How you got emetaphobia...

[kaylin]

My question is... have anyone had this fear but know it wasnt because of a traumatic event? I have only thrown up once in my life when I was 3 and I dont remember anything before it or after it, but I remember every detail of the whole process. I KNOW for sure it wasnt traumatic, which leads me to be confused about why I fear this so desperately!!

[sicpuppy]

my n* feeling starts from the throat because when i was little a stupid kid tried to shove a fork down my throat and the phobia i think it started because I can't v* unless im really s* for houres and houres..and I remember every 7 times I v* in my life ..pure torture

[emetmama]

I have no idea where it came from. I have never had any traumatic experiences.

________
Rolls-Royce Silver Seraph

[prncesspnk]

i have a couple of theories.

once, when i was four, a little girl t*u* during pre-school, right in
front of me, all over the floor. i wasn't particularly scared, but very
intrigued. my mom said that after that incident, i didn't stop asking
questions about v*. we were even in the car once shortly after that
incident, and i saw a squirrel on someone's lawn and immediately
asked, "mommy, do squirrels t*u* too??" although i only v*ed a
couple of times after the pre-school incident, i remember those times
so vividly, and i can remember every incidence of anyone else v*ing
around me. i don't remember any instances before that day though...
however, it's very possible that i had never v*ed before then either,
and i had no idea what was happening to that girl, and maybe that
frightened me. i'm not sure.

another possibility... i've had issues with my stomach since i was
about 5 or 6. i'm not sure if those were caused by my emet or if my
emet was caused by anxieties surrounding the ibs and the reflux
issues i was diagnosed with at such a young age.

regardless of what caused it, i know it began when i was somewhere
between the ages of 4 and 6. i remember feeling very s* once when i
was 6 and even then, i was fighting the urge to v* because i hated it
so much. i won the fight, even at that young of an age... and, i had
scarlet fever during that episode. the last time i v*ed was when i was
6. i was terrified, but i do remember asking myself what i was so
afraid of. maybe i just hated it so much, that it slowly led to a phobia.
i'm not sure.

[jezebel89]

I remember having the flu when I was super little, five or something, and remember DISTINCTLY remember NOOOTTTT caring. At all. Nope. I remember thinking, Ah, missed a few seconds of my TV show! I wish so much I could go back to that. But I never had a traumatic experience. As I said in another post, both my therapists agree with the conclusion that it's just something I grew to dislike so much, I starting thinking about it on a catastrophic level.

[sage]

I have some info about the causes of this phobia on my website at www.emetophobiahelp.blogspot.com

Basically, it takes a number of contributing factors to end up with it. "Traumatic events" in and of themselves don't lead to phobia in everyone - lots of kids have scary vomiting experiences and don't end up with phobias. Part of it is genetic (up to 50%) and there is usually evidence of attachment issues early in childhood.
Trauma of any kind would compound the problem of course. Sometimes it's sexual abuse, sometimes another frightening event. It all gets mixed up together, and you get some disorder or other. The fact it turns out to be emetophobia, and not alcoholism or depression or sexual disfunction is really rather arbitrary (which sucks salmon, imo!)

Anyway, the point is that it's never just one thing - those who study anxiety disorders seriously have all concluded this. But exactly which factors contribute to each person's phobia is up for grabs.