To wonder why more people are not emetophobic?

[EmetophobicElle]

I'm severely emetophobic to the extent that it affects all areas of my life. I'm phobic of being being sick, seeing anyone be sick, (this means I avoid lots of situations where someone may be sick - e.g. the cinema, theatre, restaurants, supermarkets, theme parks), seeing vomit (or vomit-like substances), catching Norovirus/stomach bugs (so have lots of cleaning compulsions and extensive avoidance etc). I know I need to get better from this and I'm having CBT at the moment.

However I was watching Last Leg last night where Josh Widdicombe was saying he's just recovered from a really nasty stomach bug and that it was awful etc. and I just wondered why are more people not phobic of vomiting and sickness bugs?

@giggly, It is treatable but it's a difficult phobia to treat because graduated 'Exposure and Response Prevention' in CBT is a bit less straightforward for Emetophobia than it is for some other phobias. For example if your greatest phobic fear is of vomiting with Norovirus you cannot expose yourself to that without becoming ill and actually people who make themselves sick with Ipecac (or any other Emetic) actually tend to find it reinforces their phobia of it. So I've completed ERP for Emetophobia several times (e.g worked up to watching clips of people vomiting, listening to sounds of vomiting etc.) but it hasn't really helped. Whereas exposure to someone's ultimate fear in Arachnophobia (e.g. a tarantula) is actually quite straightforward to administer after working along a hierarchy of phobic stimuli (e.g. working through from a picture of a spider, to holding a plastic spider, to sitting next to someone holding a spider).

I've also had EMDR and didn't find it helpful unfortunately.

Like I've said I needed hospital treatment for it whereas graduated exposure therapy over the course of six sessions would almost definitely work first time for a button phobia.

No offence, and I really do sympathise, but this is nonsense. You should read the post somewhere above about the trap of falling into thinking that other phobies are somehow easier. I had a phobia of blood, and I can tell you it was just as all-consuming as emetophobia. No phobias are easy, becauser the whole thing about them is that they are irrational and that the mind starts thinking that the subject of them could be encountered anywhere and everywhere, and it starts an ever more restrictive limiting of where you can go and what you can do. Ultimately, all phobias are an over the top response. Is blood as dangerous as I feared it to be - not at all. Is being sick as bad as you fear it to be - not at all. Are buttons, clowns, heights, etc as bad as they are feared to be - not at all. The first step in addressing them is to realise that the response one is having to them is irrational and not at all sensible, protective or logical.

Definitely not phobic to puking. It comes on handy sometimes when something isn't agreeing with you. Just get rid of it.

Wasps however. They sense fear those fuckers. I don't get how anyone can ignore on flying around their heads me.

@lljkk

literally every food could be covered in food poisoning bacteria and literally every surface/object might have viral particles on it that could cause vomiting.

Our immune systems cope. In spite of the world being covered with germs, many of us carrying germs most of the time (not just sick bugs, every sort of germ) -- most of our immune systems prevent illness an overwhelmingly % of the time.

Beware of saying "my situation is special". I heard this from a friend yesterday and she was wrong about her situation. Even the example OP gave about buttons some people with buttons don't even like to see buttons on other folk how easy is that to live with?

I can't help but wonder if people with phobias don't believe at a very primitive (subconscious) level that their phobia is actually protective, that they need the phobia to be safe. That other people are unsafe by not having the phobia. Are these beliefs the very deep roots of a phobia?

So much this.

And yes, when I was phobic about blood, I thought that I was being sensible in the things I did. I knew I was overly anxious, but who wouldn't do the things I did to avoid blood? Well, turns out I was wrong, just like you say!

I'm sure there are people with extreme phobias that literally mean they struggle to leave the house too but for example arachnophobia doesn't usually lead to people being housebound or being unable to engage in most normal activities.

It depends how they experience it, surely. There could be a spider literally anywhere, in your car, on a bus, park bench, in your office, even in your house. It depends where you live, but I see people vomiting in public maybe 1-2 times a decade, I see spiders 2-3 times a week.

What I meant was that as nearly everyone finds vomiting very unpleasant, why are more people not afraid of vomiting/sickness bugs

I suppose I see it like getting a bad cold, flu (now add covid to that list). It happens all the time especially if you have young kids and the “price” of avoiding illnesses is far too high - it would be a question of not having children in schools, not taking public transport, avoiding crowded places I might enjoy going to. I’ll take my 5 or 6 colds a year, odd sickness bug, sinus infection etc happily if it means I can live.

I don’t ever remember feeling “like death” with a sickness bug either and they don’t last that long.

One of my DC broke their arm in the last year. It wasn’t fun for any of us but I won’t stop them running, jumping, playing sports at school etc in case it happens again.

@Throckmorton

Like I've said I needed hospital treatment for it whereas graduated exposure therapy over the course of six sessions would almost definitely work first time for a button phobia.

No offence, and I really do sympathise, but this is nonsense. You should read the post somewhere above about the trap of falling into thinking that other phobies are somehow easier. I had a phobia of blood, and I can tell you it was just as all-consuming as emetophobia. No phobias are easy, becauser the whole thing about them is that they are irrational and that the mind starts thinking that the subject of them could be encountered anywhere and everywhere, and it starts an ever more restrictive limiting of where you can go and what you can do. Ultimately, all phobias are an over the top response. Is blood as dangerous as I feared it to be - not at all. Is being sick as bad as you fear it to be - not at all. Are buttons, clowns, heights, etc as bad as they are feared to be - not at all. The first step in addressing them is to realise that the response one is having to them is irrational and not at all sensible, protective or logical.

I can totally imagine a phobia of blood being like a phobia of vomit/ing. I have OCD and people fearing blood is very common in OCD too (although usually with a fear of diseases in the blood rather than just of blood itself). I'm not saying phobias cannot be as difficult as emetophobia but quite a few are more specific than Emetophobia/blood phobia and result in less extensive avoidance/compulsions.

It depends how they experience it, surely. There could be a spider literally anywhere, in your car, on a bus, park bench, in your office, even in your house. It depends where you live, but I see people vomiting in public maybe 1-2 times a decade, I see spiders 2-3 times a week

This is true. I genuinely can’t remember ever seeing anyone vomit in public, and I’ve had maybe 3 sickness bugs in my adult life. Vomiting, or being exposed to vomit, is actually a very rare occurrence. And I don’t take any steps to avoid it bar the usual hygiene like hand washing.
There are other phobias where the subject of the phobia is far more prevalent and therefore more difficult to avoid.

If everyone had an irrational fear of vomit then who would work in hospitals or vets surgeries? Assuming you are close to useless in the event of a child or vulnerable person vomiting, then it's just as well it is not a common problem. Phobias generally are not helpful to society.

It's not the subject of the phobia that determines the level of avoidance though - it's the degree to which you are phobic. Some people with emetophobia for example will avoid fewer things/places than some people with a fear of buttons. Ie phobias are not logical - it's the degree to which you are ill with that phobia which determines how much they affect your life.

When ds suffered from this it’s was severe anxiety that manifested in fear of others being sick it’s like you hook on to something unconsciously

Really he wanted to be at home where he felt safe and wanted me there

We worked through it confronted it (wasn’t easy and heartbreaking at times I had to be very bounderied with him constantly talking him through things ) and life moved on thankfully it rarely comes up in conversation occasionally when he gets into a car with a new friend he will ask so they get car sick. Then he tells himself it will be fine if they are sick it can be cleaned up

It’s awful. Op is it worse when you are anxious ?

It just doesn’t bother me, like at all.
I’m a nurse though so it’s my job!

Assuming you are close to useless in the event of a child or vulnerable person vomiting, then it's just as well it is not a common problem. Phobias generally are not helpful to society

I know I’ll get absolutely flamed for this but just being honest…
I’ve seen a lot of threads on here in the past where emetophobics have said their child is vomiting and they’re petrified that they’re going to catch it and vomit too so they’re hiding in another room etc. There never seems to be any concern for the poor kid who is actually ill, just worry that it might happen to them.

What makes you think there's a high chance of seeing someone being sick at the cinema or restaurant, why those places specifically? I've never see anyone be sick in those places. Even at a theme park there's a fairly high chance you won't see someone being sick.

Apart from my children I've rarely seen anyone being sick since going on drunken nights out in my 20s. Walking past piles of puke outside the pubs in town really does turn my stomach but I don't think anyone really likes seeing that sort of thing. It must be awful having an actual phobia but I'm interested in why you avoid certain places when in reality someone could throw up anywhere.

@NeverDropYourMooncup

Emetophobia is very much a condition of privilege. It's because we are safer that it can become seen as a threat to the comfort of our lives - the people who are emetophobic here really wouldn't be worrying about feeling a bit sick if Ebola was running rampant across the Home Counties or there were militias staging raids just outside Bournemouth town centre.

This surely applies to anxiety in all its forms? The natural human tendency to be vigilant for threats, which would have served our ancestors well, is now no longer so necessary for our survival (in our comfortable Western lifestyles at least), so in some people it finds a new, maladaptive outlet in some form of anxiety.

@Briony123 If everyone had an irrational fear of vomit then who would work in hospitals or vets surgeries? Assuming you are close to useless in the event of a child or vulnerable person vomiting, then it's just as well it is not a common problem. Phobias generally are not helpful to society.

I am an HCP. When a patient is vomiting, my outward professionalism takes over and I am completely capable of helping them and dealing with the practicalities. However, if I know the vomiting has an infectious cause then internally I will be panicking (and this will continue for at least 48hrs as I monitor myself for any symptoms) - I'm just very good at masking that.

[quote thalassa00]@NeverDropYourMooncup

Emetophobia is very much a condition of privilege. It's because we are safer that it can become seen as a threat to the comfort of our lives - the people who are emetophobic here really wouldn't be worrying about feeling a bit sick if Ebola was running rampant across the Home Counties or there were militias staging raids just outside Bournemouth town centre.

This surely applies to anxiety in all its forms? The natural human tendency to be vigilant for threats, which would have served our ancestors well, is now no longer so necessary for our survival (in our comfortable Western lifestyles at least), so in some people it finds a new, maladaptive outlet in some form of anxiety.[/quote]
I don't think that's true any more than Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia or suicidal Clinical Depression being disorders of privilege- all of them are slightly more rare in developing countries, in fact suicide rates are really low in lots of places. They're still significant problems. I'm not sure that Emetophobia even is that rare in those situations and OCD certainly exists in those environments too.

Emetophobics will often say they would rather die than be sick, so I think they would be just as terrified if there was ebola or WW3.
So you're wrong.

@Alwayswonderedwhy

What makes you think there's a high chance of seeing someone being sick at the cinema or restaurant, why those places specifically? I've never see anyone be sick in those places. Even at a theme park there's a fairly high chance you won't see someone being sick.

Apart from my children I've rarely seen anyone being sick since going on drunken nights out in my 20s. Walking past piles of puke outside the pubs in town really does turn my stomach but I don't think anyone really likes seeing that sort of thing. It must be awful having an actual phobia but I'm interested in why you avoid certain places when in reality someone could throw up anywhere.

Maybe I've been unlucky with seeing people vomit in a range of situations- I've seen a person puke in the cinema, in a lecture theatre, at a play/in the theatre, in a random bin at side of a road in the middle of the day, on the side of the motorway where they stopped suddenly, down the side of a car window, in a service station car park. Alternatively my phobia might just cause an attentional bias that makes me notice these things. I avoid a huge range of situations because of it (so now car parks, supermarkets, cinemas, GP practice etc. and obviously need to stop doing so to get my life back.

@AliceAbsolum

Emetophobics will often say they would rather die than be sick, so I think they would be just as terrified if there was ebola or WW3. So you're wrong.

Yes, in fact I would be even more terrified if it was Ebola partly because it involves vomiting. My logical brain knows that the real problem would be that it's a Haemorrhagic fever and that I would probably die a horrible death from it (or worse still family members would) but my primitive limbic system is just as terrified of the vomit/ing aspect!

@Yellowleadbetter

It just doesn’t bother me, like at all. I’m a nurse though so it’s my job!

That's great. If you had been exposed to Norovirus (which I imagine has happened a few times?) do you worry at all about that?

@EmetophobicElle I don't think that's true any more than Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia or suicidal Clinical Depression being disorders of privilege- all of them are slightly more rare in developing countries, in fact suicide rates are really low in lots of places. They're still significant problems. I'm not sure that Emetophobia even is that rare in those situations and OCD certainly exists in those environments too.

It also felt to me (as a fellow sufferer) that singling emetophobia out a "disease of privilege" was just adding a fabulous dollop of guilt and condescension on top of everything else

Urgh app quote fail, sorry @EmetophobicElle that top para is your words

@Whattodoniw

You have my sympathy. I have it too. Badly. I have other mental health issues as well and in general have pretty poor mental health and can't work due to it.

No advice other than huge hugs from me to you 💕

Aw thanks- hugs to you too Whattodoniw, it's a horrible condition!

No.
I am exposed to a million different bugs every time I go on shift.
If I got it I’d deal with it like I deal with any other transient infection.