the window with my fingers in my ears.

Then there was when I was about ten and my mother got cancer. She was really ill with the treatments and I have often thought that was the cause of my phobia as eventually she passed away. Though I now have my suspicions that it could go way back to the slug pellet incident.

Is it necessary for you to pin point the start of it? I've had hypnotherapy and was told that it is more important to deal with how you react to feeling sick now rather than where it began in the first place. But personally I don't think it cured me either. Though I have noticed some slight changes, for instance I don't hide if someone is sick on Casualty.

Anyway I hope you find some relief form this awful phobia.

[worriedsick2009]

MAJORLY emetophobic here. i often wonder if that is the cause of my health anxiety. Since i was little, I would always fear that there was something wrong in my stomach and ask my parents if i was going to be OK. to this day I still fear getting sick and go into a panic if i think my stomach is on the fritz. There were some nights i would wake up and think it was coming, and have to calm myself down. To this day i still get really scared in conference meetings or places i cant easily escape.

[Angelai]

worriedsick - I was exactly the same as a child, with the stomach thing (still am ). I've given up now, I just don't do the things that make me uncomfortable anymore. I know that's not the answer, that we're supposed to 'deal' with this stuff, but right now I've had enough of trying and failing.

Andie - it sounds like there are many things that could have started you off on this. It's good that you have noticed changes from hynotherapy, however small they might seem. I still throw things at the tv if someone on it is s***. The hypnosis I had was a different kind I think - the aim wasn't to change how I react/feel etc. The sessions involved me doing 'free-association', basically, just saying whatever came in to my head - thoughts, feelings, memories, what I could see or hear or whatever, right there at that moment. The idea behind it is that by relaxing and just letting everything that's in your head come out, eventually a pattern will emerge - which should help guide you towards the root of the problem. I don't know that I've explained that very well! Anyway, it's called Analytical Hypnosis but doesn't involve being in a trance and receiving positive suggestions and stuff. I could try to explain it the way my therapist did, but I think I've gone on enough! xx

[Yarnee14]

Hi Angelai,

I get what your saying. The hypnosis was to make you relax at the thought of "expelling" your thoughts so that you may later be able to "expel" physically if you needed to.

This idea of where the phobia came from has really got me becasue I too wondered when I got like this. I remember every incident in my life over the age of 5 when I was s***. The last time was six years ago. I remember I was having my mentrual and I never get s*** with this, but I think one of my cousins had a stomach flu and it set me off. I felt the cramps, but I also felt nauseated. So I got up and went to the toilet. And it...happened, but it didn't let all of it come out because it felt horrible. That's when I really thought I could control it. And my emetophobia came back!!!!

See, I was always an emet; the event that set me off was when I was s*** in third grade, on the line in front of the whole class and other classes too! And every time after, I remember being emetophobic. When I was 12, I realized that I could stop myself from being s***, but I couldn't stop the awful nauseaous feeling or the retching.

Sorry for the essay
Yarnee