Emetophobia - Support Thread

[VickyandAlistair]

I am one of the many people out there who suffers an irrational fear of vomit/vomiting. Its called Emetophobia and it can make being a mummy VERY difficult! Right now, my son is out of sorts, nothing I can put my finger on, but me being me has convinced myself that he will be sick. Emetophobia isnt where you 'just dont like' sick (who LIKES sick?!) its where the very thought of being sick/someone else being sick can send you into a panic attack. I'm interested to see how many other mums suffer this fear, and what they do to overcome it :)

Glad you managed to get some, i was the same when i first got them but now i have had them for over a year i have started to question how well they work (touch wood so far they have worked but i worry that one day they wont). My gp was very understanding when i told him how i felt. I always make sure i have the tablets in the house just incase, and it deffently helps lower the anxiety.

I think it may have been some kind of bug that dh had as i have spent the past 3o minutes on the loo, have taken my tablets but not feeling great, i think i will be shutting myself in my bedroom soon and having an early night. Dd2 didn't eat her dinner and has a high temp, i'm hoping its just a chest infection (she has a hacking cough) and not a tummy bug .

Good luck Marne, hope it's not a bug.

Ok, stupidly I have agreed to go to a friend's Birthday sailing weekend. Not only is there the sea-sickness danger to contend with, but I have to share a cabin with friends (really stressful as I hate sharing a room with others)

I will spend the weekend worrying about V bugs, (seasickness actually pales in comparison to the thought of me coming down with norovirus in the company of friends)

Marne, hopefully it's nothing and DD2 is just under the weather due to chest and nothing else :)

asdevil, wow you're braver than me! I lived on a boat for some years in my teens/early twenties, but rarely actually went sailing. Fingers crossed the weather stays nice for you all.

Thanks Hephep, i spent most the night up with dd2, with a high temp, she's still poorly today but luckily she hasn't been sick (still thinking chest infection but to scared to take her to the gp as there is a bug doing the roundss, plus she will refuse to take antibiotics anyway).

asdevil- my dad bought a boat last summer, i refuse to go on it after he told me the horrid story of my auntie being violently sea sick. I did go on the ferry to the isle of whight a few years ago and i hated it (felt sea sick), dh wants to go to france next year but i have told him i would rather drive the extra 100 miles to go on the tunnel rather than go by boat.

Why does someone posting of Facebook about being sick make me anxious? So annoying! She is a teaching assistant at my DSs' school but not class teacher but still I feel on alert. It must be a bad time of year :( Does seem to be a lot about. I hate it.

Marne I hope you are ok x

I'm ok Becky, had a bad tummy last night but am eating again now and all ok. Dd2 has perked up a little and ate her dinner (so is hopfully on the mend).

I'm the same with facebook, one of my friends said today that her 1 year old had a bug and she also felt ill, i instantly start to panic, she doesn't live in our village but near by but i panicked as i thought i was going to have to take dd2 to the gp which is in the same village (mad i know). I often hide posts on facebook if they are too detailed, i would rather not know who is sick and all the details.

Marne, glad to hear that you and DD are ok.

I hate it when people put 'norovirus' stories on FB - they always do. It really makes me a nervous wreck.

Have decided to go on the sailing weekend, and stock up on loads of anti-sickness pills, plus ear plugs, in case any of my cabin mates get seasick!

You are a lot braver than me

Just picked dd1 up from school and saw a child in the back of a car (outside school) with a bucket, am now panicking but trying to tell myself 'that its probably nothing' and 'there wont be a full d&v outbreak at school'. I was going to send dd2 back tomorrow as she's feeling a bit better but am now tempted to keep her home one more day (i dont want her getting anything else as its her birthday on thursday), i know i'm being silly but i can help feeling like this. If i had mmy way i would home school the kids so they had less chance of picking these things up . I just need to pull myself together.

I plan to homeschool DS and he doesn't go to nursery. Not primarily because of emetophobia, but there are many days I thank my lucky stars for him being at home with me.

Dd1 woke up with a high temp again this morning after being back at school yesterday, dd2 still full of cold, i am secretly pleased as i can keep them both at home away from the tummy bug. I just hope the school dont get anoyed for them having so much time off.

Yes, I love it when they are off school - especially school holidays when I can have a break from worrying about bugs. Just need to avoid germ infested soft play.

I hope everyone is ok, it feels reassuring to hear that there are people who think in the same way as me! I have had so many panicking episodes in the last few weeks, parents talking about it at the school gates etc.

I ve had many years of CBT, which may have helped a bit but I think iM going to ask my Gp about hypnotherapy.

I long for the "bug season " to be over ( well it never really is but for it to lessen a bit) and i can relax a bit!

DS's dad seems to have caught DS's horrible tummy bug :( He said he'd had the squits when I dropped DS off there this lunchtime, and by the time he dropped him back at 6.30 he was looking and feeling decidedly rough. Said he felt really nauseous so I gave him 3 of my motilium tablets and made him take one right away. Then I started worrying that when I had a vaguely dodgy tummy for a day and a half before DS got ill, that wasn't me getting it and now I will get it as well. :(
But although I got scared and started feeling ill, once I calmed myself down I felt better and had dinner as normal.

Still a bit apprehensive but feel better knowing I have the motilium. When XP is better I think I will pop to the GP on a day when Felix is with him. It would nice to have lots of tablets without worrying about the cost. I feel quite embarrassed about admitting to a medical professional just how much I'm afraid of this

Marne, can I ask; do you or anyone else here take motilium for more than 2 days in a row? As I've been reading about emets online who take it every day whatever, and on the packet it says max 48 hours.

Hi everyone, just wanted to check in here.
I have been emetaphobic since a child was sick in front of me at assembly at school when I was 6. I refused to go to school for weeks, then wouldn't go in assembly and no-one knew why at the same time I stopped eating anything with sauce or lumps and generally turned into a nightmare - my poor mum used to strain yoghurt through a sieve for her fussy DD! This went on for years, I wouldn't eat stews, curries, soups and would only put gravy on meat and not veg... Years later when I told my mum why I wouldn't eat lumps etc (my theory being the more mixed up on the way in the more likely to come out!) she was visibly relieved and couldn't believe that she hadn't connected the issues - I was in my 20's before I could really articulate it myself! I started eating pasta in my teens and Chinese food at about 25 - Indian and curries I can do but only sometimes as still getting used to it, at the age of 31!

These days I am much better with what I will eat but suffer with huge anxiety. I work in healthcare so it's hard to cope sometimes but I feel like I am stronger. I had a terrible week last week as some antibiotics I was on made me sick, it was horrid but I survived and was very proud of myself. I carried on taking them all week and have finished today, I am very relieved!

Am interested to hear about over the counter meds. I had some Buccastem (sp) prescribed a couple of years ago by the emergency doctors - when I was ill and slightly hysterical on the phone - and they were amazing! I then carried them around with me all of the time and whether it was a placebo effect or not they honestly have changed my life BUT they are now all expired and I'm embarrassed about asking for more just as a back up.

It's an awful thing but knowing I am not alone really helps me :)

ImpatientOne well done, sounds like you coped really bravely last week, that must have been so difficult but it sounds like you handled it super well :)
You should ask for more meds if you need them, it would be worth it for the peace of mind!

HepHep- i have taken it for 3 or 4 days before (when one of the dd's have had a bug), i was told i could take it for longer than 48 hours if i was anxious about catching a bug off the dd's. I get them from the gp around once a month, i take them a lot (when ever i have a tummy ache or feel a bit poorly) and i give them to dh if he feels unwell (to stop me getting anxious), i look forward to the day that i can give them to dd (i know thats sad and i really shouldn't give them to them), apparently you can not get it for children (i think they used to do a liquid form) as its so easy to overdose on it.

Both my dd's have gone back to school today, i found myself looking around the playground sussing out who was away and who looked ill (i hate myself for doing it) and gave dd1 a lecture about washing her hands after the loo and before lunch. Only 2 weeks and 2 days until easter break (i can't wait to relax a little for 2 weeks). I am also watching the weather waiting for it to warm up in hope that the bugs will go away (looks like its getting warm next week).

I hate having these thoughts in my head 24/7, i have just been shopping on my own (don't like taking the dd's as they touch everything) and i'm on constant look out for ill people or older kids that are not at school so i can keep away from them, i dread having to use a public loo (have to wash my hands very well and not touch any door handles).

More people posting on fb about their kids being ill, i think i will stay away from the internet for today, i can't take much more , i know it must be our turn soon, i hate feeling so bloody anxious .

Hope you are all ok xx

How is everyone doing? I've got a foul cold/sore throat and am feeling fed up at dealing with almost two weeks of illness of one sort or another, but have been feeling calmer as DS's last episode recedes into the past

Im still in the midst of winter vomiting virus panic, that I do from October till May every year.

I must admit this year my panic has been heightened, i think because theres so much talk of it on facebook etc.

wondering whethre its worth asking my Gp for help, again!! but ?

It's surely worth asking, sub. Have they been helpful in the past? Don't suffer in silence.

I had 5 years on and off of CBT!!

until the person I was seeing retired.

it must have helped because I was almost agrophobic at one point , and now I can get out etc but seems a shame to live like this with the constant anxiety. i think I will see a GP and see what they say

OK, bumping this up because I know you'll understand.

When I got up for work this morning DH told me he'd been up in the night with sickness and diarrhoea but that he felt better but knackered so he was going back to bed for a while. He indeed felt better all day, he has eaten but I haven't. I know it's stupid but I've had one banana all day and only sips of water r black coffee to drink because I am so scared of catching 'it'.

Stupid, isn't it.

halhas- hope you are ok and managed to stay bug free, i cant eat when im worried about catching a bug .

I have just got back from a birthday party, i was unsure wether to go as dd's have both had nast flu virus but i thought i better do the normal thing and take the dd's. It was at soft play (which scares me as its full of germs). When we got there it was empty so started to relax a little as it was just 11 kids at the party (dd2's class). I sat down and then my cousin (who works in the kitchen) came over, i asked her how she is (like you do) and she tells me 'she's feeling unwell and has a migrane but she couldn't go home as she has to do the food for the party as all the other kitchen staff are off with D&V', i kept calm (although in my head i was panicing as the dd's would be eating from the kitchen), i thought 'all will be ok as the dd's havn't been eating much sinse they have been ill, they ate loads , i am now worried that they will get the bug . Its the last day of school tomorrow (yay) so am keeping my fingers crossed that they have not picked anything up, by monday i should be able to relax and enjoy the holidays.

hellas no and marne I can completly sympathise.

soft plays terrify me as well, I think you did really well andd i bet your kids will be fine, Im sure they will wear gloves etc in the kitchen and I think its usually unclean hands that pass the germs on!!

I have had so many similar situations, and 99.9% of the time it all ends fine! as you say within 48 hours you can relax.