Friends & Family Effected

[bellagracehall]

I have had emetophobia all my life and my parents thought I would just grow out of it. But I am now 14 and I havent. If anything its worse. So whenever anyone is ill I have a panic attack and my parents get annoyed with me. They think I am seeking attention. They say that they are not going to be with me, but with my sister (normally the one who is ill). Obviously this effects our relationship...

It also effects my relationship with my friends. I cannot have sleepovers and everytime they invite me to get drunk with them (a common hobby in our school, I can't see why) I have to turn them down. I recently dropped out of a trip to Italy my friends were looking forward me going to due to travelsickness problems. So therefore: I have no social life.

I am sure that my relationships with my friends and family would be much stronger if I didnt have this supid fear controlling me the whole time.

[jkl81]

Not getting drunk with your friends is actually a good thing, but letting this phobia control your social life is not. Try not to give in completely. Its harder as you get older not to become a hermit. So don't let it own you.

[paulinek]

You really need to nip in the bud it stopping you going out. I did just that and like jkl81 says the older you get or th elonger it's been going on the harder that sort of thing is to get out of.

It's the easy thing (and attractive option sometimes) to stay at home and avoid contact with others but you miss out on so much in life that you really shouldn't go down that road.

You need to come up with some coping strategies for socialising and travel - and they are different for everyone but for me they are the usual hand hygiene rules and not eating things that are "high risk" in restaurants, getting an aisle seat in theatres/cinemas (not that i've been in one for years [img]smileys/smilies_04.gif[/img] ) and always having a way of getting myself home on my own if I feel the need to leave early so I don't start the evening feeling trapped as that is a sure fire way to guarantee a panic attack for me.

I only learnt these things through a short course of cognitive behaviour therapy that I got for free through my GP, there was a 6 month waiting list but it was well worth the wait.

You shouldn't be drinking alcohol let alone getting drunk at your age anyway so don't give that a second thought, find some friends that don't do that sort of thing. And now I'm starting to sound like my mum [img]smileys/smilies_09.gif[/img]

On the subject of your family, I'm sure they are reacting the way they are as they do not understand the phobia fully and how it affects you, so they are probably just seeing it as you making a fuss for attention etc.

Print stuff off here and other sources on the internet on what emet is and maybe sit down with your mum and ask if she will read it and talk to you about it. Then you could do the same on a one to one basis with the rest of your family or your mum could maybe have a word to them?