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International Emetophobia Support
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#Post#: 7--------------------------------------------------
My story
DIR By: paulinek
Date: January 10, 2017, 2:22 pm
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I have lived with emetophobia ever since I can remember,
literally, one of my first memories is being in hospital after
an eye operation at age 3 1/2 and burping the evening of the
surgery and there being an awful taste and panicking and
screaming the place down - and 40 years laters here I am - an
emetophobe.
When I was younger there was no internet so it wasn't until my
early twenties when I managed to finally diagnose my phobia as
being emetophobia - it was SUCH a massive relief to know I
wasn't a weirdo or not normal because that's how I felt because
"no one likes being sick" right? Yes, that's true but not
everyone has a 24/7 terror of being sick that controls their
entire life.
I could write a book on my experiences as an emet over the years
but I won't bore you to death other than to say I have had three
extremely bad lows in my life with this phobia where I missed
loads of school, ran out of lessons, called in sick all the
time, spent hours in the nurses office convinced I was about to
be sick etc I was labelled a Hypochondriac which was very
hurtful. Things improved for a year or two then bam it was back
with
A vengeance but this time it was my job I was running out of,
calling in sick etc. The third major low was in my late twenties
when I was virtually housebound, I'd run out of shops if I felt
trapped or sick. Even abandoning full trollies of shopping at
the checkout in the supermarket. I couldn't physically swallow
my food in restaurants, my mouth went drier than the Sahara and
my throat tightened up. It was horrendous and I stopped
socialising and tried holding my breath in public places - you
try holding your breath all the way round the supermarket!
What saved me was CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy) which in a
nutshell retrains how you deal and think about certain
scenarios.
It enabled me to resume a normal life and since then I have gone
on to hold down a job, have a baby and all sorts of other things
I never would have dreamed achievable at my lowest points.
This is my story in a nutshell and if I can go from being holed
up in my bedroom existing on cream crackers and come through the
other side then so can you!
I'm not "cured" but I live as close to a normal life at the
moment as i ever probably will and only flip out if confronted
with vomit/exposure to norovirus in close quarters.
#Post#: 10--------------------------------------------------
Re: My story
DIR By: Cocowife
Date: January 12, 2017, 3:03 am
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It's really inspiring to hear you have/had a baby. One of the
things that upsets me the most is my fear of parenthood.
#Post#: 14--------------------------------------------------
Re: My story
DIR By: paulinek
Date: January 13, 2017, 8:26 am
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I was 38 before I finally plucked to the courage to get
pregnant, and apart from a few weeks of very occasional dry
heaving I was fine and didn't vomit once.
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