I’m not going to say a lot about my fear of vomiting – this is about your emetophobia treatment

It’s not that I’m embarrassed, or shy, or a very private person its just that this is about you. If you would like to share other peoples experiences then there are plenty of articles and comments from other emetophobics on this blog.

Click Here to Find Out How to Treat Emetophobia Naturally

I used to have emetophobia

Suffice to say , I spent a lot of years struggling with emetophobia, and now I don’t.  I’m not going to tell you my story because this isn’t about me.  It’s about you. See, I’ve got some news for you that you’re probably not going to believe.  Once you hear it, you’re going to think I’ve lost my noodle, or that I have no business saying it. But by the time you finish reading, I think you’re probably going to end up agreeing with me and a lot better off for having heard it –  and this is why emetophobia can be treated and often cured naturally.

Ready?…You sure? You’re not afraid of vomiting Huh? 

I can hear you now….”Ummm, yes I am – that’s why I’m reading an emetophobia website to try and get some treatment.”…

No you’re not.

You’re NOT afraid of vomiting.  You’re afraid of what vomiting MEANS to you. Sounds subtle, but it’s an important distinction.  For you to make any progress on your fear at all, you need to know what it is you’re REALLY afraid of, and it isn’t vomit.  

Maybe you’re afraid that vomiting means you’re out of control, you can’t stop yourself. And if you can’t stop that, what ELSE can’t you control, what’s next?  It’s not the vomit, it’s the loss of control and what you fear is next.

Thats the really destructive thing about emetophobia  - what situation will unfold if I’m sick?  what will people think of me?

 

Perhaps you’re afraid that if you throw up at work you’ll make other people sick, be a spectacle, and the office will talk about you and you’ll be humiliated.  It’s not the vomit, it’s the humiliation you fear.  What if you got sick at school? You’d be laughed at, the “gross” or “dirty” girl or boy. Nobody would want anything to do with you. Not the vomit. The rejection.

Making sense?

That’s why it’s so ridiculous when people (especially therapists), advise those with emetopobia to force yourself to throw up.  I mean, I understand the logic, if you throw up and realize it won’t hurt you and you’ll live through it, eventually, the emetophobia fear will dissipate. Not too complicated stuff.  But you’re only scratching the surface. You have to peel the onion a few layers beyond the surface fear and get into the deeper things you feel you need to avoid. The cause or causes of Emetophobia, like all phobias, could be very different from the overt symptoms that an emetophobic person exhibits. You need to do that so that you can work on what your fear really is, and not just the surface fear it’s manifesting itself as. 

If you fear being humiliated, ok, I get that.  Let’s figure out why and get past that. Then guess what will happen to your emetophobia? Bye-bye.

If you fear rejection so strongly, why? Let’s overcome that so you’re not irrationally fearful of it. You may have more than one reason for your emetophobia, in fact, you almost certainly do.  I wish I had an easy technique to help you figure out what it is you’re really afraid of, one of those 8 balls you shake around and see what the answer is on the bottom, but I don’t.

It’s going to take some self reflection, probably more than you’re used to, and it may not be entirely pleasant. We’re usually not too used to looking that deeply into ourselves. Here’s the best thing I think you can do to make getting to the root fears easier. 

Write out what your worst case scenario is. Really get into it. Write it out like it was a play people would have to perform on stage, that’s how detailed it should be.

Not just, “I’d throw up at work”.  But more like, “I’d be at work, drinking my coffee and would start to feel my stomach get upset. I’d throw up all over my desk and everyone would be disgusted with me, and Ellen, my cubicle mate, would throw up too. It would be humiliating and I wouldn’t know how to handle it…” Even more descriptive than that, but you get the idea. It should be a few pages of thoughts, and I’ll warn you now, you’ll probably get anxious writing it.

That’s ok, it’s all part of it.

Once you have it written down, and it’s at a point where you could hand it over to some actors to play out on stage, really study it. I bet you’ll find some of your underlyinrg fears you may have not ever even known were there.

Now we’ve got something to work with.

Overcome your fear of vomiting (emetophobia) with the Emetophobia Recovery System