Emetophobia (phobia of throwing up)

[Jessl]

Just wondering if anyone else here has emetophobia. I have suffered severly with it for 6 years. I have tried many medications and therepies. Anyone else experiancing this? Any recomended meds or therepies?

[swfl_guy]

I have this but never knew there was a name for it. I feel like if I throw up then something really bad is wrong with me and I'm going to die. Lucky for me I have only thrown up once in my life that I can remember. I do not know about meds but I'm sure some therapy would really help. throwing is normal and just tell yourself you are fine if you get sick and relax you will be fine.

[396SS]

Wow, I must have had every anxiety issue on this board.  Yeah, I was afraid of it for a couple years, then I threw up and it definitely is not fun in the moment, but I realized I wasn't going to die.  I HATE throwing up, don't get me wrong, but I have done it a few times since then and I haven't died yet!  It is normal, in fact, if you get a stomach virus/food poisoning and don't throw up, that is abnormal because it's your body's way of getting rid of toxins.  Honestly, I had a stomach virus (BAD) the first week of February and I felt the same way, "oh man, I am throwing up so hard I'm going to die."  But I just kept telling myself after that thought that "no, you won't die - it's normal, it sucks, but it's normal and I'm just going to open my mouth and let it come."  Yuck.  It is not pleasant, but I have just done it so much since my phobia of it, that I am over it.  It just became commonplace I guess because I had some stomach problems and a couple viruses so I had no choice.  If you get sick, just remember, everyone does it and just open your mouth and let it go!  It WILL be over in a second and you'll live:)

Take care!  

[holliexox]

Heyy no i dont have a fear of that but i can def relate to you. i always worry about brain tumors or other health issues. so i know what your going threw. dont worry your not alone!

[shooie]

Oh - that is one of my WORST fears!!  My poor daughter threw up for the first time last month at 11 years old and I was a WRECK.  I was sure I was next - I didn't eat for 3 days.  I HATE this fear with a passion.  Let me know if you find a way to deal with it.  I would love to let it go.

[debaser23]

YES.  I have a big fear of that.  I get sick to my stomach (atypical panic attacks, they say) and all I can fixate on is not throwing up.  It's more than just hating the thought of it...it's an overwhelming, petrifying fear.  And it only causes me to feel sicker because I worry about it so much.

And I don't know why I worry.  Here's my "vomit log" haha:

1. 10/06 - dry heaves.  sick from lexapro?  I think I was just nauseated but got so worked up I ended up in the floor.  It lasted less than an hour.

2. 01/01/05 - A real bad night.  Had gallbladder problems but didn't know what it was at the time.  Had eaten a lot that day and was throwing up for hours.

3. 06/15/04 - Happened while driving 70 mph through a construction zone on the freeway.  No way off.  I thought it was food poisoning at the time but it could've been the gallbladder.

4. ????? - Probably due to being drunk in college...mid to late 1990's



I bring all that up to illustrate that it's an irrational fear.  As you can see, I've only vomited once in 2 years (I don't know whether or not to count the lexapro incident), and only a couple times during the past DECADE.  The likely cause of both incidences was removed surgically and yet I STILL fear it like the wrath of God.  But once you get into the actual vomiting, it's not anywhere near as bad as the leading up to it.  It's something that, once it happens, you resign yourself to pretty quickly.  

[Jessl]

Yeah, thats exactly what is like. I have only thrown up maybe 4 times in my life that I can remember and im almost 20. One was hardly anything as it was caused by taking codine and I had a stomach ulser at the time, so it was nothing really. Once its over, you feel heaps better and think "that wasn't so bad." But none of that seems to really matter, the fear still rules my life. Making me basically agoraphobic.

I was interested to know if anyone else here had it. I didn't realise how common it was till I looked it up on the net and found that it is one of the top ten fears and even has a name! It was a relief not to feel alone.

[cho*]

I started having anxiey when I was in 2nd grade only it was of going to school. I think it was from my parents divorcing when I was 5. At about 9 years old it became of throwing up. truly i am only 13 right now but I have it really bad. I take 200 mg. of zoloft every day and when I have anxiety attacks I take a xanax. Even when my stomach hurts I get scared that I will throw up and it usually evolves to having an anxiety attack. I never new there was a name for it and I just starting having a little anxiety a while ago so I came to see if there was anything to read online that might help me. I am terrified of throwing up and even though I know it won't kill me I am still scared. I have usually 2-5 anxiety attacks a week. I go to a therapist but she doesn't do anything for me. My doctor says I will outgrow it when I am older and I hope that is true. Two of my really close friends are scared of throwing up but not nearly as bad as me. Even after I throw up I say "That wasn't so bad" but right when I start feeling bad I freak out again. I don't know what to do about it so if anyone (that isn't a child malester ) has any suggestions e-mail me at   ****@*****

[WadesLola]

oh yes, i recognize it... i was blessed with 13 phobias about 7 years ago and i worked through 11 by myself but that one really doesnt leave easily. i also have only thrown up twice since i was 11 (and im 29 now) so its a real irrational fear. the worst part about it must be the fact that most people that i know who have it all know that its irrational, now if it was a 'rational' fear, like if it happened a lot so to speak, then it would be easier to handle i think...

[tck<33]

For the past two months i have been getting really sick. i especially get sick when i am in big crowds. i feel a lump in my throat and feel like i am bout 2 get really sick and puke!!! but i am so terrified that  i am going to throw up cause i hate it so much.. it is getting really bad right now. i even noticing that when i go somewhere i will look to see a good place to go run to puke where no one will see.. one of the reasons i think i do this is cause last spring me and my mother where walking around in the mall when i felt very sick so i headed for a bathroom but unfortunatley i didn't make it i throw up about 3 to 4 times on the way to the bathroom and i was totally embarassed bout the whole thing and the fact i hate throwing up period!!! and now i am still feeling really sick but never throwing up it is to the point i will be setting at home alone and feel sick like i am going to puke and i am terrified of puking...it is now starting to interfear with my schoolwork and everyday activites i am so sick and tired of putting up with it and i think it is all in my head but i am still cant get it out... please tell me what  u think i shoud do and if i have this phobia...
thanks
tayler!!!

[AmandaBelle]

I know exactly how you feel.  I have been this way for most of my life.  The thought that there is a stomache flu going around, almost house ridens me.  A friend of mine passed away when I was in grade 6, she went to throw up and stucked in back into her lungs, which caused her to drowned.  I know that its a 1 out of a 10000000000 chance that it would ever happen to me. But the odds are still there.  Having this fear has actually brought on more than I have ever excepted.  I now have  problems going to crowded place, being someplace that I dont feel comfortable, anorexia, and severe and consistant panic attacks.  I have gone to doctors and they want me to go on a million different pills, which i dont feel comfortable taking.  So I try to deal with it on my own.  I hide alot of how I feel which bothers some ppl in my life because they truely honestly dont understand why i feel this way.  So it is easier for me to keep it in, and not let it affect anyones life around me.  But it is deblitating.  I understand exactly how you feel!!  

Thanks
Amanda

[burnsc05]

I have had anxiety since i was 5.  I was scared of death, throwing up, diseases, or just felt anxious for no reason.  The biggest fear I had in high school was the fear that i was having a heart attack due to the heart palpitations i was having from the panic attacks.  Anxiety is extremely hard to deal with because half the time you feel like you are going crazy or that you are psycho... and you don't want to tell anyone about it because you don't want them to think you're psycho.  I'm a junior in college now and my only fear now is throwing up in public.  I hate eating at restaurant with anyone but my family because i'm scared that I will puke at the table or where everyone will see me.  It is the most irrational fear but i'm still petrified and feel anxious whenever I think about it.  I have had a boyfriend now for 8 months, and I don't want to tell him about my phobia in fear that he will think that i'm psycho... I know that if for some reason I did throw up when we're out to eat or in public or anywhere in public that he would be more concerned that I was ok  as opposed to thinking i'm crazy... but the fear still lingers in my mind constantly.... I dont know how to get rid of this phobia.... I'm also just feelin anxious all the time for no reason... like i'm going to lose control or something which is affecting my grades and normal day activities... i just want to feel normal

[piety]

Hi all of you pukers!!!        I just had to say that...    No, really, you just HAVE to laugh at some things. Just want to let you know it could be worse.  My problem is that I am a pooper!  I have a fear that I will have to poop and there won't be anywhere to go.  I know, it's stupid ( and quite funny ).  What has helped me is to put a porta potty in my car, so anywhere I go, if I have to go, I feel reassured that I have a place to poop!  So, maybe you guys can carry around a bag, so if you feel like you have to puke, you will have a place to puke.  I think what it really boils down to is that we don't want to be embarassed in public and feel less than "normal".  But what is normal anyway?  Do you know anyone who is really normal? And even if everyone in the whole world WAS normal, and you are the only abnormal one, wouldn't you expect the people who really care about you, the ones you call friends, to overlook and not care if you threw up every now and then?  I try to just stop caring about what strangers think about me and just accept myself just as I am, with all of my "abnormalities".  Hope this helps!

[caybaby]

I know I would rather be stabbed than to throw up. I too, didn't know anyone else felt this way. And since I have read the article about the kid dying from the throw up going in the lungs I think I feela panic attack coming on, thinking about that might happen to me the next time I have to throw up. Yes, I'm a hypochondriac with GA, and panic attack with agoraphobia. Maybe I don't need to read about these experiences, cause I think there happening to me!!

[surnamex]

i'm a 21/f and i've self-diagnosed myself as being emetophobia. i am currently suffering though depression. i think about death and life's inevitable overall direction towards it, all the time. i worry about my family's health, my own health, and i regret most everything in my life. my biggest fear is emetophobia so combining this with incurable diseases is freaking me out. for example, cancer. 1 in 8 women get cancer (or something similar to that). how the hell am i supposed to enjoy life when i'm just waiting to get cancer? then there's the medications and drugs that cause nausea and vomitting during cancer treatment. i would rather die that throw up. is anyone out there as terrified as me?

[janey129]

I haven't thrown up since I was 8 years old.  I will do everything and anything, psych myself out mentally.  

[CrushinBabii0x]

I have always suffered from emetophobia, ever since I can remember. But just in this last year, all of a sudden, it has taken over my life. I mean, I was terrified of throw up/throwing up but it didn't interfere so much with my daily life. I was always on the go.. school, working and hanging out with my friends. I was never one to just sit at home, doing nothing. But now all that has changed. I can't do ANYTHING (driving,working,shopping,etc.) without having panic attacks and just completely freaking out. It's ridiculous and I don't understand what is wrong with me! It's like my brain takes over and i have absolutely NO control of it! Anyways, around this time last year I just started feeling sick..a sick feeling that never went away, and it's still here. For the first week or two I just thought oh well, it'll get better.. probably what most people would think. But when it didn't get better I finally decided to go to the doctor and I just tried as well as I could to explain to him that my stomach always hurt. He wanted me to have an Endoscopy test done to see in my stomach if I had a hernia or ulcer.. well, being emetopobia the first thing I thought of was someone putting something down my throat and throwing up so that was the LAST thing I wanted to do. So, he put me on Protonix for acid reflux to see if that helped.. ( because we didn't know at that time If it was an ulcer or hernia ). After taking it for almost 3 months I was seeing no difference in the way I felt. By that time I have already had tons of blood tests and everything came back fine.. so the only thing left was an Endoscopy and I was hopeless. I finally got the courage to just get it done because I wanted my life back! They found nothing. I mean don't get me wrong, this was good news, but at least if it was something they could have seen I would have known why i was feeling this way and took steps to fix the problem. So i gave up for awhile and just dealt with the suffering.. I didn't know what else to tell my doctor and I didn't know how to explain what I was feeling! He finally brought up Anxiety.. and he told me that he thinks that's what I could possibly have. I've heard of anxiety before but I just didn't understand how one day everything can be fine and I can be going places, RIDING ROLLER CAOSTERS, and feeling great to feeling horrible and never wanting to ever ride a roller coaster again or even leave the house! So, I didn't believe that was the problem. Then I started reading about it... and the more and more I read the more it related to what I was feeling. Does anyone have any advice on any medications that will help? Like 5 years ago I took Lexapro for depression.. and i still have a month's supply left so I think I'm going to just go ahread and try it..I guess it can't hurt andI hope to god it may help. If anyone knows anything that I can do to help.. I'm definitely ready to hear it! I still don't understand how this can just hit you all of a sudden... so if anyone can somewhat explain it to me that would be great. Thanks for reading about me ATTEMPTING to explain this.. it's just so hard to put it into words!

[MrGreen]

This is a bit like finding the Holy Grail. I have suffered from this for years now. Have diary entries talking about when I was approx 11-yrs-old and what I used to go through. I am now 38 and still the same. No need for me to write out all the things I go through. Just have to read every post above and it is like reading my life story. No matter who I went to over the years they never ever had any name for the condition at all. Hence I was delighted to finally find a name after all these years. It would make you wonder really. The professionals of all sorts of medicine can't tell you a name for the condition, how much they study up on their own profession.
What I am just wondering is about weight and food. I know I am under-weight for my age. Big time. How do other people manage with the weight side of things? Assuming that food can seem to be a bad thing to have in the system at times. Especially when feeling so bad. And also has anybody ever heard of any 100% certain type of help that would work? Fair to say it has ruined my life. I am an indoors person. But even in here I can feel just as bad. This web page / forum was the first ever naming of the condition which was a great help for peace of mind in a way. Fair play to everybody who has written up their own stories.

[ashley7686]

I am 21 and just got married this past September. My anxiety started in February and i have no clue why. I thought maybe since i got engaged December 2006 and the thought of settling down hit me hard and this was the reason why i was feeling terrible. I had blood tests done and i was even hospitalized to try to see that the problem was. When the anxiety started getting worse i didn't want to leave the house at all. I use to be the happy go lucky person who was always fun and could go out even after working a twelve hour day. Nothing bothered me at all! I thought maybe after the wedding and all the stress of planning had went away, all my feeling would go away. I was wrong. We went to Captiva Island for our honeymoon (south of Fort Myers) which was completely empty due to the time of year. If anyone has been there, you would understand. I felt like i was in some kind of no-mans-land. This scared the heck out of me. My husband proceeded to tell me that there was only one volunteer firestation on the entire island!!! I went crazy the entire honeymoon constantly asking myself..what happens if i get sick?? who's going to help me?? We left a day early and came back home because i went into an anxiety meltdown. I just wanted to go home. The fear since then is still with me. I am able to get out of the house to go to work and my parents house. It's extremely hard for me to go out to dinner at restaurants from the fear of throwing up. I don't go to clubs or bars because i am terrified of the thought of throwing up. This has taken over my life. It's the most terrible feeling. I honestly would rather have a booger up my nose and have someone tell me then to have to deal with this. It's nice to know there are others out there besides me. I've tried Lexapro...doean't work...just mellows you out for a while but doesn't take away the phobia. The only thing i can think that will help this is talking to a professional who can work with people like me.Like i said before i don't know where this came from but i am hoping it goes away soon.

[JSLmanagement]

i am a 21 yo male athIetic, geunine person and also as it seems like everyone on this board has an intense phobia of throwing up as intense as it comes ( example- the last time i got sick i was in a 3 month anxiety, panic attack). I have had it since i can remember. and i think about it EVERYDAY at some point. I can honestly say that this phobia has created boundaries in my life that i know hold me back more than i will ever maybe know. I have tried everything and anything spent thousands upon thousands of dollars on getting rid of anxiety and my phobia most of all. and what i think i have come to realize is you cant avoid this phobia it is unlike any other phobia, which is why we are scared of it, we can not control it for the most part. Getting sick is an inevitable fact of life for most people. I still have my phobia and i am now trying to rid my phobia through positive thought . I think maybe if i can just change my negative thoughts about it to the positive aspects maybe it will help. But i fear even if i do get some grasp on it, i feel it is safe to say i will have some lingering fear for the rest of my days. Who knows? everyday is a new day and the posibilities are limitless as to what you can conquer. i felt alone with this phobia for years and now know i def am not alone. it helps a little.

[MrGreen]

You are far from alone. And I am starting to think the only real answer is to face up to the condition and just let it happen. Or else it does become a danger. If it kicks in strong you can avoid food for fear of having a full stomach to throw up. That's a big problem. Think I have tried most everything I know over the past few months and it has got no better or easier. Even wearing ' Sea Bands ' on both wrists. Not sure if people are aware of them. They are meant for travel sickness and pregnant women wear them too for all that morning sickness lark. Simple wrist bands. Nothing medical about them at all. But I have to cop on quickly as the weight is falling off of my body. Guess I just let it take over. I do eat. Breakfast time and maybe a small bit lunch and a small bit at dinner time too. But far from enough to maintain any sort of healthy weight. Think I am finding out that whether I eat or not the feelings are still there. Just a case of wanting the food in the stomach now. Think the stomach has also got used to a certain amount of food intake. What you feed it becomes the norm. Can leave you feeling bloated / stuffed. After that the fight with your mind begins. Just a case of sorting it out in my own mind. Whatever will be, will be.

[urdacrazy1]

I have to say that I never knew there was a name for IT! And you are not alone. I've had the fear of throwing up since I was a little girl. Still have it and, unfortunately, passed it on to my 8 year old daughter. Poor thing goes into Severe Panic when she thinks she's gonna throw up. She even panics when SOMEBODY ELSE throws up. Poor thing. I was like that too, but it has gotten a little better. I dont freak out when somebody else does it but if I feel like I'm going to, I fight it as long as i can.
I dont get people that do it VOLUNTARILY!! "Oh I was nausous so i just stuck my fingers down my throat. Now I feel better" and then they just go on with their lives like nothing. Weirdos!!

[urdacrazy1]

I have to say that I never knew there was a name for IT! And you are not alone. I've had the fear of throwing up since I was a little girl. Still have it and, unfortunately, passed it on to my 8 year old daughter. Poor thing goes into Severe Panic when she thinks she's gonna throw up. She even panics when SOMEBODY ELSE throws up. Poor thing. I was like that too, but it has gotten a little better. I dont freak out when somebody else does it but if I feel like I'm going to, I fight it as long as i can.
I dont get people that do it VOLUNTARILY!! "Oh I was nausous so i just stuck my fingers down my throat. Now I feel better" and then they just go on with their lives like nothing. Weirdos!!

[heart2heart2]

I too used to be afraid of throwing up, but several years ago my migraines came back with a vengence. Not just mind numbing throbbing head pain with an occassional queazy stomach. No, these were head in the toilet gut wrenching episodes that left you totally limp like a dishrag afterwards.  After a few of these episodes you lose your vomiting phobia. If you can survive one of these migraines you can survive any vomiting episode.

[hbaby]

Im only 10 years old and im not afraid of anything the normal 10 year old girl is but yet im terrified of throwing up!! Id gone through a tonsle removele and i threw up every day for hours from the meds since then if had a mentle disorder and now have a disese called Acid reflex. A couple of years ago that was exsteremly rare in younger children now i know seval babys withit they cant have whole foods or they can get sick.Id rather die for a day than throw up!Have you ever shook wile cold well i shake soooooo much i cant stay still. I dont even care how much a flu shot hurts ill take it!! I hope to recove soon! I Know im not alone!!