27 Years no sickness!

[steve_pattenden]

Hi all, my name is Steve. I'm new to these Forums and I was totally stunned to see that there are so many others like myself! I was last sick when I was about 12 and since then I haven't. I've had food poisining, been drunk, and travelled a lot but always managed to avoid vomiting. It started when I was growing up, I used to run to the bottom of the garden when a member of my family was being sick. I used to hide behind the aviary and put my hands over my ears and stay there until they 'd stopped. I was constantly in a state of panic, anxiety and fear about being around people and either my fear of being sick in front of people or them being sick in front of me. It's developed over the years, and now I have OCD which means that I have to wash my hands several times, not touch door handles in the centre, make sure food is properly heated, not travel without taking sickness pills. I scrutinise sell by dates. I am vegetarian because of cruelty but also because I am afraid to poison my body with bacteria and salmonella. I once had a partner who got food poising, salmonella, and he was being sick constantly for days on end. I live in fear of that ever happening to me because I think I would rather kill myself than have to vomit more than once. If it happened and I couldn't stop it I think I could cope with it happening the once but I would then be terrified of it happening again and of course then I would recognise what the feeling was like and know when it was coming on. I don't know what I'm more in fear of, being sick or recognising the feeling when its going to happen. I used to share a room with my brother when I was growing up and he used to come in after having drunk a lot of beer and eating chinese food and I used to wait for him to start throwing up into a bucket that my mum would rush in with. It was horrendous. I think the sound and having to put up with that has turned me against it and at some point I must have vowed never to allow myself to be sick ever again. I remember that I had trouble sleeping and I used to wake in the middles of the night in fear of being sick at night and have trouble getting back to sleep again. I also used to have trouble getting to sleep because I used to think that I was more likely to be sick in my sleep and suffocate. This is massive, its such a big problem that its taken over my life and it rules me. Thank you for reading my posting. I'd be really interested to hear from any similar experiences. I'm flying to Thailand from London on Monday and the flight is 13Hours. Once when I was flying I became nauseous on landing and ended up biting my hand so hard that I drew blood. Thanks again.

[shiva]

Hi there. It is inspiring to hear that despite your phobia you are able to travel and live a pretty productive life!


I think I am starting to cut meat out of my diet. I eat it only a couple times a week and have cut out red meat completely after reading "Fast Food Nation". Yuk.


Hope to see you around on the message board! Take Care!

[ejb199]

Welcome Steve!

wow - 27 years! well that gives me hope. altho i broke my 10 years last year when i got drunk - i usually know my limits, but obviously not....doh. It did kinda help me tho when i look back. it made me realise that it isnt so bad really...altho it hasnt stopped me worrying. [img]smileys/smilies_06.gif[/img]

Anyways - welcome to the site! u must tell us all about Thailand - id love to go someday!

have a good flight!
ems x

[sarah_rousseau]

Wow, I'm envoius! I hate to fly but that's because I'm terrified of travel sickness, not just mine but other people as well. I panic all the time I'm in the air. I would love to be able to tarvel more but I don't trust myself!


I'm new to this site too but my experiences when I was little seem similar. I would hide in my room away from the family for days if anyone was ill. It is so nice to find out that you're not the only one!


Have a good trip!

[ejb199]

Sarah - from a frequent flyer - i have never seen or heard of ANYONE getting air sick......
im sure there are exceptions, but it is very rare!

maybe try a short trip - i went to dublin recently - 35 mins fom bristol! and it beats boats any day!


ems x

[steve_pattenden]

Thanks for all your nice comments and welcomes. Well only 2 days or so away from the big flights! I'm looking forward to it but with some apprehension. I have been on flights where we've had rough landings and a few people have been sick. I admit that you see it much less than you ever used to but I used to work for the airlines and I used to fly ALOT! I was once crossing the atlantic and mid way the plane hit some of the worst turbulence I have ever known and it lasted about 2 hours. I thought I was going to die because so many people around me were being ill and there was nowhere that I could go to get off. I just put my headphones and turned the music up and shut my eyes and hoped it would stop. I did feel green when I got off but I wasn't sick and there have been so many instances like that on flights where I have been green and almost reaching for the sick bag on landing but never have been ill. Just goes to show. I almost think that because its now been so long since the last time, touch wood and god forbid, it's not likely to happen again. I read somewhere that the action of being sick can kind of get out of your brain soyou almost get out of the swing of it and it becomes much harder to actually get sick. I can't believe I'm sitting on this website talking about my least favourite subject!! But its good to talk about it with people that understand. I worked recently with another emetophobic! She is Australian. I couldn't believe that there was someone else like me, I thought she was taking the mick or joking! I shall let you know how the flights go and yes I'm looking forward to the holiday.


Thanks for your contributions. / Steve

[swiftette]

Hi Steve, I flew with my family to Florida last May and I found that a prescription drug called meclizine really helped both calm my stomach, and my nerves.

[stella9]

Wow, Steve - 13 hours!!!!



I have taken some very long flights 13 hours plus. I despise
flying, but with that said, I have probably flown a zillion miles since
I've been all over the world.



The worst and I mean worst experience, in my view, is to hit
turbulence either over the Atlantic or Pacific on a night time long
haul flight. It is pitch black outside that there is nowhere to
focus your eyes. Even night flights across the continents have
lights below to look at. On one of my journeys to Europe, the
pilot called out an emergency for all passengers to buckle up and
flight attendants to get seated immediately as we were going to hit
some "pretty severe chop." I wanted to jump out of the
plane. I put on the headphones, covered my head with a blanket
and prayed to die. The whole episode was about an hour and it was
horrendous.



Another time we were flying back from Vancouver, British Columbia and
we had to change planes in Chicago. As we were taking off from
Chicago, the pilot told us that the entire flight to Baltimore (1.5
hours) would be very turbulent. I was bummed out because we got
bumped into First Class. Anyway it was so terrible that the
flight attendant pulled out her rosary beads and threw herself to the
floor praying for the plane to not crash. Not a good thing for a
fearful flyer, like myself, to see. My husband stayed very
calm. However, once we landed he told me that if that had been
his first flight, it would have been his last. I wished the pilot
would have told us about the upcoming horror before we took off the
runway because I would have gotten off the plane and taken the Amtrak.



I don't know why the pilots can't divert from turbulence. Don't
they use Doppler Radar? I went to Florida last May and the flight
down was perfect. The entire flight was smooth as silk. In
fact, my daughter asked me if we were moving. The flight home was
yucky since we flew over thunderstorms up the entire East Coast.
Thank G-d my son was asleep because he is worse than me on a plane.



The irony is I am more afraid of turbulence because of the v***
factor. If I knew that no one would v***, the turbulence would
not bother me in the least. Most people fear the plane crashing
from turbulence. Crazy me, I fear the big V.



Steve, try and have a great trip. Take some Dramamine, a book, a
book of either crosswords or seek and fine, a cd player and some ginger
aromatherapy oils to sprinkle around your seat to keep the icky plane
smells at bay.



Let us know about your journey when you return.



Stella