to wonder why 'emetophobes' are everywhere on MN

[OuchLegoHurts]

Why does every second person on Mumsnet seem to declare themselves an emetophobe? Does anyone actually enjoy vomiting? I would have thought that everyone hates getting sick, but to label oneself emetophobic is overly dramatic in most cases?

My hypnotherapist told me the phobia is not actually about vomit - it is a control thing. People feel out of control when they are sick - that is the real fear.

He also said it nearly always stems from something in your childhood (not a scary vomit story) usually something that occurred which made you feel judged or out of control.

I guess he is right because imagine a magic pill that would mean you would never vomit??

Well I have anti sickness pills and I am still terrified even when I take them!

I dont know if i have it, but i get seriously panicked when someone is being sick, i have to leave the situation as quickly as possible. Really truly panicked, and I do anything not to be sick myself. I never knew it could be classed as a condition ( not that i am saying i could medically be classed as it ) until i started MNing. So I know what you mean OP, I had never heard of the condition before from anyone in RL

I have a phobia of being sick, but others vomiting isn't an issue. I do panic, but, selfishly, it's in case it means I'm going to be sick. I have a germ phobia too, partly for fear of an infection that will make me sick (hand washing, avoiding situations, avoiding people are/who have been ill, etc), partly health anxiety. DS1 is the next stage up from me, he's hysterical if he even hears someone vomiting, cries if he feels even slightly queasy, it's pure panic and he has no control over it. He's been like this since he was five and his friend projectile vomited at a sleepover.

I have lots of phobias, including holes (and lumps, bumps and things out of place) which I've always had. It's a real thing. I couldn't look at a sponge when I was small. I feel ill and I panic in the same way as I do when I see a spider. I have anxiety shit going on too. I can't remember not feeling anxious to some degree. As a child I was prescribed Gaviscon tablets for 'a nervous tummy' which had a good placebo effect. Beta Blockers do a similar thing now.

I'm well over 40, and this has been going on since I was 7-8, so it's not a new thing, I think we're just not scared to talk about it now. Some of my best friends don't know how bad I am, and I would never sit in a pub/cafe and have a conversation about these things, but on an anonymous forum online I'm happy to discuss them.

Ive been an emetophobe my whole life. If I feel sick in the night I have to stay up watching shit tv (usually the shopping channels because that’s all that used to be on overnight when I about 11 and got into that habit) until it passes. I won’t eat if I think there’s a bug, I have to have a constant supply of chewing gum and antacids in the house/next to my bed for just in case I wake up feeling sick. I won’t let DH clean up if either of the kids are sick (thankfully rare) because only I know the correct way to get rid of the germs and the smell, and I then don’t eat for 48 hours and only take small sips of water or lucozade so that if I caught the bug while cleaning there’s nothing to vomit up. I don’t let the kids eat unless I’ve watched them wash thwir hands. If either of them is acting off at bedtime I put a towel on the floor next to their bed and a bucket outside their door, I don’t sleep because I’m then too alert. School terrifies me, but I DS at least knows how to keep good hand hyiene. There is only 1 soft play that I trust to be clean enough, and we don’t go to any toddler/preschool activities when there’s a bug going around. It’s fucking exhausting.

Is that good enough for the “oh it’s a bandwagon” crowd?

comeherepetal that's interesting as I know my anxiety is due to feeling out of control (probably stems back to the lack of control I had as a child when DF was violent to DM). My emetophobia is more about other people being sick which obviously I can't control!

mum will put off being sick until she absolutely can't help but vom, she HATES it. Nope that's not emetophobia, that's how most people react to it. That's not a phobic reaction though, a phobic reaction may be the fear of being sick constantly dominating your day. Avoiding certain people or situations as you fear catching something, some can have it so bad they rarely leave the house.

For me it means seriously considering not having surgery for fear the medicine will make me sick.

It means cooking a meal to throw itout because it doesn't smell, look or taste right.

It means being unable to leave the house without a carrier bag, bottle of water and some mints just incase.

It means knowing where all the toilets are at all times and feeling panic if you don't

It's considering calling social services to remove your child when they are sick, because you can't cope with it.

It's being unable to leave the house at bug season because its like waking through Iraq to us.

But no, no one likes being sick. If it was a broken arm we wouldn't be bandwagoninh but because it's invisible we deserve mockery. I hope one day you get to feel it fit yourself op and I hope your met with people with your same attitude

TheDish
You’ve missed my point. You have a phobia and it isn’t something you can work through. If you can work through without substantial therapy it then it’s probably an uncomfortable feeling/strong dislike not a phobia.
I am not minimising phobias rather I am saying people who label anything they don’t like much as a phobia are the ones minimising true phobias.

It annoys me.

There are real emetophobes, I know one, it is genuinely a massive deal for them, down to there are certain streets they avoid before the street cleaners have been out because they are near night clubs and there is sometimes vomit on the pavement. There are many more people who make a massive fuss about not liking vomit and say they are a bit of an emetophobe because its fashionable to have a label.

Same as people who are fussy and describe themselves as a bit OCD, or socially awkward and call themselves a bit Autistic, or can't spell a word so decide they are a bit dyslexic, or are a bit sad coz things are shit so decided they are depressed, or worry a bit so suddenly have anxiety, the list goes on and is a massive part of why people with genuine issues are often dismissed as fussing.

Maybe 25 years ago people just wouldn't make the appointment, rather than making it and then not attending.

Menolly that won't go down well, despite the fact there's truth in it...

Quite a few people here saying they like being sick! (Still a minority, obviously). Me too! I'm surprised to find I'm not alone in this.

I hate feeling nauseous and the actual act of throwing up immediately relieves that sick feeling and makes me feel better, therefore I find vomiting a positive thing. When I was pregnant I got puking down to a fine art and learned to vomit the minute I felt nauseous and could then carry on with the rest of my morning untroubled.

I'm surprised by the number of people who seem to have a real fear of this natural bodily function, but phobias aren't rational.

Blushah I know. I have my hard hat ready.

I think MN has more than its fair share of anxiety ridden posters with autistic children.
There.
I've said it.

@Dexter I absolutely CANNOT tolerate feeling nauseous. The instant I feel it coming on I'll usually make myself sick to get rid of it. Always feel loads better!

But Chaz you are assuming that people are making up but you don't know that, and I don't think you can really tell who is and who isnt. From the outside I think lots of people might think I make it up (my parents definitely did). If I do tell people they often look at me like I am making it up, or like i an just get over it but I'm not going to talk to people about the details because a)it's embarrassing and b) it would get very very boring very quickly. I know that I am really really weird in the ways I deal with it and I don't really want anyone to know that I'm doing x because I'm scared I'll be sick etc. So I'm general no one really knows how consuming it is or all the things I do.

"I think MN has more than its fair share of anxiety ridden posters with autistic children. There. I've said it."

But isn't that because they're stuck in the house more than your average person? People without anxiety issues are out doing the shit us anxious ones are scared to get out and do. So we all gather online instead.

But isn't that because they're stuck in the house more than your average person?

I'm not sure. There are a bazillion threads here where simple straightforward human interactions seem to become mired in complications because the poster has anxiety. Or they think they have. I am not speaking about diagnosed anxiety disorders by the way. Just self-diagnosed ones.

OP and all others laughing at emetophobes. Go spend a day with one. You'll fully understand that it's so much more than just "not liking to v". And to the poster who said emteophobia is about other people being sick- 🙄. Um, maybe for you. For me it's about me being sick AND others.

I think there are more people talking about it here than would talk about it in real life. Lots of us turn to the internet for problems we wouldn't talk about even with close friends.

I have it, am in my early 50s and had it since I was a child, so don't fit into the magic 15-29 category. It's one of the reasons I don't have children. Have had countless panic attacks from seeing others vomit, terrified of being out at night in case I encounter a vomiting drunk, scared of hospitals, I jumped out of a moving vehicle when my brother was car sick, and am horribly anxious if I am nauseous. I would do anything to avoid it in myself or others. I can't imagine being able to get through the kind of therapy where you are exposed to it. But yes, go ahead and label it as jumping on the bandwagon if it makes you feel superior, op.

My only other phobia is wasps, because although not allergic, I swell up massively if I'm stung - my whole arm has swollen from a sting on the hand.

I do have anxiety and depression (diagnosed by and still treated by a psychiatrist, so yes, that's real too) due to childhood abuse and current poor health. I do think it's true that it's easier to get treatment these days. I was very anxious in my teens and early 20s but it would never have occurred to me to ask for medical help - I just thought I had to get on with it. I had counselling at uni but even though I was in a pretty bad way I was never offered meds.

@Blushah I have had agoraphobia and social anxiety previously. Didnt leave the house for just under 12 months at one stage and also dropped out of uni after 4 years as a result. Fortunately I had a fantastic GP and amazing counselling via my university and good therapy (exposure therapy again) and I am so, so far away from who and what I was then (to the point where I was going to become a police officer last year until a medical condition was identified just as I was accepted, I can literally handle anything and am incredibly resilient now).

I'm also terrified of spiders but even that has got significantly better over the last few years.

@twoheaped can I ask which daily you take? I'm on my 18th different one!!

Being emetaphobic does not simply mean you don't like being sick! I go to pieces, have a panic attack, fall apart at the thought of anyone being sick in my vicinity, or at the thought of me being sick. It's a phobia, not a dislike. Don't judge things you don't understand. Would you expect someone with agoraphobia to go outside? Educate yourself before you make such sweeping statements please.

I've had the phobia for 46 years, way before mn. I dont touch door handles in case of germs, I only eat certain foods, I don't eat out very often and then only in certain places, I don't stay in hotels , I stay away from small children, I've left jobs because of a bug going round the office, and I wouldn't entertain the idea of chemotherapy if needed - I'd rather die.

To the hcp saying they've never met one, you have, we just don't discuss it with you unless absolutely necessary.

Let me tell you, it ruins your life.

I'm emetophobic & the only thing I can remember that started it was when my mum was pregnant with my brother, I was nearly six, I can remember going & getting in bed with my mum & dad one Sunday morning & my mum shooting out of bed to be sick.

I can talk myself out of being sick & can't really cope with anyone else being sick, last year my son caught Norovirus & I didn't eat for the five days he was being sick, I wouldn't let him touch me & every time he was sick, I bleached the whole bathroom. I can't even watch anyone being sick on television, the thought of it makes me shake & sweat.