I think my child may be emetophobic - how do I organise therapy/counselling?

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He is very anxious and has aversion to certain foods. Also is worrying all the time about being sick and feeling nauseous. Do I just do a self referral to cahms? Is the waiting list likely to be eg a year long?

I could organise private counselling but I would worry if they were the right kind of counsellor with the right kind of qualifications

Definitely get a referral to CAMHS and in the meantime if you can afford it seek a CBT therapist or clinical psychologist privately.

How old is your son?

My daughter suffered from emetaphobia a few years back, she would have been 9 at the time.
She didn't meet the criteria for CAMHs ( and the waiting list in this area would have been over 18 months for therapy even if she had been eligible).
I paid for private sessions instead with psychotherapist, and she completed some EMDR sessions with her. Sessions were £70 per hour but worth it and she only needed a few. She's 13 now and doing great.

Look up ARFID

and www.felixeconomakis.com/

Lots of fb communities of parents

He is 10.

Very much doubt CAMHS will be able to help. I’d research private options, but I’m afraid I don’t know what type of therapist would be most appropriate

Arfid symptoms seem to fit quite well. Hadn’t heard of that

As an adult and ARFID recoverer, there is hope I promise!

I had this as a child and young teen. I grew out of the anxiety and fear of sickness and vomiting. It’s just one of those things. Can you reassure your child when someone is sick? Just explain it’s the body’s way to get rid of something.

Have a look at ARFID. Definitely get a referral to CAMHS, I’m not sure they’ll do anything but its worth a go. Has he recently been ill/vomited? If you can afford it, look into CBT.

Yes this flares up every time he has some sort of sickness bug it takes him ages to recover afterwards. I have been reading up on it and the advice seems to be not to reassure them that they won’t be sick as that does t help. But to tell them that yes they may be sick but if they are everything will be ok and it’s nothing to fear. So trying this for a while

My dd (11) has emetophobia and anxiety. She's getting help from Camh after a referral from school.

Centre33 might also be worth looking at. Definitely try as many avenues as you can (including GP) as there is help out there. Good luck and I hope things improve.

CBT therapist if it seems like emetophobia/health anxiety, clinical psychologist if there are also arfid symptoms present.

Camhs referrals can be sought through gp but if you can go private I really would - CAMHS waitlist are v v long and he may not meet their severity criteria

can I ask how your son is doing? Did you seek any help? I’m pretty sure my 10 year old son is developing Emetophobia. He had a sickness bug back in June and since then has had tummy aches and nausea on and off. We’ve seen the gp and he’s had some blood tests which are ok (slight raise in b12). It’s getting worse and we’ve now figured out it’s likely to be anxiety based. He’s so terrified of getting sick that he’s now avoiding lots of things that he associates with getting ill or where there is a chance he could ill including eating out, eating certain foods, going to a friends house, swimming, anywhere he may get hot. It’s got so bad he doesn’t want to go to school or leave the house. I don’t know what to do.

Hi, I am so sorry to hear your son is not feeling well. My ds is doing much better now thankfully. We didn’t speak to a psychologist as I really struggled to decide which was the right one to use.
it is really hard because like your ds it all started with a stomach bug so it’s difficult to work out where physical symptoms start and end. But obviously even if it is being brought on psychologically they are still real symptoms to the child. They do genuinely feel unwell.
I did hear of another child (a friend of a friend) who had a similar experience to my ds so I am not sure if there is a bug around which does cause inflammation in the stomach lining which takes a long time to settle. Certainly it could be worth asking for a referral to gastroenterologist just to confirm everything is fine physically.

I researched it a bit myself and from what I read it can be a very difficult phobia to treat as normally treatment to a phobia involves exposure to the thing you are phobic about. But with emetophobia you can’t expose them to sickness. The key is to try and not let them constantly avoid things they are frightened of doing that they associate with sickness. But it has to do be done slowly obviously. Small steps. Also not to reassure them that they won’t be sick as that actually can make it worse. We can’t guarantee them they won’t be sick and keeping asking us to reassure them just feeds their fear. You have to instead say, well it’s unlikely you will be sick but you may be one day as it happens to all of us sometimes. and if you are you will be ok. Teachers will look after you, parents will be there we will sort it out etc etc. it is difficult to juggle the balance though. There was a few times when he was invited to party/sleepover that we knew would be too difficult for him and we made a convenient reason why he couldn’t go rather than tell him that we thought it would be too much for him.
I am just typing this all out in my phone just now. I will have a re read later and see if I can think of anything else

Thank you for replying. So pleased to hear things have got better for your ds. All of your advice fits with what I have read and think it’s small steps with lots of reassurances. At least we are aware what is going on and can hopefully intervene before it really takes a hold. It’s just heartbreaking to see him so upset and also to miss out on things but you’ve reassured me that we can do this. The school are really supportive and he made it through the day today which we didn’t think would happen.

I always felt he did better in the company of his friends as it helped take his mind off everything. It’s the thought of going to school rather than actually being there. Hopefully that will be the case for your ds too. Going for a walk around the block to get fresh air tended to help sometimes and nibbling on crackers. I hope things begin to improve for you both