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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Apr 2004
    Location
    United Kingdom
    Posts
    3

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    dear friends,

    I am going to tell you all how I cured myself of my emetophobia. it was not really that difficult, any of you could do it - honestly! However, it might be easier if you have have vomited within the last few years & can still remember it clearly. However, I'm sure it would still work even if you have not vomited for a long time.

    I was born in 1955, and I suffered from emetophobia from about age 6 or 7, until about the end of 2001 - that's about 40 years. During that time, the phobia had affected my life profoundly, almost making me forgo the absolute joy of fathering a child.

    What happened in 2001 was that I got the dreaded norovirus (or at least something like it). I spent from about 1am until about 3am desperately fighting the nausea (with the help of anti-emetic pills), until I was so tired I couldn't fight it any longer. I then vomited 3 times until I started to feel just a little better around 5-6am. Later that morning, I realised that vomiting was not really that bad - however this did not last more than a day or two.

    In the weeks following this episode I went into a deep depression, because I realised that my will-power and pills could no longer protect me. I also started to become anorexic - I was never properly hungry & had to continually force myslef to eat. I knew that I was going to go downhill fast unless I took drastic action. About 10 years previously, I had psychotherapy which was only partly sucessfull - after watching videos of people vomiting, I no longer feared others being sick, but this had no effect on my fear of me vomiting.

    Remembering this previous partial success with the videos, I decided that my only hope was to try to de-senitise myself, using my extremely traumatic & frigheningly clear memory of that night of sickness. So what I did was "replay" my memory of vomiting repeatedly, while at the same time telling myself that it was not really that bad, until all the fear (and associated fake nausea) had subsided). I replayed the memory literally as often as I could remember to do it - i.e. whenever I thought about vomiting or the phobia. At first, this would as many as 10 or more times a day (this is a guess - I never counted), and also especially at night when trying to get to sleep.

    I started to see some improvement after about 3-4 months, and this spurred me on to continue, as I then knew it was working. I then really started to enjoy the process - it gave me the one of my greatest ever feelings of achievement to know that I was beating it!

    As the months went by, I gradually remembered to replay my memory fewer & fewer times during the day - this was not avoidance, but was a sign that the phobia was being defeated, as thought about vomiting less & less. It was around this time I started eating meat again (I had been too afraid before), and I became much more carefree in my whole outlook. I was only just beginning to realise what an awfull effect this detestable phobia had on my life.

    After about 9-10 months I realised I had won the battle, when I got an slightly upset stomach one evening, and started to get nervous. However, I knew instinctively what I had to do, I started replaying memory again - this was rather difficult to do while feeling a bit nauseous, but I was rather amazed to find that my fear disappeared completely! I was still feeling slightly nauseous but I *no longer cared* whether I vomited or not. It was then that I knew I really was cured.

    A year or two later, there was another round of stomach viruses doing the rounds, and I was rather taken aback to find that I getting nervous again. So, I simply started replaying my memory, and literally within a few days, my fear had completely gone. Every few years, I find my phobia comes back a bit, but I replay my memory, and within a few days it has gone.

    So this is where I am now - I have had a couple of bad stomach bugs

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Location
    Scotland
    Posts
    150

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    Hi Mark, I wanted to thank you for posting your story. It is encouraging and inspiring to hear that you have cured yourself of emetophobia. We hear so often that this phobia fails to respond to treatment, so a positive story like yours gives so much hope to many of us.


    I feel I am goingalong the right path, but not quite where you are....my goal is to get there and be completely free of emet!


    Thanks again for sharing, M x

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Apr 2004
    Location
    United Kingdom
    Posts
    3

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    I'm writing this follow-up because there were some things I thought of later that I thought important to say...

    1) direct exposure is not</span> necessary for a cure - my experience shows that you can do it all in your head</span>. For many, many years I just assumed that to be cured I would have to have vomiting induced repeatedly - this is not</span> the case.

    2) it is not necessary to explore why the phobia originally started. I often thought about why my phobia started, and came up with several incidents that were good candidates - but this did nothing to help me.

    3) It is not necessary to go to (sometimes very expensive) professionals to get cured. I tried hypnotherapy but it did not help me.

    I should also say that I recommend watching videos in addition (or as a preliminary to) the main task of imaginary vomiting. There is plenty of excellent material available on youtube!

    I should emphasize that when first starting gradual exposure (video or imaginary) you will find it difficult at first</span></span></span>! However, I was astonished at how quickly the fear subsided - it only took about 2 weeks of daily exposure for most of the fear to go away. If you make a start on this &amp; find the going tough, please don't give up! You will see real improvement very quickly!

    best wishes
    mark.

    Edited by: ad1mt

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Location
    United States
    Posts
    1

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    I would just like to say thank you for posting this! I am currently going through an episode right now. I have been feeling ill and I know that right now its all in my head. Just reading this made me feel better because there are so many great strategies for dealing with this.

    I look forward to getting rid of this once and for all![img]smileys/smilies_04.gif[/img]


  5. #5
    Join Date
    Apr 2006
    Location
    Canada
    Posts
    1,497

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    WOW thats amazing Im starting to do this today ! Im glad you were able to find a cure for yourself and thank you for sharing with all of us.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Apr 2004
    Location
    United States
    Posts
    100

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    Wow, i have to say, that was an interesting read. To be honest i found it scary, i guess atthe idea of going through the things you did, myself. Its very inspiring and thats what we need really.


    Also we have to remember that what works for one might not work for others, taking that initial leap like you did is the hardest part, and we all have different levels of the phobia, so some are lessing willing to take that leap.


    As you can well understand, some emets are not even willing to say the word vomit and are totally against any kind of exposure techniques.


    I personally can finally live a semi normal life now, i still have the phobia, and i get scared a lot. Its largely due to experience, developing my own was of coping with the phobia and recognising the 'fake nausea'. (on this point i wanted to comment on the fake nausea you mentioned, i cannot stress enough how much of my life has been taken over byfake nausea, this is what i mean when i say experience, i can now tell the difference)





    Thanks for your story Mark!


    We need more like this guys!!


    [img]smileys/smilies_04.gif[/img]


    John


    IES
    IES Admin

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Location
    United States
    Posts
    317

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    Hello there Mark,





    It sounds like a good idea. I'm quite nervous about trying (I think I will) because the memory of vomiting last January was so traumatic. It haunts me like a murder scene.





    But I'll give it a try and hope desperately that it works to some degree.





    Thanks for sharing.





    ~Maddy
    Seventeen-year-old Madeleine, from Rhode Island

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Oct 2011
    Posts
    331

    Default Re: How I cured myself

    Look what I found! An actual person who actually overcame emetophobia! Wow.

    I realize this thread is very old but because there are so few recovery posts on this forum, it's worth bumping it up for others to see. His method makes a lot of sense.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Oct 2012
    Posts
    2,631

    Default Re: How I cured myself

    Excellent job, Mark! thanks for finding this!

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Sep 2010
    Posts
    1,293

    Default Re: How I cured myself

    That`s great if you just want to be rid of the phobia, but for some of us, it`s about not vting, full stop. It`s more about being in control for people like me.

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Feb 2013
    Location
    Dunedin, NZ
    Posts
    1,569

    Default Re: How I cured myself

    Wow Mark, that is brilliant! Congratulations! Thanks for sharing! I hope you're out there living big! I wonder if it works for when you're only afraid of others being ill..
    Some people are so poor, all they have is money.

    Facebook Donna Mutch

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Mar 2013
    Posts
    20

    Default Re: How I cured myself

    Hello Mark,

    You are an inspiration to me. I have been watching the videos, per my therapist and I thought it would not bother me, however, it terrified me. I see my therapist again tomorrow (2nd visit). I truly only have a problem with myself v*, and others that may infect me with the sv. Do you have any other suggestions to share. Are you afraid to leave the house?

 

 

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