A sentence from my therapist that helped
I’ve had this phobia ever since I can remember lol. I’m in therapy right now, and I have to say it’s really helped me.
One of the reasons my phobia is so deeply rooted is because I realized I am scared of adulthood and sometimes, I feel like I cannot take care of myself. Every time I threw up I had my mom coddling me (and I’m definitely grateful for that), but now it makes me scared that if I throw up, I won’t be able to clean after myself and take care of myself. For reference, I threw up when I was 16 most recently and now I’m almost 20.
But in my last therapy session, we discussed how the circumstances have changed, and I think it’s a really good reflection to have if your phobia is rooted in something similar. How I am more mature now, how i’ve seen more disgusting shit than vomit, lol.
And my therapist said that he thinks that if I throw up, it will be a good thing for me because it is a chance for me to give new perspective to that unpleasant memory in which I am completely vulnerable and not able to clean after myself. If I don’t throw up (hypothetically never), then that’ll also be a good thing because, well, I didn’t throw up, because who likes that. So really: any out of these 2 outcomes are good. Then what is there left to be scared of?
I’ve never had such a good week phobia-wise in a long time. Wanted to share this in case this perspective resonates with someone else’s circumstances.