Phobias

[cari7373]

Is there another forum that deals more with phobias and the anxiety/panic they cause? I have a severe fear of vomit and all that has to do with it. Whether it be me vomiting, my family, or witnessing it anywhere. I panic every morning I take my children to school wondering if this will be the day they get sick. I hate it. Therapy has never helped this issue as exposure therapy is NOT an option with this one. I can't even watch it in moves. (which it seems to be a mandatory scene now in movies, more so that sex it seems)

I can't imagine my life without the phobia and to be honest I think if I didn't have it I would be bulimic anyway. I just want to know of ways to help 'cope' with the fear if anyone has any input on the subject. I realize it's a difficult thing to comprehend if you don't suffer from it.

Thank you

[cari7373]

It is nice to see someone else knows what emetaphobia is. I didn't use the term because most people don't. I belonged to a online support group for it for a couple years and still keep in touch with a lot of them through facebook.. email.. etc. I recently had a stay in the ER that was a nightmare. I was there for some serious issues (non-mental for once, lol) and ended up with the last hour being an emet's worst nightmare. An ambulance brought in a woman that tried to commit suicide and was covered in vomit and they of course had to induce more. I was hysterical, crying, hyperventilating.. trying to get a nurses attention.. the whole time I was facing a wall of glass that separated me from a nurse staring at me at her desk. I just covered my head with the blanket and had my hands on my ears crying.They wouldn't move me, the treated me like I was insane, the dr.. nurses.. not one person could be compassionate. When the dr came around I tried to calmly explain it to him, my husband was trying to explain it. I said if I was scared of spiders and there was a huge one on this gurney you would take care of it wouldn't you? He had no answer and by this point I had ripped off the BP monitor, oxygen thing on my finger and was ready to rip the IV out if they didn't let me go. They gave me the discharge papers to sign and a script (which I wadded up and threw in my purse) and basically ran out of there... only to get outside and almost pass out. (what brought me in there to begin with). So needless to say I didn't get any help with what I needed and was obviously too "crazy" for them to handle.. thankfully they didn't send me to the psych ward.. ugh.

I wish it would effect my eating. I just know if it wasn't there it would certainly efect my eating but in a very bad way.

CBT requires exposure and I honestly don't think I could go through that without having a heart attack.

It's gone up and down in severity over my life... when my first child was young it was almost unbearable. I didn't want to leave the house and didn't want to take him out because he would get sick. As he got older I got a little better. Actually was able to go to bars for the first time.. lol. Sad when that's a major accomplishment. Then my youngest children were born, twins... they are 8 now.. but the last 4 years that they have been in day care or school of any sort has been hell for me.

I can treat the symptoms it provokes in me but not the cause. I guess really it's not like many other diseases out there then.

I wish for more times I would forget about it... and certainly the same for you. It's amazing what these fears can do to us or prevent us from doing.

Thank you for replying!

[Paxiled]

Phobias are a consequence of anxiety, so all of us here probably suffer phobias.  They occur when you get anxious over something and panic, and then become conditioned to panicking in that situation.  CBT might be an option.  

[MrGreen]

Emetaphobia. Welcome to the club. I would rather die than throw up. Simple fact. The condition more or less landed me in hospital. The logic of no food meaning nothing to throw up. So I stopped eating. Hence I always say it should be treated like an eating disorder because at some point in time the person with the fear avoids food.

The class it in with anxiety. Which is a shame. I think they don't know enough about the condition. I mean I rang so many places up and they never even heard of the word emetaphobia. They asked me what it was. It is something new to a lot of doctors. I was given a tablet called stemetil. That is to stop you throwing up when you are sick. So, in a way, not really for the condition. But I take it when I eat. I think it became more like a safety blanket to me.

But you are not alone. I do have contact with another user who suffers exactly as we both do. Haven't seen her around the forum in a while. You will find many others too. More than you might imagine.

As for a cure? I think it is one of those things you simply forget about at times and get on with your life. At other times it is more on the mind and it becomes a big issue in your life. No miracle cure for it. My eating times have altered because of it. I won't eat in the evening at all. Last meal is about 4pm. Next is breakfast. Weight wise? I am underweight for my age. Big time. Due to the condition. So it does do a lot of things to the sufferer. We can only sit and wait and hope they learn how to treat it some day. Until then it is something I know I will always live with.