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

p.s does anyone mind if i take notes to show to my pychologist?hes fascinated by how we process our thoughts and the things we seem to see the same way

recent developmentswould im certain be of interest

I'm ok going out in places I know, and I'm ok with music as long as I'm not next to the speaker. I don't have any other fears apart from being to close to clift tops in cornwall with other people driving. I can see flashes in my head of us all going over. I'm fine with fireworks and balloons. I don't like being crowded but I can cope with it. I have never had a proper panic attack. My best friend has panic attacks where she believes she's going to die I don't have anyhting like that.

I do like my routine, and YY to getting depressed in the holidays. I find I get agraphobic in the holidays and hate leaving the house. Once back into the swing of things work and school I'm fine. I do need the social contact in my life.

im finding teh links between us all really interesting
i get vertigo and a strange urge when im high up to freefall

oh and whilst i cant drive i hate being in cars and being cooped up with them unable to get off straight away if it all gets to much

how is everyone at yours zoned?

still ok i hope

fingers x the school run didnt add to your anxiety today.x

Certain drivers are ok, my mum is fine, my nan is fine but short journeys only and I always have to sit in the front.

I have done the coach a few times but I have to sit in a set place and do my gratitude lists in my head with my eyes closed. I have to have carrier bags with no holes (even though I have never thrown up on a coach) travel sickness bands and anti sickness migraine tablets (that I lie to the dr saying I have migraines to be able to get them didn't realise there was over the counter stuff) and I'm ok for Bristol to London. If I didn't love London so much and coach wasn't so cheap (sometimes only a pound on the mega bus) it wouldn't happen.

I'm ok on a train but have never been on a train longer then 10minutes which I can manage.

I have had that I could just jump feeling off clift tops before now to. I live at a bottom of a hill when dd was little I used to get flashes of me letting go of the buggy and her rolling down the hill and me not getting her.

me too-theres a busy road at the bottom too

i never amitted it to anyone as i ws afraid they would think i was goin got hurt my dcs

i never leave home without a plastic bag in my pocket and some tictacs

just got everyone to bed... All ok, so far. Still really really worried because, if ds1's reports are anything to go by quite a lot of his classmates had it over the weekend but were back at school today this completely ignoring the 48hr rule and spreading it to everyone else

I do feel somewhat resigned, just don't quite see how we will escape it as its so rife and Winter hasn't even properly begun

I recognise so many of these 'quirky' character traits in myself. Zoo, the unable to get off thing is really familiar. I'm fine on buses (except for the germs!) and generally fine in cars but do struggle on the tube. I have had the odd panic attack on the tube in the past and stopped using it for a very long time. Have recently started using it again and whilst I don't enjoy it (and feel pretty tense the whole journey) I absolutely force myself to manage it.

Also hate heights, cliff tops and windy mountain roads with a passion. Jeez, when I write it all downi realise just how many 'ishoos' I have

So interesting to start to make a link with the emetophobia though. Perhaps together we will find the key to overcoming it

I chew gum and have to have a bottle of water

Cannot get on the tube (or an aeroplane for that matter) without a bottle of water and some minty chewing gum. Have to have a bottle of rescue remedy for planes to (not that I get the chance to go on the, much these days!)

the more i discover about others the less "odd" i feel

teh psychologist said i had loads little rituals

until he pointed it out i hadnt really noticed as they are things ive always done

God what a right bunch we are!

I have gum with me to, it stops all the spit in my mouth collecting which makes me think I'm gonna puke.

Zoo how are the dc today?

sleepy
the had some water at 12 and a couple crackers each
dp sat with them for an hour after work
dd1 pop head in and had a peep at them at 6-all akip
so far whats gone in has stayed in
i have been so traumatized by the sound of two being sick at once im too afraid to step foot upstairs

i will call up to them when i hear movement ,but for the time being i just cant handle it

before this ive not been able to interact well with them during periods of illness for 4-5 days adn i had hooped as i managed ds i had made some progress but it has all been too much
i havent slept,i cant eat or drink today and i mentally feel like im spiralling down a big black hole

I keep feeling I could help one or more of you.
Dont know quite how.
I am not a professional.

Zoo it sounds like they are over the worst of it and tomorrow will be bouncing off the walls. I know it's easy for me to sit here and say it but it will be fine now and you did good.

What do you mean, a million?

BB if you're out there, hope you & the dd's are ok

tbh, I am not quite sure myself.
I wonder whether fears in general can be disected and analyised and be partially overcome in that manner. By working out which particular bits are frightening and why. And trying to work on those.
Not sure if that is what happens when people have counselling, or whether counsellors approach these sorts of things in a different manner to that.

Please google the highly sensitive person I think this is what a lot of us have in common .You feel things more powerfully than others and can be easily overwhelmed. I do not think how you feel is static though I think we can feel more or less sensitive if the conditions are right.

I haven't been able to spend much time on here today because there's been a thread about Noro in the discussion of the day. Everytime I logged on there it was"Winter vomiting bug have you had it?" Or words to that effect. I only had to look at it and my stomach started doing somersaults!

I wasn't sick either when I was pregnant. I was when I had food poisoning from a Chinese takeaway when I was pg with DS1. I had to get DH home from work. DS1 suffers from Cyclical Vomiting Syndrome. He can be sick 40 times a day for a week. I can cope with that, just, because I know I won't catch it!

I have anti sickness drugs because I take opiates regularly, but if I feel sick I pop the anti emetics like smarties. I always have Polos with me because I find the settle my stomach.

Looking at things we have in common, I hate too much noise, I can't make small talk and don't have many friends. I like routines too.

Zoo, I hope your DC are on the mend now, and I am praying the rest of us don't get it!

Please somebody stop me clicking on that 'winter vomiting virus' thread that's coming up on the front page

don't do it. Trust me. I have completely tortured myself with it. Even found myself joining in at one point but I don't believe anyone is better educated on the subject of v bugs than the emetophobe her/himself.

im fighting it too...i know if i go in it will be my undoing!

Marking place on thread. Incredibly tense and worried about this; WVB thread on 'discussions of the day' causing feelings to spiral out of control. Have 3 children, 4 years, 2 years and 10 weeks, on my own and DH in Afganistan. Baby at DC's nursery had this at the end of last week. I'm sure that other children have had it but parents aren't admitting it < paranoid >
Barely holding it together ... only 6 days away from my PhD viva and can barely string two thoughts together.
Sorry to blunder in like this