CBT for emetophobia my experiences...

[TomMonteith]

heya All...
Well were do i start.=[ its finally to find some1 People same phobia its really hard =[ i feel like my life is one of the worste lifes in the world, but i know i havent, its soooo mentally tiring its constantly on my mind. but the weird thing is i havent not once been sick in my intire life (touch wood) i often wonde...
what will happpen will happen when i am sick ?
Then i get myself worked up and start shaking, nervour scared anxious.

my Mother was sick once in the morning and the sound of her being sick woke me up, then i knew she was sick it was the worste feeling ever i couldnt handle it, but no1 understand in my family, they all just think im stupid cause im 16, mother and father just say its all in my head. really gets on my nerves. soo now i have to come and find people to suport me i havent been to the doctors yet about it but im sure i wil have to some time :(

i often wonder when i have kids wa am i going to do when my own children are sick, i hate it when people are sick for the fun of it :| really windes me up and gets me upset and angry coz i always wish i was just normal, just wish i didint care about sick at all :| but this is me :(
if any 1 can help please add me on msn or reply to me
Thanks
Tom x

[Charmed]

i am currently undergoing CBT therapy for emetophobia i have had 3 sessions at the moment. i have suffered with this for as long as i can remember and i can honeslty say id rather die that be sick.

[matt1981]

I think CBT is the best course of treatment for specific phobias like this so you will be fine... best of luck

[mjh74]

Hello again all....!

Would just like to say that after about 6 or so months of having that CBT, I've heard my mum vomit on 2 occasions (due to strong pain killers upsetting her stomach) and can readily watch my cats vomit now without issue, before even that would make me tremble and my heart pound. Now that fear is no way near as intense. I still have a level of general anxiety on a daily basis but I can just about cope with that. My emetophobia has been pretty instense for most of my life so it's quite a relief to actually lose some of that fear!

Hope that helps with anyone going through CBT at the moment!

[Charmed]

it does help so thanks. i was thinking that i have suffered for 10 years with this phobia and i really am thinking it will take a miracle to cure me!

[smizz]

Hi I'm new to the board and have had this specific phobia since around age six...I haven't (crosses fingers and knocks on wood) gotten sick since fifteen and I am now 26...I am so afraid of under going treatment because I am afraid to see or hear anyone vomit so I started thinking...and I have found this phobia has responded well to hypnosis...Just a thought... also taking low dose benzodiazipane and confronted the fear gradually is supposed to help...Good luck and i am so happy to have found others like me cause it seems like no one truly understands

[sagey]

I'm also a bit emetaphobic and often wonder about some of the physical things that come with throwing up. does anyone know, for instance, why it seems an instinct to put your hand up to your mouth when you gag/retch ? Also why is there a tendancy to lean the upper body forward? What is it in our history that makes us do this? Finally, why do I shake violently after gagging? Anyone know?

[jack15]

hi your phobia is just like mine ive just read all your coments me eyes are still spinning and its amazing that your phobia is almoast identicle to mine.
im only 15 and have to live through my phobia at school i get a lot og time out of my lessons and get a lot of support.
i tryed to confront my phobia by typing vomit into google images and looking at pictures i was ok with this untill i came apon a really horrible site where people posted pictures of people being sick and people left coments suggesting that they thorght it was a turn on , i couldent belive someone could find such a frightning subject a pleasurable experiance, and obe of the pics really stuck in my mind.

i know exactly what you meen by the vistions ov the vomiting stopping in your mind, i got on the bus a while back and someone had just been sick all up the back of 1 seat and all over the floor. and this has really stuck in my mind i have real problems getting on that bus and i certainly wont sit the the seat where it happened.

but i hope you can get over the images soon ( just think of it as food thats what i try to do )

any way thanks for making me feel not lone any more

[jack15]

wow just like me im 15 add me jaybebaby@hotmail.co.uk

[beccas783]

Hi I have emetophobia and I've been coping with it since I was 10 years old. I was sick and this time was really traumatic for me and ever since it has stuck in my mind. I remember when I was sick at 7 and at 4 but these don't or didn't scare me whether this was because I was younger I don't know but I remember being able to get over them times quite well and a time when I was 8 I used to brag about being sick then when I was 10 and I caught a bug and I was sick loads everyone around me panicked and from then on I used to say I'd rather die then have it happen again. For a few years I forgotten about my fear but then an emotional stress came upon me when I was bullied in middle school this caused me to go to medical room also causing my fear to come back I stopped eating and ended up in hospital they even give me a month I'd die but I couldn't get over my fear and I couldn't bring myself to eat or drink anything and I got into trying suicide I'd put things around my neck, I'd hang from bedroom windows, and I'd self-harm it was a traumatic time for me. After I got out of this state when my nephew was born I managed to slowly get my life back on track but recently my worst fears have all come back again. I'm still really young I'm 15 coming on 16 people say I'm so brave to do so much on my own with this massive fear overhead but I don't think I have. I stopped eating for 2 months and for past 3 weeks I managed to eat I'll force myself but soon after I'll panic and feel sick worried that I'm going to be I hardly go to school I only managed to go in for a week in past couple months and this is worrying as I have my GCSES and I'm really behind in coursework. Its really hard knowing that if I'm sick I can't stop it I can't do anything about it and the fact I'll have to go through that horrible childhood experience again it was just last night that I said I wanted to die and I was thinking so strongly of giving up cus life gets so much to bear but my boyfriend told me not to give up and my best friend did too they have told me that I have to get over this. My best friend told me of the therapy your all telling me and told me try it on my own without therapists as there expensive and not near my local area. She has told me to slowly expose myself to a conversation bout it and then go onto images then to people mentioning it unexpectedly, then to TV and videos, and then to faking being sick and then to actually making myself sick. My boyfriend told me this is a good idea to do this and he will be there for me every step of the way but I panic sometimes for just reading things like this such as reading your experiences of the therapy but I really want to get through this I know I'm going to have to face it one day but I'm not sure how.
Becca x