r/emetophobiarecovery

Hi all! So, next Friday I leave for my first ever trip outside of the country and it is Mexico, the one place that had given me anxiety because of all of the stories I hear of people getting sick there. The thing is, when a gorgeous girl that you'd had a crush on for 9 months wants you to meet her in Mexico... you say yes lol. (Yes, I've met her, she is a real person haha)

To keep me in a positive headspace about being brave there, tell me about your experiences in Mexico and let's have a little share session <3

I'm not even really... feeling nauseous? I can't tell what's going on with me but whatever it is it's not real nausea. But I've had stomach pain for a while and last night randomly I got this sense of impending doom and have been extremely anxious, trembling and weirdly dissociated ever since. I managed to sleep for a few hours but now I'm awake again and it's come right back. I haven't had a dissociation like this in a really long time.

I can tell my brain is trying to do all these traps of "Don't panic because then you'll raise your blood pressure and be more likely to puke, don't take any meds to feel better because then you'll raise your chances of puking too" etc. but it's all magical thinking crap and I need to stop avoiding the possibility.

I'm trying not to get in the cycle of being angry at myself for being scared, but man, I used to be so good until earlier this year. And in general I AM good unless it's happening to me, but my brain likes to make random exceptions I guess. It's humiliating to me for myself to be this scared over something this silly. Though I'd never say that about someone else obviously.

Please be careful about The Thrive Programme

it made my emetophobia so much worse, genuinely i was doing alr before i began reading it, its a lot of victim-blaming, how its your fault (which isnt automatically true, its the brains response to trauma), and constantly reading about it makes it worse I think.

Seen a few people speak about this on TikTok, just sharing.

I’m curious if anyone else has had an experience similar to mine because sometimes I feel like I’m going through this alone.
Before this year, I could throw up and just go on about my business. Obviously it wasn’t pleasant, but there was never any fear attached to it. Even when I got food poisoning/a GI bug back in February, I remember knowing I was going to throw up and basically thinking, “oh shit, it’s coming,” preparing myself, doing it and moving on. I wasn’t panicking.
What confuses me is that I was actually okay for about two months AFTER that. Then the nausea came back one day and that’s when the panic started. I ended up having two really severe anxiety episodes at work because of the nausea, to the point I had to be sent home and was out of work for two weeks. I started therapy after that.
Ever since then, things that never bothered me before can trigger that fear. Something as simple as brushing the back of my tongue, gagging while brushing my teeth, coughing hard enough that I feel like I could gag, or even thinking about gagging can set it off.
The weirdest part is that I don’t even think the actual vomiting is the part I’m most afraid of. It’s the nausea, gagging and buildup beforehand. Once I know I’m actually going to be sick, I’ve handled it before. But now the fear/adrenaline attached to nausea makes the whole sensation feel 10x worse.
I’ve definitely improved compared to when this first started, and I can go periods where I barely think about it and just live normally. But sometimes the fear creeps back in and I start focusing on nausea again.
Has anyone else developed emetophobia like this after an illness even though you weren’t afraid of vomiting before? And is anyone else more afraid of the nausea/gagging/buildup than actually throwing up?
I’d really love to hear from people who understand because sometimes this feels incredibly lonely, and I wonder if I’ll ever get back to how I was before.

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.

My girlfriend came over last night and got a fever during the night, along with nausea and muscle cramps. It’s the next day and she’s had pretty bad diarrhea and a cough, we’re thinking it’s maybe the flu and her stomach has been affected by it too. She feels so so bad, because we both know I’m getting it next. We’ve still been physically affectionate, we’ve used the same toilet, and I haven’t been keeping on top of bleaching/cleaning beyond the very basics. I feel okay so far but I’m really anxious about what’s coming tonight/tomorrow of course. I know I will probably have diarrhea or vomiting soon along with flu symptoms but I know that it’ll all be okay and my body will know what to do, even if it will panic for hours and hours and hours. Sending you all love. Wish me luck lol!

i just had a full blown meltdown. I'm mentally exhausted by this phobia. I've had it for 20 years although it got bad 10 years ago with severe panic attacks and ocd. i also haven't thrown up in 20 years. I've seen many therapists but i just.. don't feel it? it's hard for me to open up to any therapist I've seen so i kinda feel like I'm wasting my money. i do wanna see a psychiatrist again to see if i need to change medication. even when i feel ready to begin recovery I'm doing okay for a bit and then i get a bad panic attack and it's like all my progress is gone. i wanna start again but i just don't know how? i feel so defeated with this phobia. the funny thing is that i can do many things (subway, eating out in moderation, i gag a lot when i brush my teeth and I don't panic etc) but i still feel useless because i can only do these things on the good days. if i feel slightly off i just do nothing. I'm just exhausted if I'm being honest and I don't know where to even begin. I'm thinking of ordering the emetophobia manual but 20 years with this is a lot and I'm not sure if I can do it by myself.

Hey, i would consider myself pretty far into recovery, but im feeling some very mild nausea tonight which i havent in a long time, and i see how my brain imediaately detects it and wants to start spiraling (ive been focusing on breaqthing and managed to do my normal night routine despite it). Howver the thought does scare me: what if i vomit or something tonight? I feel like its so easy to feel "recovered" when you dont feel nauseous or sick. Any healed emetophobes who have vomited after the were cured? how was it?

I myself did vomit last year and it was litterly the most whatever thing, but im still not "done" being scared of it.

First of all, hello everyone! Female 37, I have dealing with emetophobia since 2009 or 2010 that's when it first showed a but it got worse and recurrent in 2014 as I started to have anxiety that turned into panic attacks. And of course my main symptom is nausea, located mostly in my throat. It scares me so bad.

Anyway, anxiety turned into panic attacks which over the year made me agoraphobic. It got worse last year, after being home three months healing from a surgery. It hit rock bottom last fall, ended up in the ER because I was nauseous constanly therefore I wasnt eating, sleeping or else. They told me it was just anxiety.

I have been doing exposures for my agoraphobia which helped me going back to groceries storea, drugs stores, the library... but I keep having setbacks because everytime I face a real panic attack aka nausea I freak out. I made so much progress going to places in the last few weeks but during a walk yesterday morning I felt really unwell, nauseous, dry mouth... and it set me back into pamic mode all day. Today I am still scared.

I think me doing exposures is good, but I dont think I do them well because the root of my agoraphobia is emetophobia. Even at home I panic as soon as I feel nauseous. And I dont think it will get any better if I dont adress emetophobia first because I wont ever be able to accept it when it happens during agoraphobia exposures. I think agoraphobia is just a symptoms not the cause since I am always scared to feel sick. I kmow I have to accept the symptoms to heal but I need to accept the nausea first. I need to heal this phobia first.

My phobia comes from a few episodes of dehydration post... well intercouses back in 2009. I was in my first relationship and my dumb ass didnt know how to hydrate properly before and after sex. So I woild wake up an hour or so later incredibly ill, running to the bathroom to purge on well both ends. I fixed it quickly when I realized it was dehydration, and took the habit to hydrate properly. it didnt scare that much when it happened but i guess it traumatized me somehow. I get scared to throw up and that if i do i wont be able to stop...

Well, I am tired of this shit. I want to get better. I want to treat the root of my agoraphobia which is this phobia. I want tips from people who have recovered, people who learned to accept the nausea feeling, the uncertaincy...

Please... thank you

i’ve got a concert this month, it’s in 11-12 days if i remember correctly. i’m very excited to see this band and ive been wanting to for quite a while.

unfortunately panic disorder decided to jump on my tail this year,,, so ive been going through 2-3(?) months of healing and learning.

i want this concert to be enjoyable and full of memories.. not memories of me searching for the nearest spot to puke just in case my panic attack is all too much lol. (and yes, i’ve done that at a concert before. i believe i may have emetophobia..severe or mild, no idea, i just know i absolutely freak when it comes to feeling slightly nauseous)

is there any way to tackle this anxious feeling before or during the concert? i’ve never thrown up from anxiety or panic, but the thought of it drives me insane. i go out of my way to avoid physical symptoms of my panic attacks, the main ones being dizziness, bloating, and mild to severe nausea with throat tightness. i’ve gagged twice from a panic attack before, but that was because i was extremely overwhelmed and freaking myself out. ever since then i haven’t, but it’s stuck to me.

i keep freaking out and thinking; ”what if i throw up during this concert?” or, “what if i have to leave and i end up disappointing everyone who goes with me?“ and lastly, “what if i get too overwhelmed and freaked out?” the main three ive been thinking about nonstop. i’d love to know if other people experience this, or if there’s any way i could go with the flow through this?

Disclaimer: I am not seeking reassurance. I just really need to vent and talk to some people who can relate to this phobia. Every person I’ve talked to about my fears about this IV sedation don’t have emetophobia and so they don’t understand how big of a deal this is for me.

I’m scheduled to get my very impacted wisdom teeth removed next week with IV sedation. Anxiety is putting it mildly. Not to sound dramatic, but I haven’t enjoyed a single day in the past 2 weeks because all I have done is ponder and worry about this upcoming appointment. Now it’s getting so close and I’m falling apart mentally. Why am I so afraid? I’ve never had any kind of sedation or anesthesia before. I’m the type of person that gets a little nervous when I take Advil… that’s how bad my emetophobia is in relation to taking medications, especially new ones.

I think what ultimately makes the idea of IV sedation so scary for me is the loss of control. Which, if you don’t already know, is the underlying fear behind the vomit phobia. It’s the fact that I have no clue how my body is going to react to sedation. It might not react badly at all, and perhaps I’ll be one of those lucky people who says it just felt like an awesome nap. Or maybe I’ll be one of those people who got extremely dizzy and nauseous for hours afterward. What’s killing me is that I won’t know until it’s already over, and there’s no turning back. This may sound weird, but it feels like once I lay down in that dental chair, I’m “giving my body away” to the medication. I really, really don’t like that and the more I think about it, the more I spiral.

I have cancelled this appointment in the past. I’m 25 and have needed to get my wisdom teeth out for 5 years now. I know I need to just do it so that I never have to worry about it again. But it’s so much easier said than done. I would’ve had these teeth removed long ago if I didn’t have to get IV sedation. Getting my wisdom teeth out causes me ZERO anxiety. It’s literally just the sedation that is freaking me out. I actually told my dental office that I didn’t want to be sedated and I wanted local anesthesia instead, but they refuse to do it without me being sedated due to the complexity of my case.

I have requested they give me anti-nausea meds in the IV, and they said they are going to give me IV gravol and send me home with some Zofran if I need it. I thought this would calm my nerves, but it doesn’t. I don’t know why. I am worrying about every worst case scenario right now and it’s keeping me up at night. I just wish I would’ve done this a long time ago so that I wouldn’t be worrying like I am right now.

But I’m NOT cancelling this appointment. My emetophobia isn’t going to control me, because getting these teeth removed is beneficial for my health and keeping them in is only going to harm me long term. But that doesn’t mean I’m not worrying myself sick every day leading up to it. I’m not sleeping very good, I’m having nightmares about becoming violently ill after I wake up in the recovery room. I’m genuinely not handling this well but I’m forcing myself not to cancel it and prolong this misery.

I’m truly hoping it isn’t as bad as I’m imagining it to be. If anyone with emetophobia has had this done before, please give me any advice or tips on how you dealt with it. Also how to be less anxious about it… the anticipatory anxiety is killing me

im so sick of this phobia, not only im scared of vomiting im also scared of pooping just cause it might cause vomiting lmao, everytime i have to poop i basically panic and wont even poop all that i needed to poop (tmi sorry) and cause of this i keep thinking im gonna get impacted which is also scary and makes me panic, in terms of food im finally starting to eat 2-3 meals a day or i try to sometimes its easy and i enjoy it but most time im just constantly checking how my body feel, and somedays like 2 days ago i was anxious the whole day so i couldn't eat well at all, im so exhausted, is it possible to recover without therapy? how can i start recovering when im scares of literally everything 😭 like even if im in my own room/home literally the perfect place to get sick i panic if i feel like something is in my throat even if i dont feel any stomach ache or feeling nauseous lol

i am an M2 and i have emetophobia and panic disorder tied to it. as im heading towards M3 and clinicals, im starting to get nervous about it.

patients throwing up and me catching something contagious luckily doesn’t bother me. what gets to me is being anxious about getting nauseous while im at work, in a new environment, under high stress situations.

i take meds for it and lexapro helps me a lot but it also makes me very sleepy and the higher the dose, the more effective it is, but the more tired i get. if im tired, i can get nauseous.

so its just an awful cycle.

any advice or even just people in similar circumstances would be helpful to hear 🫶🏻

I went through an exposure therapy program last year and it helped a lot when I was in survival mode/hyper arousal, but the past month I've had chronic nausea.

I think part of the contribution is I'm thinking about it a lot, I wake up already thinking of it and I do vomit also. Probably other factors too I do have GERD which I take Omeprazole for but still get acid reflux and also the heat I have no AC to cool me down.

I want to treat the anxiety over thinking part of it though, which is only worsening it. A lot of the exposure therapy had me tell myself phrases like Idk what's going to happen I can only see, and I have felt this before I can handle it. Admittedly I haven't been using phrases like those in awhile, been slacking but I wanted to get some ideas from others.

It's been very hard to eat been eating very lightly because the nausea is chronic.

Who are you? Who were you before this phobia, and how has this phobia affected you? Why are you seeking recovery now? I am proud of all of you for choosing recovery and no longer letting this fear control you. I think it’s very difficult to begin to acknowledge where the phobia began, as well as its impact on our lives.

I’m a 24 year old woman who has had this phobia since I had a traumatic experience when I was 9. For a long time, my fear was the most important thing to me. It guided me, my choices, my life for most of my developmental years. My phobia developed over the first time I experienced grief in my life. I was diagnosed with OCD at 19, and put on every SSRI, SNRI possible until I didn’t even feel like myself anymore. Eventually outpatient helped me see the life I could have outside of my fear, and I chose recovery.

I would love to hear more about the people in this subreddit and why you are here, if you feel inclined to share :)

I've had emetophobia for as long as I can remember. I had a really rough travel day yesterday that involved me passing out, and I ended up throwing up for the first time in almost 10 years. And it was really chill. Obviously it wasn't pleasant, but it was easy and I immediately felt so much better. Throwing up didn't feel that monumental. I keep forgetting it happened.

I've made a lot of progress in my anxiety but had recently been worrying about how I'll handle the next time I throw up, since it hasn't happened in so long. Turns out it feels very normal.

hey guysss! i was just thinking about how there seems to be some specific pipelines that lead to developing emetophobia and i want to list them out. Lmk what you think yours developed from!

- R-CPD: this one sounds awful and i seriously wish health and happiness for anyone who struggles with this condition. I don’t have it, but i know a lot of emetophobes do. personally, i get nauseous from trapped gas and a good burp can make me go from 0% to 100%, and it seriously hurts me to know that such a big chunk of yall can’t experience this.

-trauma/bad experience: i assumed this one would be the most common, but i actually don’t hear a lot of people talking about this as their root cause of the phobia. i obviously know that all emetophobia pipelines include some aspect of trauma or bad experience, but what im referencing is someone having a normal stomach bug and he trauma of it causes the phobia.

-OCD: this is what mainly caused mine. i had a therapist tell me before that almost everyone with emetophobia has some form of OCD or OCD tendencies. I truly believe this because of all of the ritualistic behaviors that are associated with the phobia. when i was a kid, i thought if i got sick in an outfit, i couldn’t wear that outfit again without getting sick, eat the same food, do the same activity, etc.

so anyways these are the pipelines i’ve noticed to be pretty consistent amongst most emetophobes. as i said before, mine is mainly caused by ocd but i also had some trauma as well. i was wondering if yall could share what caused yours and if i missed any prominent pipelines!

Hello, this is my first time posting here. I have severe emetophobia and I’ve been struggling so bad for four months. I randomly got extremely n out of no where and it triggered my fear. Every single day I’m n and scared. Every single day I’m paralyzed by this fear of throwing upI’m constantly nauseous shaking and scared. I’ve tried therapy and medication but nothing helps. Sometimes I just wonder if I let it win if this will all go way? If I finally just throw up maybe this nightmare will go away? I don’t wanna live like this anymore 😭

to start, I've had emetophobia for at least 20 years (also haven't thrown up in 20 years) i have good and bad days. I'm making progress although I'm still scared to do the big stuff (trips, planes, boats etc) and i have setbacks.

Now on to my job. i work at a supermarket 3:30pm-11:30pm. it's an easy job, good money, good employer and coworkers. the issue is that 20 out of the 40 week hours I'm at the shop solo. it's also a busy shop so of course I'm terrified I'll throw up/have a panic attack while I'm solo. I'm also terrified of not being able to close up and go to the bathroom in time. I'm in this job for like 6 months and it feels the exact opposite of exposure therapy. I'm stressed everyday, everyday is the exact same fear and thoughts. Now i wanna do exposure therapy but this feels all too much too soon and not controlled. my other non-phobia related issues is that I'm a woman and I'm alone, i also close up alone. Also the fact that sometimes I'm unable to close up to even pee because the customers keep coming in. i even have to eat at the register doing my job in between. i also feel like I can't get sick (even the flu) because I'm the only one working 8 hours (the other person comes for 4 hours/5 days a week) at nights so getting someone to cover for me is not easy.

I'm debating quitting for some time now but i feel like doing it would make me feel useless, like my phobia won. I also want the exposure but at the same time it's just too much. i wanna make a decision not based on my phobia but everyday is just worse and worse. it's like i go, i do the scary 8 hours and then the next day it just resets all over again. I'd even dare say that I'm worse than before I started. I'm scared to do other stuff outside of work because I don't wanna catch anything and having to deal with it while I'm working alone in a crowded shop. I'd love some outside perspective or even from someone who's been through something similar.