Emetophobia - my worst nightmare

[zonedout]

Ds1 goes to a school set on several different sites. Today one of the sites has been closed for deep cleaning due to norovirus wiping out hundreds of children this week. There are loads of siblings in ds1's building/class and 8 of his classmates were off today.

I am a single parent (really outing myself here!) and terrified of what feels completely inevitable right now. I was awake all night last night, waiting. Shall be doing the same again tonight.

You know, I feel like I have improved a lot with my emetophobia recently. I am no longer worried about the odd v. It's the awful, debilitating violence of noro that terrifies the life out of me.

The waiting is utter torture

you guys all could be me!
i avoid doctors if i can from november til may!
my dd2 was told not to play someone whose whole family succumbed to noro even though she had had the 24hr after illness before back at school

my psycologist reminds me no one likes being sickand in the beginning people would have avoided anyone being sick as a preservation thing,so its kinda inbred

i too would love to work with kids,my youngest is now in reception year at school.i went in to help out and 4 days later had 48hr feeling very sik adn sharp pain and swore i wouldnt do that again

i was no good to man nor beast as was super anxious as well as feeling like crap
as ive always had a partner who would do it

we shall sit here and support each other.offer hand holding and general comfort til this dreadful time passes again

i will always support another sufferer and you can message me anytime.x

liveinazoo I can't hug my dc if they are sick either.

BB My dd brings up phlegm in her sleep when she has a cough to, every single year without fail. I don't have any suggestions how to help apart from kavol plug ins, vicks on her feet, those pillow capsules and calpol before bed every night and a bottle of water that doesn't leak in her bed. I get up fuck knows how many times to make her sip her water to stop coughing so she doesn't vom. Tbh it does happen every winter and after that one night it seems to get better so not sure if it's better to let it happen and then it's ok ish again or do what I do and try everything to stop it.

I keep a spare duvet already with a cover on and a sheet and pillow in airing cupboard so if she does bring anything up in the night it's a boom bang everything in the washing machine bed takes 2 secs to sort out and then back to bed for you.

Well I can't hold your hand just in case LOL, but bb I'm sure it's just the end of her cold

This is my previous post on the subject and I am much better but I am mildly freaking out as DD's asthma is still playing up and despite antibiotics last week she sounds like she has a chest infection again/still. She text a while ago to say she feels rough and is coughing up rust coloured mucous. I've always been an emetophobe but mine heightened after she has a seizure as a small child that last 2.5 hours and in the ambulance on the way to hospital she went blue while they tried to insert an airway and had a respiratory arrest. I was an awful mother and just wanted them to stop the ambulance so I could get out and run home as I couldn't deal with the idea of her dying before my eyes. I know that chances are, tonight we'll end up in OOH and they'll send us to A&E and A&E at night means drunks vomiting and I'm sure noro will be there too. She'll freak as she's an emetophobe too and I'll have to battle it to stay calm. She's 22 now but it still freaks me out.

Anyway, my previous post was this....

About 3 years ago I was like you. I spent Christmas locked in my room avoiding my family. Every spare minute was spent watching the news or reading Teletext to see how Norovirus was affecting the area I lived in. Going to work was a nightmare because I worked in a school, I would focus on the children who were off sick and work myself into a frenzy trying to figure out if they had Noro and if I'd been in contact with them. I'd constantly scrutinize the behaviour of my family to see if they were sickening for something, almost every minute of my waking day was controlled by the fear of someone being sick near me. Going into shops/cinemas/schools was a real battle, I knew I couldn't let the phobia control me but I could see that slowly and surely it was dictating how I spent my day. If I knew there was an outbreak in the school I worked in or somewhere my family had been then I wouldn't eat so that I couldn't be sick. I would drink only tiny sips of boiled water. Eventually I plucked up courage to ask my GP for help and was referred for CBT, luckily my referral came through quickly.

Three years down the line I am not cured but I am much better. I can eat pork, I am more relaxed around chicken, I can eat out and I can go abroad on holiday. All of those things I couldn't do before because my phobia ruled my life. Please try to pluck up the courage to speak to someone.

BB hope you are ok, I'm sure it is just a bad cough, cold. Some children are sick when they cough a lot with a cold. Mine don't but I know others who do. I am sure if she had norovirus she'd start throwing up and keep throwing up for 12 hours or whatever it is. I know how horrible the anxiety feels. I just have this huge desire to run away from the house whenever there is a risk of sickness. It's so very hard. I think I have two fears, one is being sick, the other is not being able to look after everyone because I am being sick. So my biggest fear is not being in control perhaps.

Does anyone here know where their phobia stems from? I used to be really, really bad when I was at primary school. Absolutely terrified of anyone being sick in class or assembly and terrified for days waiting for me to get it. I used to have nightmares of not being able to escape from a room where someone was being sick. I got a bit better when I had children. But it is still there. It really annoys me. I hate it. I want to be rational!

BB
little zoo retches when snot goes dow her throat..it freaks me big time but shes a trooper and has rarely not made it to the loo if it happens

ive found dairy increaases mucous big time.ginger,lemon,garlic and thyme are all reputed to help loosen mucous so i try and make stir frys with garlic,ginger and lemon and add lots ginger and garlic to her foods.vitamin c also help so smoothiesloosen it up.while not having milk i make sure eat lots green veggies and tahini is an excellent source of calcium

prop her up well with pillows-i make what my mumcalled a pillow chairthen she lays in the middle and it stops moving around/slipping down as much as normal

olbas oil ona tissue by pillow eases any nose blocking which can lead to mucous slip down throat and cough being triggered

have i covered all those bases?

i need someone to recommend a good handcream that isnt super expensive.they are so chapped from rigorous washing

becky lack of control is a huge part of it
id rather cut my own throat than have to be sick

im scared i wont be able to look after my kids if i get ill fullstop

I use bleach on my hands to if anyone I know has a bug. I use body shop hemp handcream or the foot one which works even better to stop the skin peeling off.

becky mine comes through my mum who is a fellow sufferer and a case of my dsis who used to get car sick and once puked on me and my dad wouldn't pull over while I was hysterical. I know I hated sick before that though but it was the worst thing that has ever happened to me. I also vividly remember in assembly a girl 2 rows behind me puking everywhere and on anyone who was near (I scrambled up and tried to get out of the school).

Oh and the poster who said she'd of jumped out the ambulance I so so relate! My dd was choking and being sick and I ran out of the room while my friend jumped up turned her upside down and unlodged what she was choking on. I had to sit down where I was shaking so much and couldn't go back into the house until friends sister came to say it's all clear now.

how awful inneed
i remember my mum turning me away from aboy who was being sick in the gutterhad eaten too much chocolate from the look of it> when i was 3 and being told it was disgusting.thats my earliest memory.throguht

gah!damn screen froze and posted before i was ready!

thoguh therapy ive discovered ive hoarded every experiance i had as a child being sick as traumatic

ive remembered what the therapy is called!
EMDR-Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprogramming!

I hate facebook at the moment, friend of mine and DS2's best friend's mum talking about how sick they've been, and their DSs. So now I'm convinced that mine could come down with it tonight if they got it on Friday at school (2 day incubation). Really worried :(

my ds was sick fri night and im fretting case teh girls get it tonight

ive always avoided facebook and i dont watch the local news in teh winter.i dont need to highten my anxiety by hearing local hospital has outbreaks noro etc

sometimes ignorance is bliss!

woking?meant working

zoned are you still with us honey?

I'm terrified of getting it tonight because its my nan's funeral tomorrow. I haven't been near anyone who has it but because I have to be somewhere really important tomorrow I'm panicking ill get sick in the night which in turn makes me feel sick .

santa im so sorry for yor loss.anxiety defo makes these thoughts more urgently threatening

can you do something relaxing to try and "bring you down" a little bit?

zoo it can still give me nightmares now.

It's quite interesting about the control aspect, I hate to admit it but I have to be in control in all situations.

Hi all. Sorry for my absence today, had a really busy one out all day with the ds's. am absolutely shattered after barely sleeping due to being on vom watch the ,sat few nights combined with a busy day.

BB, how are you doing lovely? How's dd? Sorry I haven't been here to handhold. Am sure she is ok, just coldly. A doctor once told me that we tend to only have one viral load at a time so if she has a cold/flu thing it is unlikely she would have anything else.

zoo, a, so proud of how well you have done. Amazing.

I am absolutely dreading sending ds1 back to that germ factory again tomorrow. Wish I could keep him off this week

, i hate this time of year, last year was horrid, i had verious treatment, medication and we made it through the winter bug free, it was the first year we have managed to avoid it, i feel lucky but am extra worried this year as i cant see us avoiding it again. The next few weeks will be the most stressful and my main fear is being ill for christmas. I do feel a little more relaxed (have come off the meds and have a stash of anti sickness tablets in the house).

Last week a friend posted on fb about her family having 'the bug', i tried not to panic but found myself checking her status every day and worrying that she would send her kids back to school before the 48 hour guide line (her kids are not even in my dd's classes so not sure why i was so stressed about it).

I'm now counting down the days until the end of term and dreading the day dd1 comes home and says 'xxxxx was sick today' (thats when i freak out).