Quote From: paula1267I'm a 37 yr. old female who's lived with this same phobia pretty much my entire life and i'm not sure what triggered it. I'm sure most people hate vomiting but what makes it that we are so deathly afraid of it??? I literally runs my life! It definitely keeps me from living (what i feel is) a normal life. I have passed on many vacation trips due to it...sadly, i will not have children because of it, for fear of morning sickness, let alone the fact that small children vomit quite frequently, and what kind of mother would i be when i would want to run away when the poor child gets sick? :-( I even become fearful of going to church now because once a poor man suffered what i believe was a heart attack and started vomiting and eventually was taken away by ambulance. That event replays in my mind each time in church and at times it brings on horrible anxiety attacks to the point where i want to just run out of there, but the thought of people seeing me leave brings on another fear, that of embarrassing myself. So i can surely relate to your situation, hunny!! I feel too, like certain therapies that cure most phobics, just could not cure one like ours! Such as the desensitization terapy...what do they think they're going to do...make us vomit until we're desensitized??? I THINK NOT!! It's a bummer that you and I, along with others who share our specific phobia cannot get together whenever we want to, although it's sure comforting to know we are not alone in this. May God bless you, and may He one day grant us a miracle, which is freedom of this paralyzing fear!!
Hi Paula,
This is Carey from the show. I totally relate to your fear! Probably the biggest thing this phobia holds me back from doing is traveling. My husband travels frequently for work and always wants me to come along. He flies to beautiful places like Vegas, California, Florida & New England. All places I would love to go but can't at this time due to my phobia. As I'm sure you saw on the show, I don't fear flying, I fear getting airsick or seeing others around me airsick. Someday I WILL overcome this phobia, or at least learn how to manage it so I am able to travel and see the world!
I agree that desensitization and exposure therapy do not work for emetophobia-- it's an internal phobia, as opposed to an external phobia, and one that is not easily treated. Dr Phil sent me to a hypnotherapist. I was only able to go a few times before I got pregnant and had to stop going because I felt sick and wouldn't leave the house. Now that I have had my baby, I am going to contact the DR again and hope that he will still treat me, as I believe it was helping. I no longer freak out at the thought of flying-- in fact, it excites me, now I just have to start out slow-- maybe go for a 45 minute plane ride, then work my way up to longer and longer ones...
take care,
Carey
