Hi guys, remember me?

[Margaret]

Hey guys,

I can't believe how long it has been since I've been here! How are you all doing? I have been reading on the forum and see SimpleMe is still here. Hi girl! Have to read somewhat further to find other people I might know. And of course hi to all the people i don't know!

For the guys who don't remember me: I am Margaret, 33 years old, from the Netherlands, happily married. I am a webmaster by profession. And of course I have emetophobia, I am mainly afraid to vomit in front of others, or to see others vomit. I was very active on this phorum before 2002, when I first discovered what I had. Then I built a Dutch version of this site, which was a bigger success than I ever expected. From there we decided to start an emetophobia foundation in the Netherlands, which I am chairman of. This year our goal is to inform as many family doctors as possible about the phobia. And I wrote a book which was published 3 years ago and is now in his third edition. The book gave the phobia a lot of attention, so most Dutch people are not that unfamiliar with it anymore. That is a result where I am very proud of.

Soluene, who just came back to this forum too, and I know each other from this forum 8 years back, we kept in contact all that time. We talked about what my book did in the Netherlands, and decided to write an English version too, together! The book is not only about how it is living with emetophobia, it also got stories from different emetophobes, facts about emetophobia and tips to people who have it.

Our first step is to update the facts, therefore I have made a questionnaire. I was hoping you guys can fill it in for us. I will finish it this night and put it on.

Bye for now.

Margaret

[harmonygirl72]

Great to hear from you again! I am also from the old days! I think way back in the day I may have posted under my real name, Mary. But, I have been harmonygirl72 for probably the last 8 years, I'd guess. Anyway, congrats on all your successes and I would be happy to help in any way I can!

Mary

[Margaret]

Hi Mary! Good to hear from you again. How are you doing? Any progress on the emetophobia department?

[harmonygirl72]

I am doing well. Got married on 7-7-07, and just bought a house. Now, we are trying for a baby! My emet has gotten a lot better. I was in therapy for awhile, and it helped a lot! I will do your questionnaire as soon as I get some time. Good to see you!

[grgygrl]

Hi Margaret!! I will be glad to fill out your questionnaire too!

Good for you for bringing attention regarding this phobia to doctors as i know there is a wide need for treatment and most doctors have never even heard of it before. I wish there was something like that in the United States. I hope it is very successful and reaches out to alot of Emets!!

[SimplyMe]

MARGARET! Hey there! Welcome back! I'm going to pm you my email address! Congratulations on the book as well as all of your successes! Amazing!

[sage]

Hi Margaret,

Long time no talk-to...I think I emailed you before but if not, congratulations on your Dutch site and your book. I did research for a book on emetophobia with the therapist that treated me, but we never got the project off the ground because I wrote and published a larger work on personal leadership in general. It took a lot of my time. Now I'm still swamped with promoting it.

It will be good to talk with Soluene again too...!

[Margaret]

Hi!

Thank you for your respond georgi! Today I got some good news. One of the Dutch leading Magazine for women nominated me to be one of their 'better world woman'. A title for women who use their sparetime to make the world a better place. We will get 1500 euro for that, and I am going to blog on their website about how I spend it. The money is going to be used for a visibility campaign on family doctors (we have made a diagnostic card for that), and the blogging itself will be helpful in our goal to make the phobia a more known and accepted phobia! I am so happy. The only thing is I have to go to a photo shoot next friday which I find very scary.

Thank you for your email address Simpleme! How are you doing?? Nice to see you again.

And Sage, good for you that you are still helping emets! And wow, your book looks great! I know how it works, because I planned to write a workbook with my Dutch book, and found myself writing about personal growth in general. Which I couldn't finish, because I kept thinking 'who am I to be this wise about it' - lol.

Emetophobia-wise, I have made some progress too. I was in therapy for 3 years (cognitive behaverial therapy) where I learned to recognize the underlying emotions which trigger panick attacks. That are mainly feelings of (helpless) anger, which I surpressed because that is what I learned from my mother when I was young. In stead I felt them as nausea. And then I panicked. We worked on my avoidence too. After 3 years I must say I know totally understand what is happening and why it is happening, which gives relief. Unfortunately I am not able to stop it (anxiety/panicking) from happening yet. So I will give EMDR therapy a try, I have my intake next week.

Now that I discovered it is not really about vomiting, my anxiety, I can handle it better. We got a dog, 4 months ago, and ofcourse he has vomited. And allthough I am a bit spastic about it, I am handling it better than I thought I would.

This is my pride and joy:

[sage]

holy crap! WHAT AN AWESOME PHOTO! Did you shoot that? If so...you should think about professional photography!

- nice to hear from you again and glad you're doing better. I feel completely anxiety-free and it's great! Almost 5 years now!

[HDogg]

Hi, Margaret! Wow, it's been a long time! It sounds like you are doing very well. Yea! I will fill out the questionnaire when I get a free moment. I have a baby boy now (born May 24th) and I need to head off to bed. I'll try to fill it out tomorrow, during his naps or after he goes to bed. Good to see you again![img]smileys/smilies_01.gif[/img]

[grgygrl]

Gorgeous dog, what a cutie!!