Driving my Family Crazy n

Um... hi. New here. No idea what I'm doing, but I need help. Ima try to keep this as short as possible.

I've been missing a lot of school. All because of my phobia. 8th grade, 13 years old.

Yesterday, me and my mom were driving down the driveway to go to school (I avoid the bus as much as possible), when I started feeling like, well, crap. I told my mom I wanted to go home, in which she started to yell at me, and speed up the driveway back home.

We sped into the garage, but my mom didn't pull the brake. Not until crashing into the garage fridge, getting out, kicking the fridge, yelling at me, and going inside, locking herself in her room.

Meanwhile, I'm in the car, having a panic attack after almost dying. I stayed in there a full 20 minutes before my dad came home from work and helped me inside.

Ack! Posted this before I finished typing! Ima continue here, since I have no idea how to edit/delete posts...

Anyways, before I started missing so much school, I didn't even know that I was capable of having panic attacks. But with all this yelling and speeding cars (very common occurrence now), I'm having them very often.

Anyway, later at night, my dad went out to pick up dinner. Hamburgers. And whoopty-doo, they made me feel like crap.

The next morning (today), I didn't want to go to school again, over the burger. I stayed home again, but it's driving my parents insane.

My mom's still in her bedroom, depressed and never leaving, my dad's missing work, very upset with me, and my little brother's very worried, and has no idea what's happening.

This is only 3 days into the week, and I feel very pressured to go to school tomorrow, but I'm still worried about the burger...

I need help with my parents. And the burger.

Hi, Flecho.

I've had crippling emet for a while, and last year it was so bad that I also would miss school often; plus, I never went out with friends because I was worried about what would happen. This year, I feel like I've gotten it under control more, and I'm able to keep it on the down-low (ironically, as I'm typing this, my mom came home with the SV* and I also had to deal with a panic attack, as you did, so we'll see how I manage after a year of recovery. We're in this together :') ).

The main element that helped me was realizing my own fear, and rationalizing it. I took time to think about the cycle we all know too well: the "as soon as you feel a little bit sick, you freak out, which makes you feel even sicker, which makes you freak out more..." cycle. I have to remind myself that it's in my head, and that lead me to realize the issue that many emets have. It's your mind against your mind. Sure, my mind can drive me into panic attacks, but I found out that it's just as 'gullible' to the placebo effect. It's a mental thing: for example, the pressure point on my wrist helped me a LOT, whether it was placebo or not.

This also made me realize how much stuff you can psych yourself up over, that really, in the end, is nothing. With the burger situation, remember to be rational over all else. Did anyone else in your family get sick from them? If not, then there's no chance of FP*. If there's ANYTHING at all, it would be indigestion, which is nothing serious at all. When I feel sick after eating (which still happens from time to time), I tell myself it's just indigestion. It will pass in the hour. If it doesn't, then it's in your head. REMEMBER THAT. Take a deep breath. You're absolutely fine. The real enemy is yourself, and once you realize that there's nothing to be worried about in this particular case, you'll be surprised what can happen.

I sincerely wish you the best of luck. Although your parents may find it hard to empathize, remember that there are so many others like you out there, such as myself. You can trust that I've been through the same things you have, and being 16 and a junior in high school (relatively close to your age), I can relate to your exact situation.