I’ve had emetophobia for as long as I remember. I am 35 now and my earliest memories of being afraid of vomit are around 3 or 4 years old. When I think about that, it makes me sad that at such a young age I was so scared. And even to this day. I cannot figure out why I felt so afraid at a young age. As far as my parents tell me, I never went through some traumatic vomiting hell. Anyways, the point of this post is to note down things which may be useful for parents to help them understand emetophobia and be aware of the signs. I remember feeling so alone and so scared to tell anyone that I was scared of being sick. A lot of the times my issues were completely misdiagnosed purely because at such a young age it is difficult to really explain what is going on in your head. Below is a list of the things I remember going through and feeling as a child. They are things that I will look out for as my child grows up.
Strong dislike of school, bordering on school phobic. Between the age of 4 and 10, I would pretty much cry every morning and cling to my mum and dad. I remember the teachers having to unpick my fingers from my parents. Many times my parents were called back to the school because I was so afraid of being sick or someone else being sick.
Continual gastro-problems and feelings. Through the anxiety, I ended up convincing myself that I felt sick and needed to go home. If your child continues to complain about stomach issues and feeling sick, it could be an indicator of emetophobia related anxiety.
Refusal to eat or picking at food. For me, I felt if I didn’t east, nothing could come back up. I still semi-use this strategy today even though I know it is complete bs. When you are a child though, to some extent, ignorance is bliss. I really believed I wouldn’t be sick if I was hungry. So for me, the sensible thing to do was not eat. Most of the time I was told I was anorexic. I want to publish a separate blog post on this topic so I won’t waffle on here.
Social anxiety. Because of emetophobia, I was a very anxious child in social settings. I didn’t enjoy friend’s parties or any type of school gathering/play/assembly. I remember my mum picking me up from a friend’s house all of ten minutes after dropping me off. She wasn’t best pleased.
Dislike of things other kids typically enjoy. By this I mean fairground rides, swinging upside down, eating loads of cake, running about – generally being a carefree kid!
Honestly, writing this down and reading it makes me feel sad. And angry. Angry that this has consumed such a huge part of my life. Which is part of the reason for writing the blog – to raise awareness of this horrid horrid phobia.
March 30, 2016 at 7:54 am
I had never heard of this before (I’ve learnt something new today), but this sounds awful, poor you, it must have been hard growing up feeling like that. I’m so glad that you managed to get the phobia diagnosed to identify what was making you feel that way. It feels that more needs to be done to make people aware of Emetophobia, and sharing this post helps. Claire x #BloggerClubUK
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March 30, 2016 at 7:58 am
thank you for reading Claire. it is what it is and it’s finding a way to deal with it day to day. My aim with the blog is to create awareness. x
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March 30, 2016 at 11:20 am
I had never heard of this before. I hate being sick too but not to the same extent obviously, but I will not eat if I feel the slightest bit sick because I hate vomiting so much! My son (autistic) also has a huge fear of being sick after a particularly nasty bug last year. I will certainly be looking out for these signs with him. thanks for sharing!
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March 30, 2016 at 12:56 pm
Thank you so much for taking a read. I really feel for you and your son. most people don’t like being sick and it is a pretty traumatic thing to go through, especially when you are little. It is when it starts impacting daily life that it becomes a problem. my parents had so many issues trying to get me to go to school! at least summer is on the way and hopefully we see the back of bugs :/ fingers crossed x
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March 30, 2016 at 5:55 pm
Oh my goodness! So sorry to read this. I’ve always suffered too, but nothing like this bad. I’m 42 and the last time I was sick was 12. I would cry for hours when my brother and sister were sick. My friends at uni always knew the first priority if anyone was likely to be sick was to get me out of the room! I have never seen my husband be sick – he’s always on his own and he knows that!
I’ve got better as a mum, but my son was sick the other night and my husband dealt with it all and I couldn’t sleep for the rest of the night – from 1.45.
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March 31, 2016 at 7:22 pm
wow 12! that’s amazing! i havent been so lucky. It sounds like you had a great friend at uni. mine often used to laugh. and same with my hubby too lol. i hate the guilt that comes with emetophobia. I’d like to say im a bit better since being a mum but we will see…my son was sick on me last summer and i didnt run off so that was good! its bloody tough! good luck and thanks so much for reading and taking the time to write xx
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April 1, 2016 at 12:33 am
My sister has had emetophobia since early childhood. She had immense problems with going to school, and with anxiety, OCD, and anger. It is debilitating, and it has always seemed that it is not very widely known about or understood (though I believe quite a lot of people actually have it). #SSAmazingAchievements
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April 1, 2016 at 6:03 pm
Sorry yo hear about your sister. it is a horrid phobia. and yes i agree, it isnt widely known but i reckon a lot of people have it. they just dont want to talk about it.
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April 4, 2016 at 8:38 pm
I have never come across this word before! I did think I was going to have to look it up until I read on. You phobia sounds horrid and the fact that a child could also have it and not understand sounds awful. It must have been very difficult for you. Thank you for raising awareness of this, I will be keeping an eye out when my little man starts school. Thank you also for joining us at #BloggerClubUK hope to see you again this week x
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April 5, 2016 at 3:36 pm
yeah it always has been pretty crappy. Just have to try and get on with it really :/ I continually feel guilty because i know people go through “real” stuff all the time (physical illness etc and mental illness which is more well known) and people often tell me that too (to stop being ridiculous and to snap out of it). thank you for reading and commenting :) i appreciate that x
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April 5, 2016 at 2:26 pm
Thanks for linking up and hopefully your post will help with raising awareness of emetophobia.
It has certainly helped me to read this today, my son (who has high functioning autism) is absolutely terrified of being sick when he’s ill and if he is just once, he immediately stops eating and suffers for far longer than the initial bug.
It’s certainly something I feel I have more understanding of after reading your post.
#SSAmazingAchievements
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April 5, 2016 at 3:40 pm
oh wow, thank you so much for taking the time to read. i wish i could offer some sort of advice but it’s such a tough thing to deal with – at least i’ve found. Future posts i plan to write include the therapy i have used and my experiences there. The problem i find with emetophobia is that often being sick doesnt help (not like traditional exposure methods of treating a phobia) it tends to re-traumatise. or at least this is the case for me. not fun. i hope your boy can find some peace when he’s ill. i plan to post some things too on what i’ve done post being sick that has helped me. x
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April 5, 2016 at 6:18 pm
I never knew about this phobia but I must admit I’m not great at being sick myself. I will actually stop myself from being sick for hours as it scares me so much. At 25 when I lived on my own my mum had to drive over an hour to be with me so I could be sick. I can totally understand how this could stop you wanting to eat too. My husband is now learning how to help me in the correct way when I am ill! He on the other hand has no problem being sick and will deal with everything himself when he is ill, apparently he has been like this since he was a child. I’m so glad you are blogging about this to raise awareness #SSAmazingAchievements
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April 6, 2016 at 12:07 pm
aww sorry to hear you have a hard time with it too. My hubby will sort himself out too, and i run off!
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November 22, 2016 at 4:27 pm
I have emetophobia and have had it since I was 8 (I’m 24 now). I really wish my parents had access to something like this when I was a child. They did their very best at helping me, but the resources were just not there and I don’t think they understood what was going on until MANY years later. Hopefully this can help someone else who has a child suffering from this horrific phobia.
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January 10, 2017 at 9:34 am
sorry for such a late reply and thank you for reading and commenting. i really wish there had been more info when i was younger too. people just didnt (and still dont really) get it. good luck with it xx
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