r/emetophobiarecovery

I've always been deathly afraid of throwing up and seeing/hearing others do it always gives me anxiety attacks, esp since I rarely have. However, my sisters and I went too crazy with the drinks yesterday for the fourth and I felt horrible nausea pretty quickly. I forgot what the feeling of throwing up was like and was nervous. My sisters were all around me making sure I was okay, and I threw up soon after. I was still pretty drunk so I didn't feel fazed. 3 hours later I had to a few more times and felt a lot better. It was really hard to do that while sobering up and being conscious. But I felt really safe doing it around them with bags instead of alone in the bathroom. Definitely learned the hard way and will not start concocting mixed drinks😭 I felt brave but I feel so guilty for exposing them to it. I flee immediately at the thought/sight/sound of someone throwing up! Anyway, I survived. I hope anyone who experiences this has the privilege of being around others, their presence makes it a lot more bearable especially as they talk you through it. I'm still pretty afraid of doing it again but once it's over it's over and constant nausea is a lot worse!

I've had emetophobia since I was seven. I got this terrible stomach flu and threw up, and have been deathly afraid of it since. I developed ARFID that year due to the fear, lost a ton of weight, etc.

I've been doing some healing in therapy and I got both an autism diagnosis and an OCD diagnosis which have made a lot of sense, but I also got chronically ill, (long COVID and POTS) when I was eleven. (15 now.) I'm permanently disabled and go through a lot of stuff with it, and I developed a fear of sickness along with my emetophobia. I still get horrific panic attacks if someone throws up/has a cold, or if I do.

Anyway, the success!! Today I had a friend over, at some point during the hangout they went to the bathroom, and let me know when they got back that they threw up a bit. They're very considerate and asked if they should leave or if we should go outside. (They're very prone to throwing up, pretty much always from stress. They also don't get hunger cues and had just eaten a bunch of fruit, that was probably just too much and they didn't realize.) I stayed calm!! I just asked if they felt sick, they said no, I asked if they were stressed, they said yes. I said that we should be good then, and I haven't panicked at all!!

I even took a bath later in the same bathroom (after spraying some disinfectant) but still! I'm so happy, I'm not freaking out at all! Very proud of myself and progress, I can't wait to tell my therapist!

A 10 minute walk is okay, anything over is so overwhelming. Whenever I try to go out in the car, I feel increasingly sick, weak, dizzy, and I know I need to sit in the feeling and be uncomfortable but it’s the anticipation of that and the worry of potentially being ill while out (from illness or anxiety) that I just can’t’ do it and I know it will happen because the anxiety always makes me nearly throw up when I go out.

in 5 minutes, I need to go out for 1hr and I’m so dizzy, my stomach has cramps, I feel so sick and I’m wondering if this will ever go away?

I don’t know what to do, I’m panicking so much. I’ve got so many events this month too and they’re big events. Sorry this isn’t written well, I’m panicking and in a rush

But if anyone has been in this situation, what has helped you? I’m open to any advice please

i've struggled with emetophobia my entire life and it had caused me to miss out on so many opportunities. i am 24 now, and i think i finally got a good hold on it. i'm not totally recovered or anything, but i an doing the best i literally ever have with it.

i'm dogsitting right now, and i have been eating a lot of junk food while i've been staying here. on wednesday, i had a few friends over to hang out. which of course, meant more junk food. by midnight, my stomach was seriously bugging me. i assumed it was gas because that's usually what it is, so i waited for everyone to leave so i could pass it. but nothing. i just had this awful feeling in my stomach. i went to sleep and i woke up around 3am. i knew i was going to have diarrhea, so i went to the toilet. before i even sat down i realized that i WASN'T about to have diarrhea, i was about to throw up. so i took a deep breath and just let it happen. it was unpleasant, of course. but it was over pretty quickly and was no where near as terrifying as i've always believed it to be. i used to get so angry when people would tell me "you'll feel better after you throw up" because that was never true for me. i would always work myself up into a panic attack and the vomiting only made the anxiety worse. but this time, i actually DID feel better!

getting thru the act of vomiting is one thing, but for me the worst part is the anxiety that follows. i used to not be able to leave the house for days any time i threw up. i definitely did have quite a but of anxiety following my vomiting, but i think i handled it pretty decently. i had the day off, so i just stayed at the house and tried to stay hydrated and not dwell too much. i was certain i would throw up again, so i was very anxious while waiting for it to happen. but it didn't. i felt nauseous here and there, but i didn't actually throw up again after that one time at 3am.

yesterday, i had a very busy day planned and i was extremely close to just cancelling everything and staying home, afraid that i might vomit again. but i pushed thru! i went to this really cool museum with my friend i haven't seen in a while, and the first 20 min or so i was having really bad anxiety induced nausea. i told myself i did fine when i threw up the other day, and if i need to again i can handle it. eventually the feeling subsided and i was able to enjoy the museum. i also had plans to go to a nightclub with some friends, and i was VERY close to not going. when i got there and was waiting in line, i felt SO anxious and nauseous. but once i went in and saw my friends, i felt a bit better. i ended up having a wonderful time, and danced with my friends all night!

i am lucky to have very supportive friends and family, who have told me they're happy for me about this, but i don't think any of them understand TRULY how difficult of a feat all of this was for me. i am so grateful that i've come this far. 🥹

Hi all this is my first time on this sub and i thought i’d throw a question out that i’ve been struggling with recently.

I’ve had emetophobia for as long as i can actually remember (i’m now 22) and my phobia peaked mid to late secondary school. Since then i did CBT and exposure therapy and managed to go from unable to leave my house, strictly vegetarian and mountains of avoidance behaviours to being able to do practically everything i used to avoid (my most recent win was cooking raw chicken and now i can do it without second thought).
I stopped my therapy years ago as they said it had come to a natural end and i’d been given the tools to continue to improve and luckily, despite a few flares during stressful periods, it’s pretty much been smooth sailing since then.

The only problem now is that i can’t seem to regulate myself when i’m actually genuinely nauseas. I’m mildly nauseas a LOT from my reflux and IBS but still haven’t been sick since i was 11 so i haven’t had the opportunity to face my fear in that way. I’m usually completely fine up until my brain changes from “i feel sick” to “I’m actually going to be sick” in which case i go into complete raw fight or flight no matter how many times i have tried to stay calm or accept it. This panic reaction has started to become a fear of its own as i am worried that when the time comes i will be in such a panic that i am squashing my chances of having the feeling of “that wasn’t so bad” that everyone talks about.

Does anyone who has been in this same boat have any advice on how to get over this final hurdle? Or does it sound like i might need to look into getting some more therapy?

at 8 years old i got noro in the middle of watching a movie at the cinema. it made me very apprehensive towards going to the cinema and i put it off any time i could incase id get noro again. ive been a few select times with great difficulty. yesterday, though, i wasn’t even nervous because i was so so damn excited to see toy story 5 (at my big age) bc joan cusack is voice acting as jesse in it. i enjoyed it so much and even stuck around the area for a while after the movie without being nervous!! i think my idea of the cinema being inherently ‘contaminated’ is fading.

btw, this isn’t me saying that doing something even while nervous isn’t still recovery, or brave, or a step in the right direction! i’m just relieved i wasn’t scared for once. :-)

Accidentally ate a recalled product- UK/Europe

I ate these noodles the "Reeva" brand just to find a tiktok and the news saying DO NOT EAT THEM because they contain salmonella and many people got affected. Guess who didn't see the video or news before eating them? I looked up the batch number and sure enough it's one of the affected ones. Now my stomach hurts and I feel nauseous.

I'm struggling worse than I've ever struggled and it's just like so defeating. posted the other day but I just can't seem to get past this. Before this past weekend when my daughter got a stomach bug was doing pretty well. Lots of freedom and going a lot of places, eating a lot of foods etc etc. This has sent me back so far. I have scheduled extra therapy sessions, strengthened my erp practice, gone to support groups through my therapy clinic. But just like can't seem to get over this. I feel like have adrenaline constantly running through me, I can hardly eat, I've lost 5 Ib in 5 days. My husband's had to stay home from work so that he can take care of the kids because I'm pretty useless and very emotional. A couple of days before this happened did increase my fluvoxamine and even the first couple days of the new dose we was okay. But then everything just kind of went downhill. I've never felt this anxious or awful in my life andI do think that possibly the medication has something to do with it and I do meet with my psychiatrist tomorrow. But l'm just like struggling more than I've ever struggled and it just feels really hard and hopeless. If anybody's ever experienced something like this and has some advice on how to get through something like this, I would love to hear your experience. Thanks for listening

Editing to add just woke up and it's 5 days later and my second kid is now sick. I just like can't believe how poorly I'm handling this and I do not know what to do

Hi! Yesterday I came with my mom to work and we stopped by a sandwich shop on our way there. We got 2 bags of chips which we shared and I found out today that the exact size and flavors we got were recalled due to being potentially contaminated with salmonella.

I'm terrified but trying my best to stay optimistic- I'm really hoping I won't get sick since I have a lot of plans this week and next week that I don't wanna miss on top of having emetophobia.

If anyone has any advice I'd really appreciate it!

Hi, I am 19f and my boyfriend is 21M. We’ve been dating on and off from April to June last year but have been committed ever since, so a year+ we’ve been together. I’ve had anxiety and depression since I was about ten. At the moment, I’m dealing with CPTSD, general anxiety, panic disorder, emetophobia, and just a bunch of shit mentally. As well as GERD and endometriosis which definitely wouldn’t be as bad if my mental state wasn’t so bad.

My mental health took a nosedive when I was 16, avoiding social situations, many foods, eating out, panic attacks, trouble sleeping, etc but Zoloft and therapy helped. I also deal with an alcoholic and BPD mom who is very off and on and I’m unable to heal while living at home but I’m in college and not financially independent. Which adds more to the mix. But at the time of meeting my boyfriend, I was in a very good place. Continuing to date him, I noticed my attachment issues arise and some anxiety never went away but I was able to talk myself down and we were also mostly long distance at the time.

Then, after Christmas my mental health got bad after norovirus and food poisoning within the same month (emetophobia = fear of vomiting). And when we moved back into college in January of last year, I was not well. Panic attacks often, anxiety, retreating, and depression. It continued on and on and my boyfriend held hope but felt depleted. I became more reserved in return but it only made everything worse. I would shut down when he’d bring up issues in our relationship, as in freeze and be unable to speak until I break down crying if he kept asking me to say something (which I recognize we’re both at fault here now?) but we moved past it a bit. It’s also very difficult for me to be intimate which he has expressed has been an issue as he uses sex as a coping mechanism (bluntly) and still pushes me to my limit where I have to say no and it just makes me feel worse.

EDIT: just wanted to add, I adjusted my Zoloft dose and will continue to titrate up, see a psychiatrist monthly, a therapist weekly (soon doing a IOP program). I can do social activities occasionally with the help of Ativan but I am in no way functional as stated.

In the interest of length I’m trying to make this the most important paragraph…. now we’re in summer. He is doing an internship about 300 miles from our hometown so I’m flying sometimes to see him. And I’m not doing well this summer. I’m at home most days with my mom and I have severe CPTSD mostly around her. I’m constantly emotionally exhausted, I jump at every sound, I’ll have panic attacks that last hours and I’ve lost 10 pounds. I struggle to eat and feel nauseous every time and then panic about that and I have anxiety just walking to the store or down the street or just being at home and forcing myself to eat will make me cry. My boyfriend is at his wits end. I’ve invited conversations where we talk about our relationship, and possibly a break up and he shoot’s it down or even said he would “rather have the shell of me than nothing at all” yet he subtly expresses his frustration with me at other times. Believing if I change my mindset, force myself out, eat more, etc I will feel better. That I don’t do those things.

The other night, he RSVP’d us both for a house party. I said I don’t know and he said he knew I wouldn’t want to go but I should try. I didn’t know how to feel about this because he knew I wasn’t doing well. He said he will just go with another friend and I said fine, which I think annoyed him. He said he hasn’t gone out in a long time and is missing out (because of me). And he really wants to go. I said just go without me and he said he doesn’t want to leave me or he will feel guilty. Then today, the day of the party I still said I don’t want to. And he seemed annoyed and said “fine just sleep in all day and then stay up at night on your laptop and not touching me. Have fun with that”. He saw me starting to cry and I said he just wanted to help me and help me get out and feel better. Then restated the same points that if I get out more I’ll feel better. I said he doesn’t understand which made him angrier. We haven’t really spoken about this since and it’s been a strange. He’s asleep now and I’m up with anxiety in the living room. I love him. He loves me. But I’m getting close to the end. And I think he loves another version of me and is grieving me in real time.

I just don’t know if I will be better soon and I can’t deal with his disappointment when my family calls me a loser and antisocial constantly. Are we just not right for each other? Is it just the wrong time? I don’t want to be like this but I feel like he’s making it worse. But he’s almost all I have

so for context, I am currently struggling with both emetophobia and agoraphobia. one of my main anxiety symptoms is nausea, which is triggered when I might be (or am already in) situations where 'escape' is not immediately possible or might take longer than a few seconds - for example, in a busy grocery store, in a car, a cinema/theatre, a large art gallery or museum, public transport, etc. my anxiety has never actually caused me to throw up, but it does cause me to become fixated on the idea that I might be sick and that I need to have quick access to a toilet or the outdoors 'just in case'. I have ended up avoiding a lot of my favourite places and activities in recent months because of this, and I'm also unable to go into the office for work for the same reason.

for what it's worth, it isn't the actual act of vomiting that I am afraid of. when I think of all the times I have been sick in the past, I mainly remember the euphoric relief I have felt after those few moments of unpleasantness. for me the fear is vomiting publicly - a fear of not being able to get to a 'safe' place to be sick in time and the embarrassment and distress that would cause me, in addition to the disgust/discomfort it could cause other people.

I have been trying to practise exposure therapy, and when I feel the anxiety nausea brewing I often tell myself 'I am okay, this is just anxiety, I can sit with this feeling and ride it out because I am not actually going to be sick' - however, I feel like I could be inadvertently sabotaging myself. for all I know, there could in fact be a time in the future where I actually do end up being sick in public, and this false reassurance could put me back at square one.

so all this to say, I'd like to hear people's experiences of vomiting in public, especially in situations where it wasn't an 'acceptable' place to be sick - and if you are comfortable sharing, how you coped afterwards. I'm not seeking reassurance that 'it isn't as bad as you think it's going to be', but I think hearing some real experiences will help me make peace with the fact that it is something that could happen to me. I'm hoping that eventually I will be able to progress in my recovery by accepting that sometimes shit happens, and that even though it might feel humiliating and/or upsetting at the time, it isn't the end of the world if this 'worst case scenario' does happen.

I hope this makes sense but I'm happy to edit this post for clarity if necessary. many thanks in advance!

Hi! I’m currently in a full time exposure therapy program. I am so anxious of taking medicine but I’ve decided to lean into the anxiety and book an appointment. Does anyone have any stories with ssri and emetophobia?

For me, it’s outside. Which isn’t ideal because I’m surrounded by neighbours lmao. But aside from that, throwing up outside is just so easy. I just hose it after and boom it’s over. There’s no disgusting toilet smell, no staring at toilet water.

I’m trying to expose myself to doing things that freak me out as I believe I’ve started developing agoraphobia as a result of the emetophobia. If I use headphones to listen to music when doing things to combat the agoraphobia, is this a safety behaviour? Is this counter productive? I feel like listening to music would distract me from the panic I’m feeling but I don’t tend to listen to music too often as a safety behaviour in regards to emetophobia unless I’m using it for breathing music to try to regulate my breathing in the midst of a panic attack?
Please let me know so that if it’s counterintuitive I’ll know not to use music during exposure.

hi! today i went over for a supper at my ex bfs mom's place, and one of the things she made was corn on the cob. i haven't been eating very well since Thursday/Friday last week, so i was hungry and i ate a piece of corn on the cob. i ate mine before she ate hers, and when she bit into it she was like "this tastes old" because it wasn't as sweet and she didn't finish hers

i am so worried and scared because now im having diarrhea and thankfully i have my own bathroom in the airbnb (its a room with a private bathroom attached), but i have to travel in a few days on Sunday and im so worried. every night that I've been in this city since this past Saturday has been filled with anxiety, and now i feel worse. i just need positive comments or anything really😔 thank you❤️

I was told there are two scenes in Obsession with vomit and one of them is apparently pretty graphic. How bad is it and when specifically does it happen?

So proud of myself: I'm an emetophobe for more than 4 decades and it has often kept me from enjoying things.  But I didn't let this fear stop me from a recent trip to Cental America.  On this trip I had a blast and conquered several exposures:  eating raw fruit and drinking the water in a country where the risk is more elevated than at home; eating from buffets; riding a bus for hours on twisty mountain roads despite my very real tendency toward motion sickness in this scenario (thanks Dramamine non-drowsy, sea bands, and Libby library/audiobook app); using bathrooms that are well below my preferred level of cleanliness; and going on a zipline course.  But the biggest trigger of all was that a person in our group threw up unexpectedly all over himself on Day 1.  I didn't freak out. I boarded a bus with him, ate buffets with him, etc.  (Knowing that it was probably altitude sickness helped a lot).  I had a lot of fun!  You can do hard things.

i have had this phobia since i was 7 years old when my sister projectile vomited in the car and i couldn't get out. this summer, i have a trip planned where i will be in the car for multiple hours every day, 10 hours the first day, and i won't be able to be the one driving. i was very anxious on the car ride home yesterday from a restaurant which was only an hour and 15 minutes. i am fearing i won't be able to do this trip. i used to be fine on long car trips, but lately, my fear has just been getting the best of me and i think about vomit/sickness CONSTANTLY. if i cancel going on my trip, am i just giving into the fear, or sparing myself of a huge exposure too soon?

I'm freaking out a little bit.

My mom has been having bouts of diarrhea all day. The thing is, she isn't feeling sick, no nausea, no cramps, no fever. Just gas and then diarrhea after. She had coffee, juice and cereal in the morning because she didn't think much of it but as it continued, she stopped eating and just drank some electrolytes and had some crackers. She still has it but not in big amounts in general.

I don't know what to do because we have one bathroom and she told us hours later that she has it so we weren't as cautious prior. I don't know if it's a bug or not. She doesn't drink water at all and is terrible at hydration intake. It's been very extremely hot here too these days due to heatwave. So I don't know how to treat it.

I've been struggling with my phobia due to already dealing with discomfort due to my conditions and having to worry about a possible bug in June is also something I don't wanna deal with.

Hey so I have severe emetophobia since I was 14. 2024 I started the recovery and in August I’m going to fly for the first time. I’ve never flown in my whole life and I’m so scared that I’m going to be sick (motion sick) or anyone else in the plane. TBH I never really got motion sick but I’m still so scared. Has anyone some tips on how to keep calm and distract myself? Except for breathing exercises. Maybe some fudget toys? Id appreciate every Tipp!!