r/emetophobia

I’ve had emetophobia since I was little. I don’t know what caused it, but it’s still followed me and never left. I have an inkling that it developed bcs of this one time a kid got sick in the classroom, but my memory is vague.

It’s exhausting living with it. My anxiety goes in overload and the loss of control over my body is what adds to the fear. If it’s someone else, then my heart races and I can’t bear to hear it or see it. I physically block my ears. After, I worry that I’ll somehow catch it.

Just recently (two months ago) a family member threw up and it was quite triggering for me bcs of how audibly loud it was. It always happens at night-time too. What’s up with that? I used headphones and played any loud random video on my phone to block it out. I still keep thinking back to it and can’t shake it off.

When I hear someone say “I don’t feel well, I’m going to be sick” my heart races as if I’ve ran a marathon, and I hate the anticipation waiting for it to happen. Whether it’s for myself, or someone else.

Has anyone overcome it and does it ever get better?

So we picked up a puppy a few days ago. He got car sick on the way home from picking him up. He poops everywhere still, and he was sick again yesterday (totally fine after). And tonight, he pooped, ran and jumped in it and it was EVERYWHERE, the clean up was not fun. I am very triggered. I wore gloves, mask and showered after. I used so much antibacterial spray but my OCD is spiraling. It took so long to clean that some of it dried and I'm scared particles have gotten everywhere (walls etc).

I have a 4 year old who touches everything, rolls around on the floor with the puppy and I'm just so scared of the germs.

Any advice for me to get through the potty training without worrying as much as I am?

Okay so I’ve had emet since childhood, i’m in my mid 20s now and it’s never gone away.

Lately i’ve been rewatching lots of movies from the early 2000s, ones i certainly watched as a child. I loved movies, still do.

However it’s insane how many of them have scenes where someone v*. So many. Embarrassment and disgust in the most exaggerated ways is always linked to those scenes, too. Lots of kids movies have them.

It makes me wonder how much cinema can influence the mind for some of us.

Has anyone else come to this conclusion about themselves as well?

hello!

i was feeling super duper icky when i got home from work today and genuinely had the WORST stomachache of my life. i originally thought it was gas pains and took a gravol preemptively. but the horrible pain did not go away. finally after like 3 hours of straight nausea it happened!!! AND GUESS WHAT I AM LITERALLY FINE. still feeling super nauseated and i’m not convinced it’s over but i did it!!!

if anyone has any tips to help with anxiety please let me know!!! otherwise i will be listening to my awesome rain sounds in the dark 😁

Yesterday I was out eating lunch and I had a horrible pain in my chest after eating. I have had this feeling before and usually it’s because I can’t burp after eating and it hurts for a while and goes away. Yesterday however, I got that pain and it made me pass out completely, hitting my head on the table and falling to the ground. I was out for a few minutes and I was with my grandmother who also thought she saw a 10-15 second seizure. The ambulance came and checked all my vitals and I was fine and they wanted to take me to the ER but I didn’t want that ambulance bill so I went by car. The ER scanned my head and said everything looked great and all my vitals were great and people just pass out sometimes. I am so freaked out though because that has never happened and I am traumatized. The doctors don’t think I had a seizure because of my vitals and scans looking good, so that makes me feel a little better. I am just scared to eat because I don’t want this to happen again. Does anyone have any experience similar to this?

Also for reference, I have had extreme emetophobia my whole life and also not been able to burp probably because of this.

I was trying to fall asleep (it's half past three in the morning here) after catching up with some reading and m4sturb4ting (my period is close, don't judge me), but felt like I had to pee so I stood up quickly, and started trembling and my heart started racing, and now I feel immense throat nausea, and almost thought i was going to throw up i am terrified I don't know what to do I am trembling and sweating.

It's like some lower stomach pain (and that can be blamed on my need to pee I know), but also some small pain in the centre of my stomach and that throat nausea. It's the thing that scares me the most, I was heading to the bathroom when it got worse and I still feel it I am so scared, it comes and goes in waves and I am shaking. As I said, my period is close (like, I should get it in a week or so) so idk. Maybe it's because I stood up too rapidly?? Idk but I'm terrified. Like, I was half asleep when I stood up and it was really rapidly, i don't really know

i dont know how many of you get physical symptoms from anxiety, but i hope some of yall understand.

(sorry tmi lol)

So like last time i hung out with my boyfriend (like a week ago) i had horrible globus sensation and almost the whole hangout was ruined because i couldnt calm down. Now we finally hung out, my stomach worked normally before but almost as soon as he came here, boom horrible diarrhea that lasted like 15mins and didnt stop. Then i had to throw him out because i just couldnt again. and i had to go again. Im just so pissed that these anxiety stress symptoms ruin EVERYTHING. i'm 19 other couples live together and i cant even hang out with mine for more than 2 hours.
(idk if this is just stress stomach, im also scared if i have some bug or is this just stress but idk)

now i ate and now i feel like i gotta go again🥲 im scared although im pretty sure i'd have some other symptoms. yesterday i did eat a whole sub PLUS a wrap from subway😭😭dont judge me but yeah.. but usually i dont get stomach problems from that but idk could be. Just weird that i've had to 💩 like 5 times today (3 of them were normal and the last 2 were like explosive almost water)😐

i know stress causes stomach problems maybe i was nervous about seeing him (and we were lowk fighting over text last night+morning so idk if i was like scared to see him and talk about the fight which we didnt lol cuz we ate almost right away) but yeah idk.. i did start escitalopram 5 days ago, but only 2,5mg so idk if such a small amount causes such bad diarrhea LOL

(i’m sorry if i used the wrong flair)

hey everyone. this is my first time in here. i’ve been checking in on this subreddit every now and then for a while, but i’ve tried my best to stay away from it because i don’t want to risk getting worse. but right now i don’t know who else to talk to.

i’ve had severe emetophobia since i was 8, i’m now 17. the first few years were really really bad. i didn’t go to school for a year, barely left my house, washed my hands in water so hot i still have scars, etc etc.

i’ve been doing pretty okay for a few years. winter is bad for obvious reasons, but not even close to what it used to be.

recently it has been getting worse though. i’m terrified to eat anything that isn’t cooked by my mom, and even then i’m scared. i barely leave my house, i stay up entire nights every time i have a stomach ache, i have daily panic attacks and i’m so scared all the time. i really don’t know what to do. every time i feel like i’m getting better i just get worse.

i really want it to stop, and i’m terrified i’ll feel this way forever.

So I had a really bad episode after my mom was sick one night around a year ago which caused me to seek help and it has gotten so much better. The big issue today is that my mom came in my room asking for pepto because she didn’t feel good (I keep a bottle in my room at all times). I started freaking out and ended up having to leave the house because of how scared I was to hear anything. She said she had the runs but didn’t say if she threw up or not, but the worry of a bug has me spiraling. I’ve been trying to use good hygiene but I worry if I accidentally touched my face with unwashed hands or something like that and still can’t breathe. It’s so frustrating and I feel so nauseous now but I’m almost certain it’s panic attack induced, but I can’t seem to make it stop. I’m absolutely terrified to go home because we only have one bathroom and my house is relatively small and my mother is very loud when she is sick. Just need support

Feeling nauseous and can't tell if I'm running a low grade fever right now. Started last night after my dad made Philly Cheese Steaks. The issue is he left the hamburger meat out in the sun for a little bit, but insisted it would be okay.

Now my stomach doesnt feel right, I don't feel right, but if I say anything, my dad will get really defensive about blaming the sandwiches.

I haven’t eaten properly in around 4 days now I’m very dizzy and faint and have to sit down often
Yesterday I didn’t eat because I felt off but nothing came of it and and today I bought a cheese pizza that was supposed to be cooked from frozen but I put it in the fridge by accident for around an hour I cooked it and burnt the crust and the toppings were bubbling but still couldn’t bring myself to eat it what do I do

just wanted to ask if there's people out there that also panic scratch themselves or hurt themselves whenever they feel like puking or is it just me

Hi guys! I haven’t been on Reddit for a very long time but I’ve had Emetophobia since I was 14 and I’m now 21. I’ve been on so many medications for my anxiety, OCD, nausea, etc.
In 2023, I had daily panic attacks over me being nauseous and from end of 2024 to now, I’ve only had 6 panic attacks. Though this is mostly controlled by medication I’m on, I’ve found so much peace in not spiraling everyday. Though I still have my moments where I’m not feeling great, I’ve never spiraled back down. Hope you all are doing okay!🥹

hello so basically lately I have had trouble eating since I’m nauseous alot of the time and I always see it as a bad or thing that makes me anxious since well I just don’t like eating because it’s scary it makes me feel more ill knowing that now if I ykw it’ll actually be something and not nothing. but not eating makes nausea worse too- and I just wanna eat normally man I don’t eat enough ☹️ I see eating as such a dangerous thing sorry I’m like really tired rn so this is lazily written

Wendy’s baked potatoes are one of my safe foods. They’re easy and after a long day at work, super yummy. My husband offered to pick one up for me, and this time he went to a different Wendy’s. When I got home, I was so tired I was eating in the dark, until I went to add some more butter to my potato, and I saw something that looked black. I grabbed my flashlight and saw that there was black stuff on one end of the potato as well as fuzzy white mold. Now I’m freaking out about being sick. I’m really hoping I don’t get sick off of this potato, but also I am trying to look at it this as exposure therapy in a weird way. Does anyone have any good tricks for panic attacks?

I hung out with my boyfriend tonight. We saw a movie and got some food. When he picked me up, he said he had a headache but I attributed it to the warm weather and possible dehydration. We ate before the movie. Then after the movie, he says his stomach hurts but not like he’s going to throw up. I told myself it was just because he had so much food and a drink on top of it. He dropped me back at home and we kissed before saying goodbye. Then maybe 30 minutes later he tells me he threw up. I immediately got upset at him and I feel like an asshole for that. I know he only told me his stomach hurt because it would have made me more anxious if he had said he felt queasy.

I’m mad that he still kissed me when he knew he was nauseous. I just feel like he doesn’t know how terrifying getting sick would be for me or maybe he did know and acted selfishly. I am kind of spiraling because my anxiety has been so high lately and I am worried because I know there are viruses that have been going around.

I just started an SSRI for my anxiety and I’m already terrified at the possibility of GI side effects but also my doctor said it will make my anxiety worse before it gets better and I’m in the “worse” stage right now. Someone please help me calm down a bit.

Please help me calm down. I have nowhere else to turn.

It’s our first night in Japan, and my husband got food poisoning. He told me not to come into the bathroom and we requested the hotel bring up a bunch of towels for him to clean it up. I’m sitting in the hotel’s gym, alone, terrified to go back to the room.

What if I have to hear it all night? What if I get sick? He told me to get dinner but I’m too nauseated to eat. I’m struggling not to cry because I have no one to talk to and nowhere to go.

Please help. Will it be okay? Do you have any advice?

When you feel nauseous, what do you do? Obviously us emets freak out and start panicking. But when you aren’t an emet, and you feel that sourness in your tummy, what do you do?

I’ve been going through therapy for my emet, and she wants me to start asking little questions for non-emets to see how they go about their days.

Any responses would be appreciated! Thank you!

Ever since I was little, I've suffered from nausea quite a bit. I really don't want to explain too much because I'm trying not to v.

I'm 17 now, and for the past few days I've been feeling sick, I haven't been eating much and I'm a nervous wreck.

My parents say I should go and v, they say that if I have nausea it's because my body needs to "let go" but it's not easy, I'm shaking, cleching my jaw as I try to not run into the bathroom. I'm scared.

I just fully quit lexapro (ssri) and my panic attacks have come back in full force this past month. Currently on a trip across the country and every trigger possible has decided to show up. I’m hiking in Yosemite so the elevation is making me worried about getting motion sickness. The family I’m traveling with talked about how they both got sick last week (Thursday). Then, on a hiking trail yesterday, one of them got sick on the trail which I think (and hope) was due to over exertion. It’s causing me to miss out on some of the joys of being here. I’m terrified of traveling back home. I’m so scared I’m going to get sick while being the farthest from home I’ve ever been. With these panic attacks, I’m having a hard time deciphering whether I’m actually nauseous or just anxious that I will become nauseous, therefore overthinking every bodily function. I guess I’m just looking for some support or advice with this post!