Emetophobia- new thread as other was full, all welcome.

[Marne]

Hope you all manage to find this , i just used up the last post on the other thread.

Oh no Devil, are you sure it's noro? Hope you are all ok and no one else comes down with it.

Definitely sure it's noro, he v'd multiple times, although he's absolutely fine now. Plus he played with a two year old on Thurs who had 'D' (the mum said it was a milk allergy

If dd gets it, it will be tonight, wish me luck

He's 6 btw and DD is almost 8

keeping everything crossed for you xx

A quick update: nobody else in the house has succombed. Pretty amazing considering. I realise we are not completely out of the woods yet, but this bug seems to have an incubation time of around 30 hours, so I'm sure DD would be showing signs by now. DP also used the offending towel and he's ok too.

Thanks for the support. Hope everyone else is 'v' free

Oh crap, now the queens got it! If she's not safe I don't know who is

The queen probably forgot to wash her hands after going to the loo , think of all the hands she shakes and children she has to say hello to on her royal visits, she's probably more likely to pick it up than anyone?

Apparently warmer weather is on the way next week, lets hope it put a end to the bugs.

Ive often thoght the queen was likely to catch it!

poor queen , i just heard it was gastreneritis, maybe just a touch of diarrhea??

my 4 year old has gone to bed feeling sick, another sleepless night here worrying! really hope she is ok

should say I have namechanged ( used to be florry)

Belgian- it sounds similar to what dd1 had the other week, she just wretched a few times but tummy ache was on and off for a few days, no one else in our house was sick (although i did have tummy ache). Hope your dd is over the worst of it and no one else is ill.

Dd1 had tummy ache again last night as well as a sore throat but seems ok this morning other than having yet another mouth ulcer .

Sounds more like this cold thing we have all had, sore throat followed by hacking cough, hope she feels better soon xxx

hope shes better soon, defintly think if gastro more would have happened.
Slapped cheek is rife about here, I had it 2 weeks ago and my 9 year old has it now.

I hope she's feeling better now. Definitely doesn't sound like a tummy bug. It's good that she's been able to eat a little bit and that the calpol has helped.
I just checked the thread for the first time since posting about my little boy being ill a couple of weeks ago. I wanted to say that I would never have sent him to nursery if he was recovering from a tummy bug and was contagious. He was sick once because he'd had a cough and cold, was crying and had a coughing fit. However, that is enough to give me a crisis of confidence in looking after him. He's very snotty and coughing a lot at the moment because he's teething so I'm anxious all the time about him being sick and questioning how i would cope if he did have a bug. I've struggled with this phobia for as long as I can remember and certainly would not be inconsiderate to others in this way.

That's o.k. I wasn't clear in my post that he didn't have a bug. Him being sick for any reason makes me very anxious although obviously him having a bug is the most dreaded thing. I felt terrible when I read your post.

I am really struggling at the moment and considering trying EMDR. This is about the only therapy I haven't tried. It's used mainly for PTSD but I've read that it can help with phobias where there are traumatic memories acting as a trigger for anxiety. Just wondering whether anyone has tried this and would be willing to share their experience? I'm still having CBT but since becoming a mum my phobia has been so much worse. I don't want this to spoil any more precious time with my son when he's little.

Thanks

Hope everyone is bug free (and the queen is out of hospital!). I'm sorry to ask this, but I've been trying to put things into perspective and think about other reasons for being sick if not with noro or another d&v bug. I spent time last weekend with a friend and her dcs who often seem to be sick and so I was anxious about meeting. Sure enough, halfway through the afternoon her dd said she felt sick and they went off to the toilets. She hadn't v, just coughing and hiccuping, but friend said that her ds had v a couple of times over the last week. I know children can sometimes v when they've got coughs and colds and I suppose I shouldn't go into blind panic whenever I'm near a child who is sick, but I just always assume the worst and that it's noro or something else contagious. I didn't really enjoy any of the afternoon after that, and it's just such a waste of my energy. I've got to see the same friend in a couple of weeks time with another friend and their dcs and I'm already dreading it and seeing it as something to get through rather than something to look forward to and enjoy. I think because I'm not around children on a daily basis it just heightens my sense of risk, and perhaps I'm being stupid imagining that they can just v at any time.

Today a work colleague is off because she apparently v* in the night and fainted. I'm thinking the worst about this as well and hope she's not back at work tomorrow, but I guess there are other reasons for being sick.

Alexle, I have also read about EMDR and it sounds interesting. Do you think there was a traumatic experience for you that has triggered your anxiety? I think being sick as a child for me was traumatic because of the way my mum coped with it (think she is slightly emet herself) but I think my emet is bound up with OCD and health anxiety and apparently more complicated. I was refused CBT by a therapist because my issues have been going on too long. I think this is a bit negative, but haven't had the courage to try therapy again

I've tried hypnotherapy and CBT . Neither helped, to be honest. Thought the CBT had helped , but I had the CBT during the summer when I am at my most relaxed , then soon as winter hit I was back to square one.

I have noticed my phobia has gone from a general v phobia to a noro phobia . As if someone has been ill , once I've convinced myself its not due to something contagious , I am a bit more relaxed than I used to be .

Space, how long have you had your issues? I was offered CBT quite easily so wonder if its known that CBT doesn't work for emets ? I've had my issues since I was 6 - maybe earlier but thats when my parents noticed how much i freaked out when my brother was unwell - I'm 28 now .
I don't like to blame my parents but my mum is a bit of a worrier and I remember during childhood, the vivid memories of her making sure there was an ice cream container in the car "in case" - It was never needed as my brother and I were very good travellers but I do wonder if the association of V with being a negative thing (obviously for normal people it is too ) rubbed off on me to the extreme.
I think that's the trouble with emetophobia , no one likes V so its more justified for us to be afraid in a way. Whereas flying, spiders, open spaces , dogs - even if you are scared of them, it's easier to understand why most people aren't afraid of them and why people actually like things that others are so afraid of. Phobias are irrational fears and my trouble is I don't see a fear of V as being as irrational as say a fear of post boxes.

Sorry just having a random late night vent , so pissed off with this phobia, its like we're scared of something that is happening right now as well as something that might happen (eg obsession with incubation periods of illness) . Then i get all OCD "if im happy and stop thinking about being scared of V for too long, it will happen" It's just down right exhausting :-(

Hi all

BB hope your DD is ok now, and it was just a sore throat/cough making her retch.

We are all ok, except last Thurs night I felt really nauseous, took 4 x motilium throughout the night and was fine by the morning (although felt 'fluey' the entire day) So looks like i was the one to catch the bug even thought it was DD and DP that used the contaminated towel. At least it confirmed that Motiliium stops vomiting.

Tallulah, my phobia has transferred to 'noro'. DP had a big birthday recently and I even held a bag for him while he v'd from drinking too much. Sounds like your mum is an emotophobe (mine is, she admitted it recently). Funny thing is she admitted that she didn't mind us being sick as children, but I must have picked up on her anxiety somehow (unless it's genetic)

Hello
Hope everyone and their dcs are feeling better now.
Space, I think you did well to stay for the rest of the afternoon when your friends Dd felt sick. I think I would have been looking for excuses to get out of there!
I am having cbt and have had the phobia since childhood and I'm now 39. I don't think that the length of time you've had the problem necessarily has a bearing on whether cbt can be effective but you may need more sessions over a longer period of time. I also think it's good to find a therapist who's flexible and can combine different approaches.
I think my phobia was triggered by sharing a bedroom with my little sister. She was a very sickly child and I often woke up to the sound of her being ill in her bed. I had to cross the room in the dark to get my mum and then had to go back to sleep in the same room. I know this doesn't sound traumatic to a non emetophobe but this is how I experienced it as a young child. I still think about it and even dream about it, particularly the sound. I'm thinking that Emdr might be able to help if this is the case. I just feel that anything is worth trying at the moment. I'll let you know when I see someone and whether it makes a difference.

This is why I don't know if I can face starting the whole therapy process again. I've had therapy twice in the past, for several months each time, and also tried hypnotherapy, which didn't really work. The second lot of therapy was when the therapist refused me CBT. I suppose we did end up being a bit flexible with approaches, and it worked to some extent, but was really health anxiety focused rather than to deal with emet.

YY to my phobia evolving to a noro phobia rather than general, and to being scared of things happening now as well as things that might happen. If I'm around someone v* and know it's not contagious I am almost relaxed, but the thought of going round to see friends with sickly dcs with another friend and her dcs added into the mix is freaking me out. Last weekend we met in a neutral venue which was easier, but there's no escape from someone's house. This friend is not big on hand washing either, which makes it worse.

The work colleague off yesterday after v* is off again today, and phoned to say she was still ill and wouldn't come in tomorrow either. This means it must be noro, and it's a relief that she's not returning to work tomorrow. It would be great if she stayed at home on Friday too and came back on Monday fully recovered

My issues go back a long way. Think they probably started when I was around 6, too, and I'm now 38. My mum always reacted in an extreme way to me and my sister v* or having a d&v bug, and it was all very stressful. My dad was seriously ill around the same time, and so it must have been traumatic for my mum, but her worries got projected onto us, particularly around illness. I think I must have been an anxious and worried child and remember clearly being in tears in the playground at around 6 worried that I was going to catch chicken pox, and feeling like it would have been the end of the world . I had full on OCD from 9-18, and then managed to get a grip on it and am mostly ok, but it really triggers when there is noro around, which seems like all year now, virtually!

Alexle, I think that sounds really traumatic, especially being woken up by someone v in the same room. I'd be really interested to hear about EMDR if you go ahead with it. Tallulah, I agree that emetophobia is one of the more rational phobias, and that's probably my trouble too. I see fear of v as perfectly reasonable. I almost wish I did have a fear of postboxes instead of this.

Devil, I hope all is well now now, and it sounds as though the Motilium really worked. BB, I hope all is well with you, too. Sorry for this mammoth post. I know it's rubbish that we all struggle with this phobia, but reading this thread has helped me to feel a bit less alone with it