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 'emetophobia' has resulted in the following since age around 4:
Not pursuing my chosen career
Trips and holidays marred by constant fear
Constantly trying to control my life to avoid anything I think may involve even a small chance of being sick/seeing sick
Unable to look after my sick children in the way I want to
By limiting what I do, ultimately limiting what my dh and dcs do
Trying a variety of therapies
Living in a constant state of alert and worry because it is impossible to be 100% sure of avoiding vomit.
I could go on..............

How the fuck do you know people are sticking labels on themselves PolkerrisBeach? What proof do you have, why are you so keen to belittle people's experience?

Have you seen that it is one of the most common phobias? Yes, one of the most common diagnosed phobias. So there will be many hundreds of genuine emetophobes on a vast site like Mumsnet.

Why would anyone want to be an emetophobe? If you have to fight the urge to run away when someone is being sick (including your own children) then you are an emetophobe. The fear causes adrenaline to flood into your system and a fight or flight reaction is the result. Classic phobia.

I have severe emetephobia.

I have had it since aged seven.

It controls my life and I spend hours worrying about it.

Trust me OP, it isn’t just a dislike.

It’s terrifying and debilitating and downright nasty.

I could become agoraphobic in an instant but I try to get out every day.

I work remotely.
I don’t go in supermarkets
I avoid certain foods and have a limited diet
I wash my hands and clean my home scrupulously and meticulously and waayy too much
I avoid public transport
I avoid public toilets
I don’t have visitors ( unless I know them exceptionally well and can question them on whether they have been unwell recently)
I won’t go out when it’s raining
I won’t go wait in the GP surgery waiting room ( my GP comes and finds me outside once I’ve checked in)
I hate winter and religiously check the internet for outbreaks

Just thinking about it makes me panicky so I will leave it there

gnarlington

I feel exactly the same and can relate to everything you are saying.

to you

@Itchytights thank you, for you too. Xx

I'm an emetophobe and here are a few ways it effects my life

• no holidays or long journey trips with the kids (my middle DC gets travel sick)
• I have never used public transport at night (drunk people = sickness)
• bleach the whole house from too to bottom as soon as anyone we know even mentions feeling sick (light switches, kettle, iron, door bell.... everything that has been touched gets bleached. I'm not too overzealous about the bleach without anyone being ill)
• I ask to swap seats on planes if I'm near children (Kids more likely to be travel sick)
• I have and will never travel by boat or coach due to high chance someone will puke
• make my DP take time off work if the kids get a sickness bug
• have never been to a&e with my kids [a few separate times they've needed to go] due to high chance someone will be sick.
• went to stay with my parents when DP got a sickness bug x2 in a decade
• hate being in any kind if confined space incase someone is sick and I can't leave.

I am on high alert as soon as someone mentions feeling sick. It spikes a horrible anxiety in me.

No-one likes vomit. I would trample over my own kids to get away from someone being sick

I too wait outside the GP surgery. Cannot chance someone being sick in the waiting room.

Discharged myself early after DC1 as the women in next cubicle said she felt sick.

Yanbu. Seems like everyone is one!

I am not sure if it has just become a term to be bandied about like when people say ‘I am so OCD’ etc. When in reality they are nothing of the sort.

However people do live with OCD and people do live with emetophobia.

I have emetophobia and it is has a profound effect on every day life. It isn’t just being sick it’s other people being sick too. I am over thirty and below is some of the fall out.

I have never drunk alcohol nor will I be near anyone who is / has done so.

I have never been on any kind of public transport so can’t go on holiday abroad.

I have never been to the dentist as I fear having somebody rooting around in my mouth will make me sick.

As a child I refused to go to school / out to play with other children in case they were sick.

I won’t go in public toilets even if I am desperate.

I will never get pregnant in case I have morning sickness

I have never held a baby in case they vomit

I won’t go to restaurants and stick to a list of ‘safe foods’

I haven’t been to the gp since childhood

Films / TV have to be watched by someone else first in case someone is sick in them so that part can be fast forwarded whilst I close my eyes

There are a load more but you get the gist! I considered therapy as I became virtually housebound at one point but as soon as I found out the treatment is aversion based I obviously couldn’t do it!

9am train

Very flippant comment there.

Unless you suffer from Emetophobia you have no idea how debilitating it actually is.

I am under GP care as well as a psychiatrist due to the extent of my phobia and how it has such an impact on my life and my family.
I have been diagnosed with depression and OCD and the roots of which this stems from is my phobia.

Please don’t generalise and make such flippant comments. I find them offensive.

I wasn't disregarding the existence of the condition, nor downplaying the severity of it. I was merely agreeing that there is an abundance of people claiming to have it particularly on this website. I wasn't debating how many of them are genuine or not, only that there are a lot. It's likely that not all of them are genuine though...

I don't need to suffer from something myself to be able make observations based on what I see. You don't need to tell me your medical history.

And my previous comment was in no way a generalisation. That's not what a generalisation is...

Was more of an exaggeration, as obviously not everyone is one!

I was just pointing out that I was offended by your post.

It was flippant.

I wasn’t giving you my medical history either - I would not disclose such details on MN. I was merely pointing out to you the extent of which this phobia extends and it has given me depression and OCD.

If you have a real condition then those posts don’t really apply to you, do they?

I have similar to @Lauren83. I'm now 40 and have been sick 3 times in my life. Twice when I was under 10 and once when I was a teenager from too much booze. But the thought of it terrifies me. It almost put me off having children. But I did. My boy is 1. I just about dealt with the milk 'sick' because it was fresh and didn't smell or look like sick. But I don't know how I'll deal with it when he pukes up real food or gets a tummy bug. It really scares me.

I think yabu. I have emetophobia. Every time I am sick, I shake and cry. My worst nightmare is vomiting without someone with me.

I don't like being sick. I will be wary where I eat shellfish and am paranoid about off milk. It's a normal dislike with sensible precautions taken.

My DP seriously contemplated but a hernia and a hip replacement operation under local anesthetic because he was sick once coming round from a general anesthetic.

Big difference between the two.

I have suffered from it my whole life. In my teens I only ate certain things and was terrified that all other food would make me sick. I refused to eat out, hated travelling with other people, threw sickies every time there was a bug going round etc.

I was diagnosed with cancer a few years ago and initially refused to have chemo as was more terrified of being sick than I was of dying. My oncologist gave me the strongest antisickness meds and swore to me that I wouldn't throw up. So I did have my treatment in the end. And I wasn't sick. But I was still scared that anyone else in the cancer ward could throw up at any time.

I think the sudden 'skyrocket' in the prevalence of these conditions has less to do with actual reality, and more to do with people falsely diagnosing themselves at home, because the official label sounds more credible than "I really hate being sick" or "I can't stand the sound of chewing gum" or "I like my home to be ordered and tidy"

Emetophobia, Misophonia and OCD are awful, debilitating conditions. They are mental health issues, to be assessed and diagnosed by qualified psychiatric professionals. Not a catch-all way to emphasise just how strongly you don't like something.

"Emetophobia, Misophonia and OCD are awful, debilitating conditions. They are mental health issues, to be assessed and diagnosed by qualified psychiatric professionals. Not a catch-all way to emphasise just how strongly you don't like something."

You are just boringly repeating what has been said on the thread several times already. I don't think there is a skyrocketing of diagnosis of emetophobia because it really is quite easy to tell the difference between someone who is phobic about something and someone who just doesn't like something, as the many testimonies on this thread should illustrate.

There are lots of emetophobes on Mumsnet because there are lots of emetophobes full stop.

My husband came to bed last night telling me he felt sick and I couldn’t sleep all night because I was listening for signs that he might be sick. I just laid there, watching him sleep. Totally irrational, but i’vE been terrified of being around sick people all my life.

If anyone I know has had a stomach bug I will starve myself for 24 hours in case I get it, so I have nothing to bring up.
I have sick bowls under all the beds in my house.
I regularly have to use hand gel if out in public.
Everyone has to wash their hands as soon as they get home.
I don't like to go near/touch anything that anyone has touched if they have had a bug, even of they are 48 hours clear.
It affects huge parts of my life, and just typing this has made me feel ill!

I like being sick.

I posted on this thread on Saturday. After I'd posted I went to the hair dresser who announced, very casually, that she'd been up all night as her daughter had been throwing up.

I just felt so awful for the rest of the hair cut and tried to hold my breath and not touch anything. I bleached my hands when I got home.

It's not fun.

I was an emtophobe, I became reclusive because the phobia was so bad I wouldn't leave the safety of my home and the phobia ruled my life. I couldn't even listen to news broadcasts stating the figures of Norovirus in the community because I fixated on it so much and it terrified me. Several years down the line and after treatment I am no longer phobic, I don't relish the idea of vomiting but it doesn't affect me like it used to, I no longer lock myself away at the merest mention of the word 'bug'.