Hello - i found this website by pure chance. I was looking (peaking behind my hands) at a website about vomiting and found the link to this site. It's what i needed, but i never knew where to look. Until recently i never realised there were so many people like me around. I feel so relieved to know i'm not alone. I have hadEmet since i was about 10 years old. My mum was an alcoholic and ifound her choking on her v* I then began to play the scene over and over in my mind. I found that if my brother or sister got sick i would hide up and whilst they were ill i couldn't eat anything cos i thought i would be feeding the virus that might be inside me! I never spoke to anybody about my feelings and it was when my 3rd child was born in 1998 with Down's syndrome that it all came out. I sat in a room after she was born and a doctor said 'she has Down's syndrome' i then asked questions and i can remember him saying she will get more bugs and viruses than other children and i just screamed at him. A social worker came to see me and i said i wanted her adopted when asked why i said 'i can't handle v*' i then tried to kill myself and after a long spell in a psychiatric unit, and the day to day help of a community psychiatric nurse i began to come to terms with it all. The thing i find strange now is that i was diagnosed as having Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Nobody has ever mentioned the work emetophobia. Until last week i never knew it existed. I honestly though i was the only one who hated v*. I wonder now how many more people are out there who are unaware that there is help for people who have the v* phobia?whenevever i got low i found myself looking at websites with people v*. I now realise it's not necessary to put myself through this harsh treatment.I am so glad to have found you all. I hope you will all except me as a newbie!Love Trixie x