Antidepressants for emetophobia (or any phobia)

[MunchyCrunchyy]

Hello. I hope this is the right place to post. I’ve been searching old threads all morning but haven’t found anything that helpful so thought I would start a new thread.

I have an intense fear of vomiting, I have had it as long as I can remember but definitely worse since having kids and particularly bad over the past few months. It has got so bad that it is now affecting me, my personality, relationships etc and I just don’t want it to affect my children.

Me, DH and DC are due to go on holiday in a few months and sharing accommodation with friends which is just sending me into panic. Silly I know. I am currently doing CBT and hypnotherapy as I am so desperate to get better (and not be googling Sick related words in the trip advisor reviews )

Anyway enough rambling, has anyone had any success with anti depressants for emetophobia (or any phobia)? I’m not expecting it to ‘cure’ me and want to carry on working through it with other methods but I just can’t worry about this every single day! Fair enough when there is a bug in the house but it’s ridiculous that it keeps me awake at night. I just feel like I need to the edge taken off if that makes sense?

Thank you in advance.

Anyone?

I can't help with the antidepressant question I'm afraid but just wanted to sympathise and say that you're not alone. I have the same phobia and it can be really awful at times.

What I've realised recently is that it gets a lot worse when I'm stressed/having a tough time in general. That may seem obvious but I hadn't made the connection. So anything which helps to calm me down and improve my mental health in general will naturally improve my phobia too. It's like my mind knows something is wrong and chooses to fixate on sick as a way of making it tangible maybe. Could yours be similar with the holiday? That you're anxious about going away generally and your mind is choosing that one subject to try to rationalise it?

I've had some success with CBT and mindfulness but imagine the right antidepressant could be very helpful. Someone I know has had great success with clomipramine for OCD. It's definitely worth speaking to your GP.

Good luck (and please let me know if you do find something which helps!)

Thank you @belimoo as much as I feel sorry for anyone else that suffers with this, I do take comfort from knowing I’m not alone!

I totally agree with you on general stress/low mood triggering my phobia and making me worse. I do wonder if I am suffering with general anxiety, maybe even a bit of depression, and it just ‘comes out’ in my phobia ifyswim.

I’m currently on session 2 of hypnotherapy and I am confident it will help things. I had a bit of a breakthrough at my last session and I felt hopeful but I think I need to ‘fix’ some of areas of my life before I can fully get better. Hence why I’m thinking of going down the AD route - it’s good to hear it worked for your friends OCD!

I have awful emetaphobia from childhood trauma.

I'm having EMDR at the moment and some sessions have specifically addressed the phobia. It seems to be helping as I'm not spending as much time worrying that my family are going to get a bug as I usually would.

@JustPurple I’m sorry to hear about the source of your phobia but glad to hear that your think it is working. My hypnotherapist can do EMDR so will push for that in my next session!

Good luck!

I also suffer from this and have 3 kids. At one point I was going crazy with worry, using hand gel on the kids, freaking out etc. Until I realised, all of this does not stop them from getting tummy bugs. I relaxed and also came up with coping mechanisms for when they do get sick and this has helped me a lot. The plan is if one of them is sick, they camp out in the bathroom until they are better. This way they can vomit in the toilet etc. It works with the older two...youngest is only 2 though...but by the time she is 3 she will get it and hopefully we can avoid it until then!! Anyway, I find it helps a lot and my kids do not mind, as they get to watch ipad and i make it cozy w a small matress etc. They understand I have a phobia.

I did a module on phobias recently, in children, but I'm sure it's similar for adults. The lecturer, highly renowned, said all phobias are a story untold. As such it is not enough to treat the phobia but to treat the cause.. Don't know if that resonates at all. She suggested talking through what would happen if you vomited? And then, and then, and then? To tease out what's really going on. It's not a quick fix I'm sure. Best of luck.