12 year old- emetophobia- so anxious

[BleachedWail]

Hi everyone

I’ve posted before about my 12 year old DD who had severe ocd and emetophobia (not eating, drinking etc) last year and was restored to her usual self with 50mg of sertraline for almost 12 months.

She has relapsed to an extent, the ocd behaviours are not back but she’s incredibly anxious about being sick at all times, which is making her feel constantly ill due to the physical impact of the stress of it all. She feels terrible and can just about cope at school with a lot of SEN support. She is miserable and frustrated and scared. To be honest we all are.

She is under Camhs- she’s had 15 weeks of cbt last year but it didn’t help, she is currently attending groping cbt at Camhs and I don’t know if this is helping or somehow ‘feeding’ the relapse as it started around the same time she was offered the group. She has an excellent Camhs psychiatrist and her medication has doubled in dose in the last couple of months…. I’m not seeng the same ‘magic’ effect as when she went on it last year.

I don’t know how to help her.

I have worked as a tutor with other children with these conditions. My experience was that it seemed to link with other stressors .
teenage years are hard in so many ways.

I did find it reached a peak in year 9 ( as do many behaviours) and then calmed a lot as they reached year 11 and beyond. One of mine ( also ASD and ADHD) wouldn’t leave the home at all and 18 months on can shop, travel for more than 30 minutes by car and wants to go to college.

Ice packs for panic attacks, cold showers keeping, foods safe and letting them have practical solutions to their worries - whilst acknowledging their fears are just that “ their fears” not reality, seems to gradually work.
Less successful I found is the message that anxiety is part of who they are rather than a behaviour they can do something about.

I acknowledge it’s bloody hard Op. I feel for the parents I work with.

Thank you, it’s good to know that it may not always be this hard, even if the next few years are

She is under Camhs- she’s had 15 weeks of cbt last year but it didn’t help, she is currently attending groping cbt at Camhs

CBT is the first-line intervention in most CAMHS, because there's a lot of RCTs supporting it (when compared to no therapy!) but it doesn't work for everyone.

If she's only 12, you have time. Check with the psychiatrist if they have child psychotherapists there. If CBT didn't work, that might. It takes a long time, but relapse is very rare because it deals with the underlying causes.

I have emetophobia since about age 10 or 11.

Its controlled my whole life to be honest, but I have been in a much better place for the last 10 or so years (im
now 39).

Things I would suggest are to not let her seek ‘reassurance’ from you or especially from groups online. This always leads to more and more reassurance when in reality no one can give it.

Encorage loads of outside physical activity, walking, running, cycling. It’s the thing that has helped me the most.

There is a good Facebook group you could join called Emetophobia (No Panic) Recovery Group. Any sort of reassurance type posting is not allowed there and it’s a nice place for people to cheer on each others recovery.

The absolute hardest thing for me is recognising and dismantling ‘safety behaviours’ and I think this is key to recovery. For example thinking something like ‘I must walk the quickest way home as this means that I will be home sooner if I am sick’. In our brains it will seem logical, but it’s dangerous and reinforces the phobia.

Never let her hide away from the actual words when she is talking about it.

Good luck, I hope she can make progress.