Hi! I am new to this forum and wanted to introduce myself. I am 32 years old and a mother of three little girls. In hindsight I have been living with this phobia for as long as I can remember. Up until recently I have just always thought I was weird and never realized this was an actual phobia. It was particularly bad from about age 11 to 18 and then got a little better. It has really gotten unbearable since having children. I actually did prety well with pregnancy which surprised me, but I absolutely cannot even begin to deal with my children when they are sick. Even if they don't have a GI related illness, I worry that it will become one. We had a horrible experience a couple years ago at Christmas where it seemed everyone was getting the "ick" as I like to call it. It was a nightmare and that was when I realized I had a pretty serious problem. I ended up in the hospital partially because I finally caught the "ick" too, but mostly because I hadn't eaten in 6 days while dealing with multiple sick family members and was 3 weeks postpartum.


It is affecting my ability to cope on a daily basis now and with three children under the age of 5 it is an inevitable evil I have to face on a regular basis. I finally called a doctor today about it and have an appointment for tomorrow. I'm not convinced anything can be done about this but I would be so thrilled if I could get some help!!! I would give anything to get rid of this ridiculous and debilitating phobia. Nobody in my family gets it. they just think I am odd. I'm hoping a community like this of others who understand what it is like can offer me some support as I start out on this journey of treatment....hopefully!!!