How did you know?

[PrincessGilly]

How did you know you had Emet? Was you diagnosed by a GP? Self diagnosed?

How did you even hear about Emet?

xx

[BreaRose]

Mostly, these feelings of panic started when I first started school as a child. I remember feeling scared sitting in a large class of kids (especially after lunch) and I would ALWAYS scan their faces and have an escape plan for if it ever did happen. In middle school, we had done a section in my science class about phobias and what they were and how to know if you had a phobia, but the example they used was spiders and I didn't really put 2 and 2 together. In highschool is when I would say the problem peaked. Kids seemed to enjoy talking about v* and all the CRAZY parties they had. Not to mention the 'Stomach Capacity Test' I have talked about in a seperate forum. I didn't actually know the name of what it was until a little while ago when I googled 'v* phobia'.

When I read the FAQ on this page, I knew it was a match. A few weeks before finding this website, my boyfriend had v* in a tent that we were camping in about 1 foot from my head while I was sleeping. I did EVERYTHING that the FAQ laid out. I closed my eyes, plugged my ears and starting SCREAMING at him. After screaming for about 15 seconds, maybe, I lept OVER his feet and plummeted out of the tent onto the ground. I picked up my shoes and made a mad dash for the camp fire that was approx. 40 feet away WITHOUT putting my shoes on. I spent the next 2 - 3 hours FREAKING out. Shaking, sweating, feeling sick myself, pacing, breathing hard, dizzy. I wanted SOOOO bad to go check on him. To make sure he was ok. To make sure he hadn't choked or inhaled it or someting. But I couldn't. Everytime I walked toward the tent I couldn't breath. I froze in fear and I couldn't. I was terrified he was going to come out of the tent covered in it and come towards me. And now, irrationally, I have a hard time trusting him when he's too close to me. When we're asleep in bed, I will wake up to make sure he's not facing me and if he is, I'll rub his shoulders to get him to roll over so he faced away. I can't watch him eat and everytime he coughs or sneezes I have a mini panic attack for that brief second of noise.

I am self diagnosed, but I know that it is emetophobia. I have other , anxiety related, things I do such as bite my finger nails and pick at my skin (blemishes/scabs/dry skin/ bumps) so having emetophobia isn't out of the realm of posibility for me. My boyfriend tells me I am too stressed all the time about things I shouldn't be stressed about. That I worry too much and need to just relax. I wish I could....

[missj]

SD. I knew I had a serious irrational fear of v*-ing from a young age. I became super OCD about hand-sanitizer and feared being around ANYONE who had any sort of illness.

I heard about emet when I was reading a book and realized that, at that time, v*-ing was ranked as a larger fear in the USA than death.

[IluvMichaelJackson]

I just figured it out. I mean, I would have a complete panic attack

[olschesky]

mine started at age 8......but didn't know it had a name or anything until 50 years later......found out, thankfully by googling.......it's great to not feel so all alone in this

[Emjay]

I remember once one of my friends got sick at my house and I freaked out and ran into a different room. Another time I got sick myself and my mom made a HUGE deal about it like I was going to die. I think because my mom freaked out about it so much it eventually made me so scared about it. I noticed my fear when I was 15. I am 21 now. I think it is somethhing you get from childhood.

[Rebecca85]

I have always panicked whenever I saw someone get ill, but everyone always assumed it was because it made me feel sick. It doesn't, and I'm not even afraid of being sick myself any more. But I found out it was emetophobia when I was working at a library and this little book about emetophobia just caught my eye. I read as much as I could without getting caught not doing my job properly, and thought 'yep that's me!'

[claire43]

Ive had a fear of v* and n* since I was a young child. I knew it wasnt normal but my mother had the same irrational fears and I probably picked up on it from her. It wasnt until I was in my mid 30's ( Im now 44), that I read a magazine article about a woman who suffered from all the same symptoms as me and my mother and it actually had a name - emetophobia! It made it seem less embarresing that this was a recognised condition although Ive never been able to get my doctors to grasp how much this phobia can take over a persons life

[krabcakes99]

I found out I was afraid of throwing up when i was about 8. I last v*ed when I was 7, and was completely fine. I guess my fear accumulated during that year, though, because by third grade, I started asking my mom "am i going to throw up?" every day she dropped me off at school. I always knew her answer would be no, but i needed to be absolutely sure to start my day. It was like she could prevent it or something, lol. And I also made sure I ate one piece of fruit each day, because I thought that it would also prevent me from getting sick for some strange reason. I just found out what my fear was at the beginning of last year around september, and learned more about its popularity by actually writing a speech about emetophobia for school.

[nhernandez1194]

I just knew. After my most traumatic experience with v*, I just knew. There was no doubt in my mind. It was like asking how you know if you're right or left handed. You just do.

I've never sought professional help because I don't believe in taking medicine unless absolutely necessary, and unfortunately they make money some where for the most part.* It's been almost seven years now on my own and am significantly better.

*I did not mean to offend anyone or start any arguments with that comment about doctors only prescribing medicine.