Emetophobia

About Emetophobia

Emetophobia is an excessive or irrational fear of vomiting or of being around others who are vomiting. It is one of the specific phobias.

Emetophobia is often treated in the way common to most specific phobias, although this is not always effective. As with any phobia, the determination of the individual to overcome it is the most critical ingredient in the success of the treatment.

The fear of being sick receives little attention compared with other irrational fears, yet it is the fifth most common phobia, according to the International Emetophobia Society. Type 'fear of being sick' into search engine Google, and you get nearly 29 million websites. It is an extremely debilitating and disabling condition. Victim's lives are dominated by irrational thoughts and actions. Sadly, some women even deny themselves motherhood for fear of morning sickness and some sufferers become housebound. Emetophobia is rarely spoken of partly because of the nature of the subject - it is unpleasant and 'dirty' and victims are acutely embarrassed. Also, fear of being sick is often 'cloaked' by another phobias. Many people come to me for help with fear of flying, but during therapy, it emerges that their fear is not of flying, but of being sick and embarrassed. Courses to conquer fear of flying often concentrate on the safety of planes. But reassurances about the physics of flying and the mechanics of the plane will not help a person who fears vomiting.

A typical emetophobe coming to see me for treatment displays some or all of the following tendencies:

Probably female, below average weight. Eats out in restaurants very rarely and when doing so is very choosy - avoiding spicy or unusual cuisines. Does not drink or restricts themselves to a single glass of wine. Does not like pubs or clubs where people tend to consume large amounts of alcohol. Dislikes dinner parties, weddings, social events and crowded rooms which can lead to anxiety / panic attacks. Eat little in public and sit near a door. Avoids flying and travelling by boat. Avoids public transport, preferring to travel by car and driving themselves If they can visit a cinema / theatre, they would insist on sitting at the end of a row. Avoids pregnancy fearing morning sickness. Avoids anyone with a real or imagined sickness bug - either within their own environment or in public places. Very aware of vomit on pavements and checks weather forecasts to see when rain is due.

What Causes Emetophobia

Like all fears and phobias, emetophobia most commonly develops from a childhood fear that has never been outgrown. Perhaps a traumatic incident was witnessed when young, a person being sick close to them or on them, maybe they themselves being sick or perhaps they saw someone else being sick under traumatic circumstances.

When a traumatic scene is witnessed as a young child (between the age of 1 to 6 years old in my experience) the subconscious mind as the body's 'protector' works out the best way to prevent the incident repeating itself. The way this works in practice is that the subconscious attaches negative emotions or feelings to vomiting and in future this teaches the person to steer away from 'dangerous' situations. Whilst the subconscious is doing all this 'protection', the conscious mind is struggling to find out where this irrational behaviour is coming from.

The incident that was experienced when young was interpreted incorrectly at the time and the subconscious is causing the person to still act like that frightened two year old, even though she is now an adult. When 'stuff' happens to us when young, we are relatively short on intelligence and life experience - this deficiency causes us to interpret situations to the best of our ability with the limited data available. Nine times out of ten, this interpretation is incorrect but because of the conscious mind's difficulty in accessing the subconscious, it can't work out why we react to certain situations in an irrational way.

The actual phobia manifests itself in different ways. Some sufferers experience it almost all the time, others just in response to direct stimuli. Some sufferers spend a number of years 'emetophobia free' and then a particular incident triggers the subconscious to remember the childhood event in question and then the fear of sickness starts / restarts.

Treatment

When that child first experienced that initial incident (normally between the age of one to six years old), they were not fully developed intellectually. They reacted to that situation based on their life experiences to date - such as "don't do things that upset people because it means they don't love you anymore" or perhaps "if you are sick, everybody looks at you and says nasty things".

Regression Hypnotherapy will allow a person to remember that particular event and review it with 'adult' eyes this time around. This will then allow them to interpret the event correctly and it will no longer be an issue for them.

Article

1 vote, Nominated November 25, 2006; needs at least 4 votes by December 2, 2006 Overdue

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1. JFBurton 15:34, 25 November 2006 (UTC)

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• (a huge expansion during the last few weeks) JFBurton 15:34, 25 November 2006 (UTC)

Trivia

Showbread, a Christian post-hardcore/"Raw Rock" band has a song entitled Oh! Emetophobia! on their 2006 album, Age of Reptiles. The humor in this is the fact that the song talks about love, instead of the fear of vomiting.