Emetophobia is a specific phobia that involves an extreme fear of vomiting, seeing vomit, watching other people vomit, or feeling sick.
Generally, most people don’t like vomiting. However this dislike is usually contained to the time it happened. People with emetophobia, on the other hand, spend a lot of time worrying about vomiting, even if they or those around them don’t feel ill. Just the thought that someone might vomit is often enough to cause intense distress.
Vomit Phobia in Children and Teens
Consequences associated with the fear of throwing up can be extreme. In children, vomit phobia can lead to school refusal and avoidance. Academic performance may suffer, and children may miss out on certain developmentally important social milestones. Even when long standing social problems do not develop, children with vomit phobia still experience a great deal of distress, unhappiness, fear, and anxiety.
Vomiting isn’t the most pleasant or graceful experience, however it’s an inevitable fact of life. We all do it at some point. However, this natural act can cause anxiety in a lot of people, especially in children. If your child doesn’t want to go to school out of fear of getting sick and throwing up, or gets hysterical when she sees another person vomit or gag, you are not alone.
Other behaviors that might point to emetophobia include:
- eliminating foods that you associate with vomiting
- eating slowly, eating very little, or eating only at home
- smelling or checking food often to make sure it hasn’t gone bad
- not touching surfaces that could have germs that lead to illness, such as doorknobs, toilet seats or flushes, handrails, or public computers
- washing hands, dishes, food, and food preparation tools excessively
- avoiding drinking alcohol or taking medication that could cause nausea
- avoiding travel, school, parties, public transportation, or any crowded public space
- having trouble breathing, tightness in the chest, or increased heartbeat at the thought of vomit
What causes it?
- getting extremely sick in public
- having a bad case of food poisoning
- seeing someone else throw up
- having someone vomit on you
- having a panic attack during an incident of vomiting
The Cycle of Emetophobia
A person with Emetophobia goes through a repetitive cycle that’s quite similar to the cycle of Panic Disorder. First, something reminds them of vomiting. Maybe they hear a coworker is home with the flu; or sees a movie or TV show in which a character vomits.
Then, a thought about vomiting quickly passes through their mind, consciously or unconsciously. Next thing you know, they are checking for physical sensations that they associate with vomiting. You don’t have to look too hard to find a sign of something you fear, and sooner or later you feel as though you have some symptom that suggests the possibility of vomiting.
Finally, they enter the vomit phobia phase. To protect themselves they might leave work early, or skip a meal. Maybe avoiding a trip to the bathroom, fearing that the sight of a toilet might induce vomiting. And so the cycle of fearful anticipation, looking for signs of trouble, and chronic avoidance that characterises Panic Disorder plays itself out with Emetophobia as well.
Tips to Help You Overcome Emetophobia
1) Get to the root of your fear
If you want to know how to overcome emetophobia, one of the first things you need to do is figure out what caused you to develop emetophobia in the first place.
2) Challenge fearful thoughts
Once you know what caused your emetophobia and the things that frighten you most about vomiting, spend some time challenging your fears with logic.
3) Recognise anxiety isn’t the same as sickness
One of the challenges with emetophobia is that the fear it creates can cause stomach upset and digestive distress, and since these sensations feed into the fear of throwing up, it becomes a vicious cycle.
4) Learn mindful breathing
This can be very calming. Practise doing 7-11 breathing . It’s one of the most common breathing techniques for anxiety.
5) Make it funny
This technique is geared towards kids and teens who suffer from emetophobia, but can be helpful to adults as well. The idea behind this technique is to try and replace fear with humour. This will take time, but can be very helpful with little ones!
6) Exposure Therapy
If none of the tips and strategies you’ve tried are working, Exposure Therapy (ET) is perhaps an option to consider. The idea of being exposed to vomit can feel extremely overwhelming to someone with emetophobia, but rest assured that ET is focused more on challenging the avoidance behaviours that negatively reinforce your fear of throwing up.
While the anxiety caused by emetophobia might feel overwhelming, the condition is usually treatable with the help of a therapist.
Sydney Phobia Therapy has an online therapy for emetophobia.
We currently use a 3rd generation version for fear of vomiting phobia therapy based on the original Fast Phobia Cure initially created by Richard Bandler and John Grinder in the 1970’s.
Now when I say fast, I mean typically one session only, no homework and its content free.
Content free means you don’t talk about, and you certainly don’t tell me, because I don’t want it either. You’re seeing me online, so stay in the comfort of your own space and no travel time, to have it removed, not to see if we can talk it to death.
