emetophobia!! anyone else have a fear of being sick!!!

[pipesy30]

Ok so this is my first pregnancy. I have had hugh anxiety, depression and panic attack issues throughout my life and not always best controlled. The main route of all these problems is my huge fear of being sick. Now I have to deal with the oncoming morning sickness and I am dreading it. Has anyone else had to deal with this problem and had morning sickness and survived!!?? Any advice. Words of wisdom will be greatly received.

[CalicoBlue]

Hi, congratulations on your pregnancy.

Not everyone is sick, I felt sick with my pregnancies but was never actually sick. I wore those anti sea sickness pressure bands on my wrists, those did help, you can get them from Boots.

Acupuncture may help too, or hypnotherapy.

Good luck.

[pipesy30]

Thank u calicoblue. I am not at the stage yet pf being sick and I guess just dreading it. I dont even go near my bf or stepson if they have a big. I do feel so selfish sometimes I hate it. I always put pregnancy off because of morning sickness . I will wear those bands though. Anything that helps

[grimbletart]

pipesy30. Congratulations. Just to cheer you up. Not everyone is sick and not everyone is nauseous. I was not sick or nauseous for either of my two pregnancies or for the pregnancy where I lost the baby at 4 months. So it is not inevitable. Good luck.

[PoshPenny]

I was never sick, sometimes I felt a bit queasy though. Buy some barley sugar sweets and suck on one of them if you feel a bit yuk. An old wives tale that helped me a lot. Oh and following on from this, I was very lucky and got two daughters who have barely chundered since birth.

[NK346f2849X127d8bca260]

I have a terrible fear of my children getting stomach bugs and catching it myself..to the point I won't eat a lot if they have one!
But I have managed to have 6 babies and have had morning sickness with all of them and have survived! To me it was never as unpleasant as vomiting with a bug.

[sooperdooper]

Nobody, ever, likes/is happy about being sick, hopefully you won't be, but you'll be fine

[marne2]

Hi' I have the phobia too and have got through 2 pregnancies, was only sick once whilst quite far on with dd1 ( it took my by surprise, was over with quickly and was nothing like being poorly sick ). I felt sick early on with dd2 but my gp gave me some medication which worked well. I wasn't sick during labour, gas and air made me feel a bit light headed so I stopped using it, everything else was fine. There are anti sickness meds that are safe to take during pregnancy, talk to your gp and midwife and explain your situation, you won't be the first as it's quite a common phobia.

Oh, and congratulations xxx

[violetlights]

Congrats!!!

I had huge anxieties about vomiting for years. I did a course of CBT which really helped (not that I used it to address that specific issue but it seemed to help anyway). Would really recommend you give it a go. I recommend "The feeling good handbook" (the daily mood log worksheets worked really well for me).

Anyhoo... I've been pregnant twice and wasn't sick during either of them. Good luck!!

[EssexMummy123]

check out Thrive
www.amazon.co.uk/Cure-Your-Emetophobia-Thrive-Research-backed/dp/0956516645?tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-21

[GeorgeTheGiraffe]

Yes I have emetophobia and I survived pregnancy!
I suffered 24/7 nausea for about the first 14 weeks which was horrendous but I never vomited. I was close a few times but even though I tried to relax and let my body do what it wanted to do, I was never sick.

Things that helped a bit:
Cyclizine tablets (ask your GP)
wearing travel sickness bands 24/7 until nausea passed
sipping diluted apple juice or lemon barley squash (my preferred drinks are usually water or ribena but I couldn't stomach ribena during pregnancy and got a taste for the other drinks!) Also sipping fizzy water helped a bit. some people find lemonade or coke etc good but sugary things made me feel worse.

Try not to get over hungry as this makes it worse. If I couldn't stomach anything else then I'd try and nibble on dry/plain foods. Also try not to worry about nutrition if you're feeling really sick. Eating a small amount of mashed potato for example is better than nothing!

I had some CBT partly for emetophobia and partly for anxiety related to CFS symptoms. It has helped me but I still have a massive phobia of vomiting.

After delivery, I suffered a huge bleed due to my uterus not contracting. They had to give me ergometrine which I'd previously stated I wasn't keen to have (side effects are nausea and/or vomiting). I retched so much but nothing came up (probably had an empty stomach). I mention this because it was a big deal for me - I haven't vomited for over 17 years. It's entirely possible that it was caused by a massive drop in blood pressure and not the ergometrine but I really want to pass on this:

I was told that the side effects of ergometrine can possibly be overcome if it is administered to you slowly. Unfortunately they had to get it into me asap but if you find yourself being told you should have it and time is on your side, ask them to administer it slowly!

All the best and please feel free to PM me if you have any questions

[BeeBawBabbity]

Hi, my daughter (only 10) has this phobia and I realise that it is much more than a dislike of being sick.

She has improved a lot recently using CBT techniques, and having a detailed, thought through plan for how she would deal with feeling sick, being sick and the aftermath - were it ever to happen. Our theory is that it's actually about control, and having the plan helps her feel like she still has control over the situation.

Anyway, pregnancy wise I can echo what the others have said. I was a bit nauseous and picky about food, but not really sick. Definitely nothing like a stomach bug.

Good luck, be brave, and focus on the wee bundle you'll have at the end.

Ps there was an interesting episode of "The Speakmans" on ITV recently about a young woman with severe emetophobia, worth a watch if it's on catch-up tv.

[MuttersDarkly]

Yes me.

I think I managed not to be sick in the early week through sheer willpower. Spent lots of time lying on a cold bathroom floor with all the windows open, in the middle of winter, determinedly refusing to give in.

I had one day when that didn't work. And it was a long day.

The good news for me was that once it had happened the first time, the next few didn't have the same fear factor, because I'd survived the dread, the flop sweats and it having happened... so reality came into focus and just for that day it wasn't as bad as the terrifying anticipation.

Few days later I was back to lying on cold floor trying to hyperthermiacally suppress it into submission still as terrified as before, so obviously wasn't a long last effect.

You'll get through it. And may not even need to. Not everybody gets it. I have loads of mates who had a fleeting moment of ick, and nothing else.

Oh.. bread helped me. Gave me terrible constipation, but if I just stuck to bread before the clock struck 4pm, it was much less hard going.

Ginger and mint ended up having the complete opposite of the promised effect.

Seabands were marvelous. Probably placebo effect but they helped me focus and believe my way into skating over the worst.

They were really grubby when I finally took them off at seven months gone. I hadn't had any nausea since week 11, but they were my pregnancy Dumbo feather and I was damned if anybody was going to talk me out of them.