Is Emetophobia the SUPER phobia?

[roadtofreedom]

i was thinking about this during school today (first day).

as you may know we cower about V* and it affects what we do, and how we act. sometimes it keeps us from leaving the house.

but for example someone that is afraid of heights doesn't stay in their house and panic thinking "i hope i dont have to go anywhere high today"

so in someways does this phobia affect us more than other phobias?

if i really think deep down i think this is the only phobia that REALLY has a big affect on me

[jkl81]

Well... the way that emetophobia is worse is that as Sage often has said, it is kin of a fear of yourself, your own body. Take your example of a fear of heights, if you have a true phobia of heights, you can simply choose to limit your exposure to high places. Unless you have to work in a skyscraper or go to a tall hospital or for some other unusual reason be in a high place, you can more or less control your exposure and you can almost always predict it. With vomiting, you can't predict it and your control is pretty limited. I think most of us want control of our minds, our lives and our bodies and that vomiting is the opposite of this so that is why it scares us so much. Not to say that people with other phobias can't be just as miserable as us, but they probably have more options for avoidance or gradual exposure therapy.

[randall3329]

I think the thing with emetophobia is that its a phobia that often leads to other phobias that, although we tend to associate them with our phobia, they actually stand as single phobias on their own to some people. For example: some emets are agrophobic, germophobic, claustraphobic, phobic of drunks, phobic of going out alone, fear of pregnancy....also the side effects like OCD, panic attacks, anti emet dependency. Emet brings alot of other issues with it.

[person54321]

Yes and no. It's worse than most phobias because it is unavoidable. We are in essence, afraid of ourselves. So that does make it much worse. I have a phobia of needles as well (I start hyperventilating at the sight of one thanks to a really clumsy nurse a few years back) and it doesn't interrupt my life in anywhere near the same way. Hesitant to even call them both phobias because of how different they are in severity.

But the no part is, there are other phobias that are similar in their disruption. It's not an emet specific disruption. I can also think of one that's worse that was mentioned on here, fear of pooping. Can you imagine having emet, except you HAD to v* regularly? Yikes. Apparently they take things like pepto and immodium to stall it for weeks.

[MrParker]

I woudn't say it is a "super" phobia. In fact if you think about it really is a stupid phobia to have, scared of a bodily function.

[Janelle]

I don't think it's possible for us to say which is worse. We don't know how other people feel, or how they react. Someone could have a mild phobia of v*, but an extreme fear of heights. Who's to say what's worse? All we know is that this is what we have to deal with, and I think we need to focus on how we can overcome this phobia, rather than focusing on how unfair it may be, or how bad it might be.

[orton99]

Hmmm. I can see what people are saying as this phobia does seem to bring a lot of other issues with it, but I’d be a bit wary of dubbing it a “super-phobia” (although in fairness to the OP I don’t think they meant their post in this way) because this could be counter-productive and discourage people from trying to overcome it, reasoning that “if it’s a super-phobia I’ve no chance!”

I’d guess that there’s a strong element of the grass always being greener with any phobia, as you can look at what you’re struggling with, compare it to something that just so happens has never bothered you (“Heights? I’d love a fear of heights! I’d swap any day! Heights? Huh!”) and conclude that you’d be sitting pretty if only you had A N Other Phobia instead while also bemoaning your bad luck in being lumbered with the one you do actually have.

For example, I can imagine a conversation between an emetophobic and someone scared of dogs as getting quite heated, as the emetophobe explains how upset they are only to have the cynophobic counter by incredulously asking “so let me get this straight – you’ve only been sick once in the last decade while I have to walk past no 43 with the their huge Alsatian every time I leave the house and yet you think you’re hard done by?!” Of course, the emetophobe would then reply with their own tale of woe, but the point is I’d guess that every phobia feels like “the worst” to those who suffer from it so to get into a game of misery oneupmanship seems a bit meaningless and is probably counter-productive to recovery. This is a bit of a tricky case to treat as direct exposure is difficult, but “a bit tricky” is not the same as “impossible”. Don’t forget that a fear of flying (or earthquakes) must be equally awkward to treat for the same reasons, but people are successfully treated for them.

What’s more, I can think of one way in which we’ve actually got it easier than others. No one likes being sick so even the most ambitious treatment programme isn’t trying to get you to think “I’m feeling queasy – woo hoo!!” All anyone’s trying to do is get rid of the anxiety that goes with it. If anyone has it bad it’s arachnophobes, who by the textbook have to end up with a tarantula crawling all over their hand at the local zoo while giving a big, carefree thumbs-up for the camera. No one’s asking us enjoy it if we feel really sick!

[roadtofreedom]

Well... the way that emetophobia is worse is that as Sage often has said, it is kin of a fear of yourself, your own body. Take your example of a fear of heights, if you have a true phobia of heights, you can simply choose to limit your exposure to high places. Unless you have to work in a skyscraper or go to a tall hospital or for some other unusual reason be in a high place, you can more or less control your exposure and you can almost always predict it. With vomiting, you can't predict it and your control is pretty limited. I think most of us want control of our minds, our lives and our bodies and that vomiting is the opposite of this so that is why it scares us so much. Not to say that people with other phobias can't be just as miserable as us, but they probably have more options for avoidance or gradual exposure therapy.

yes thank you, your ringht

[roadtofreedom]

yes everyone i know its not really a SUPER phobia, i juts put that in the title to get more replies (most of my post only get like 2)

[emmalinda]

yer i think tis a bit more severe than oher phobias becasue you cant exactely escape it. i have a fear of spiders as well. if theres a spider in the room i will freak out. but when i leave the room i feel better. I cant really say, oh i feel nauseas, i might go walk into the next room to feel better. its a bit hard like that. We dont have a choice but to put up with how we feel and not escape it. I think we all deserve a medal XD