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Vomit phobia

153 replies

Lauren2105 · 09/05/2006 14:40

I am not sure if this is the correct place to post this thread but maybe someone will have some idea!

Basically, since I was 15 I have had a phobia of sick. Sounds really stupid as noone likes sick of course but I am soooo scared of it!

I have had homeopathy medicine and hypnotherapy treatment to try and overcome this horrid phobia but they didn't work.

My husband and I are starting ttc in the very near future and I went to my doctor for a checkup etc and inform him of ttc. I also mentioned my phobia and said that I am worried regarding morning sickness and when kids are ill. He said that he will send me for some counselling when I actually fall pregnant.

I am fine with baby sick as looks just like milk but am worried re morning sickness during pregnancy and when kids are older. I couldn't bear to think of me leaving my kids throwing up - what an awful mum I would be!!

Does anyone have any ideas of what I could do now and if anyone has a similar phobia I would be so grateful for some advice.

Similarly if anyone knows if there is a better place to post this thread please tell me!

Thanks for listening and hopefully understanding.

Blush
OP posts:
DumbledoresGirl · 10/05/2006 15:42

I don't know as such martian. I just know I am 41 years old and I haven't been sick with a tummy bug since I was 9 years old. If I get a bug, I can feel sick but I would never go and be sick to relieve the feeling as I know non-emetophobes might do. I would rather feel sick for days than actually be sick. I don't know if that means I am the same as Hausfrau. Anyway, if I get a bug, I find it comes out the other end.

I also kind of know/believe that I have a strong stomach in that I am not sick easily. I base this on my mother saying I was rarely sick as a child, and again on the fact that I have not been sick with a bug for 32 years.

I wouldn't say I was ac sonfident as hausfrau about not catching bugs. I fear it when anyone around me has a bug, but only then, not in everyday life. I am not an obsessive hand washer for instance, and I can eat out in restaurants.

On the other hand, I do fear my children getting ill every single day of the year. I don't know why that rules me more than a fear of getting ill myself, but it just does.

clairemow · 10/05/2006 16:10

Can't believe I am meant to be working, but keep looking on this thread - it is so interesting, and so good to know I'm not alone! Perhaps we could hire a hall for some mass group therapy (just so long as the method wasn't one involving facing your fear head-on...).

crazydazy · 10/05/2006 16:17

Oooh no, couldn't do that. I am like you DG in the fact that it worries that my kids will be ill more than anything, I think its the fact that you know they RELY on you to make them feel better and how can anyone rely on an emetophobe if they feel sick?

But I am not as bad as others thank god, I am not obsessive, I am careful and I do worry about cooking food properly.

How do you lot cope going abroad, do you go? This scares me a lot but I still go because I love going, would be better if the kids didn't go, I might enjoy it then Grin

DumbledoresGirl · 10/05/2006 16:33

When I had the money Crazydazy (!) I went abroad with no worries although I will never go to Egypt or India or places like that because sadly I just associate them with stomach bugs. Also, I wouldn't want to take the children to hot countries because I would worry about sunstroke. But since we have no money to go abroad, at the moment it isn't an issue!

crazydazy · 10/05/2006 16:59

Its not so much the sunstroke as I always insist they wear sun hats and smother them in suncream but I just worry about what they eat, I tend to go to the supermarkets abroad and buy tinned soup, beans, hot dogs etc and feed the kids them, when we go out for a meal I tend to buy them pizza or chips, not very healthy I know but I think they are fairly "safe foods" for the kids to eat, don't let them eat burgers or anything.

mumtochloe · 10/05/2006 17:06

I am another one with this crippling phobia and Martians story echos mine. Selfish as it is I am petrified of myself being sick and am only ok with DD being ill if it is 100% guranteed not to be catchy. I also will not eat anywhere else other than home unless I am eating "safe foods"

If this helps anyone, another mumsnetter told me on another post that she got anti emetic (anti sickness)tablets called Stemetil from her doctor for whenever she felt sick. My doctor was also willing to prescribe them and now I feel so much better just knowing I have them on me at all times. I also genuinely believe they have "saved me" from being sick at least once.

Big hugs to anyone like me - this phobia really does destroy lives

Hausfrau · 10/05/2006 17:17

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

sunchowder · 10/05/2006 17:37

I didn't even know there was a word for this. I feel like throwing up just reading the thread. My fear is really deep seated too. I just hate to throw up, it hurts and its horrible. My DH doesn't mind being ill at all nor do my children. I don't mind when they get sick other than constantly washing my hands, burning candles and opening windows for fear of getting their bug.

snuffy143 · 10/05/2006 17:38

Mumtochloe - I have 'buccastem' - same active ingredient as 'stemetil' - and they have stopped me being sick several times. Yay! You don't even need to get them prescribed as they are an over the counter medication.

Hausfrau · 10/05/2006 17:39

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

clairemow · 10/05/2006 17:40

I've had sunstroke too, on a train from Berlin to Krakow, and I was sick and the other end - had to sit outside the toilet and warn everyone who looked like going in, not to under any circumstances. Horrible, horrible, horrible. But as I hate other people being sick rather than me, I'd rather it was that way round.

Reading these threads, I don't think I have this phobia as badly as some others - I will go abroad, and to hot places, been to Egypt and Peru. And eating out isn't a problem.

Sexonlegs · 10/05/2006 20:48

God, how wonderful to see I am normal! I am ok about me being sick - well ok as one can be, but it is other people. I am constantly paranoid about dd picking up sick bugs from preschool and if she complains of a tummy ache I go in to overdrive. The other week she was complaining of tummy ache, and started crying and I just knew that she was about to puke, so I passed her over to my dh! It is dreadful but I just become a wreck. I also hate drunk people for the fear that they are going to puke. xx

martian · 10/05/2006 21:46

mumtochloe, I'm so relieved you said that. I began to think I was the only one frightened mostly of being sick myself. Can I ask you what, for you, are 'safe foods'? I've never actually met anyone who has the phobia to the extent or in the way I have. I've lived my life severely underweight and permanently anxious.

blueteddy · 10/05/2006 21:57

Those tablets sound great, mumtochloe. I want some!
I have more of a phobia of actually being sick myself. I don't like it when DS's are sick, but I cope better when I know it isn't a bug.
Just before Christmas I had H wake up in the night throwing up, followed by DS1 an hour later. My Mum came round to help out & had come down with it by 4pm that afternoon, who then passed it on to my sister, BIL & Dad.
Amazingly I was the only one not to catch it (we also had 13 members of staff sick at work too) but I think it had something to do with the fact I starved myself for at least 3 days, scrubbed my hands with anti-bacterial soap constantly & went to bed with a bottle of pepto bismol every night, just in case.Blush

martian · 10/05/2006 22:00

By the way, DG, I also thought I was 'immune' to being sick. I wasn't sick for 30 years before I got pregnant. Since then I've had two tummy bugs which I've also been sick during. It still really terrifies me that I've lost that feeling of 'invulnerability', however artificial it really was. Sad

martian · 10/05/2006 22:02

blueteddy, I've got some motillium tablets which help with sickness and I carry them with me everywhere just in case. But seeing as I'm always totally empty of food and even liquid when I'm out and about, I don't really need them!

blueteddy · 10/05/2006 22:09

How did you get them? I would have thought doctors would only prescribe them if you have an almighty bad bug.

martian · 10/05/2006 23:05

blueteddy, my GP will give me anything to get rid of me I think! I also get tons of those medically approved 'build-up' drinks with full on vitamins and minerals. The closest I can get to intravenous eating. I really would survive on food tablets if they existed.

Has anyone else had problems with taking things like antibiotics? I'm so worried they'll upset my stomach I NEVER take them. I had a urinary tract infection a few weeks ago and still haven't taken the antibiotics.

Skribble · 10/05/2006 23:33

Just want to say I had this phobia too, now adays with 2 kids its not really a problem at all. Still don't like sick but who does but at least I don't have to run away like I used to.

I posted ages about this and was surpirised that it affected so many people, sometimes knowing its not just you helps.

Morning sickness, I got by with ginger biscuits and mints.
Kids, well as you say they break you in gently with baby sick, and I found it was different when I had to deal with things. I got over my phobia when I worked as a nanny as I had to deal with it until the mum got home.

Hope you can find ways to cope too Smile.

Hausfrau · 11/05/2006 10:28

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

lulupie · 11/05/2006 16:30

Hello
Wow, this thread has made me feel two things... Relief, that I'm not the only one with this debilitating phobia, and disappointment, that nobody has found a way to relieve it.
My mum always said that once I have children of my own I'd be able to deal with it, it will be different with them, but I guess that's not the case.
I don't mind being sick myself so much, but go into a complete panic attack at the very thought of anyone else doing it. Lauren, reading your first post was so weird, I had to think hard about whether I'd posted it myself- it's exactly my story, and my name's Lauren too!
I also work in London and the commute is so awful. I travel on the train now after a horrible experience on the tube, but still have to change carriages at least three times during the journey because I've suspected someone of looking ill. And as for getting on a plane- no chance!! I'm constantly aware of the fear and it's stopped me doing so many things I want to do, including having a baby.
My big worry is that if my children saw me reacting the way I do, they might develop emetaphobia themselves, and I couldn't bear to do that with them. Also- what if they were sick while we were shopping or something, and my stupid instincts made me run away from them, leaving them alone? How awful!
Has the latter ever happened to anybody? And also, does anyone notice that their children are showing similar fears?

clairemow · 11/05/2006 17:54

I haven't noticed my child having it, but he's only 2. however, my mum has it too, but maybe I got it from her because she didn't hide it. I'm going to try and hide it from DS, although that will be difficult. I haven't had to face it yet, but I'm sure it'll come...

martian · 11/05/2006 19:17

I think my mum had a mild form of emetophobia because she was always thoroughly disgusted by me or my brother being sick. I don't know if it affected us or not as my brother's fine. Because I"m not so worried about dd being sick on the one occasion she has been sick I've been totally able to handle the event itself - I can stroke her back, hold the bowl etc. But the anxiety I feel about me catching something is overwhelming.

crazydazy · 11/05/2006 21:54

My mum flatly denies she has the same phobia as me, but by reading these other threads I believe she was just scared of herself being sick, whereas I am scared of anyone and myself. I think I picked up on this as I was a very clingy child when my Dad left and hated it when my mum got ill.

My daughter is 6 and is showing signs of it, she panics when she feels sick but she hasn't been sick since she was 3 and I think it could be just a fear of the unknown, I try my best not to let them know how petrified I am but I think she kind of knows I am not comfortable ifyswim?

I don't worry that my kids will be ill when I am alone through the day as I made sure we got a house not far from our family so I always have them to run to!!! Its the nights that scare me and being alone at night with them. DP turned down a really well paid job because it involved working away, he worked for them temporarily and had to work a way twice in about 6 months, I made his life hell the night before he was due to leave, crying and begging him to stay and he felt really guilty so he turned down the job when they offered him it. I felt terrible for that but I think that was then he realised how serious this was for me, now he never leaves me and it makes me feel so much safer.

I really could ramble on all night.....Blush

Skribble · 11/05/2006 22:01

Funny I never thought about the infectious side of things it was just that I would gag at even the thought of it, I once got of a bus in the middle of nowhere as I thought someone was going to be ill, they probably just coughed Grin.

On a practical note, when traveling with kids especially in the car I would be prepared, wipes, toilet roll, poly bags etc. Always comes in handy anyway. DD is now an expert at pooing in a poly bag in the footwell, great skill to have Grin. Meant if anything happened at least I had something to deal with it, add some rubber gloves if it will help and you will be ready for anything.

When I was pregnant I carried about a tupperware box of cream crakers, my mints and a bottle of water. Just having them made me feel better I think.