What is YOUR Definition of "Cured"?

[ButterfliesInHerEyes]

It's unnecessary to make myself vomit. I think doing so could actually re-traumatize me. This isn't avoidance, it's common sense. If I had a fear of heights, I wouldn't jump off a building to overcome my fear.

I think it's perfectly acceptable and "normal" to BE afraid and NOT want to vomit when I really AM sick (ie flu) because people who are NOT emetophobic don't WANT to vomit and most are afraid to when it's about to happen. Emetophobics, on the other hand, live in a state of perpetual fear of what is almost always only an imagined threat - 99.999% of the time we misinterpret the normal feelings, movements, and noises of a healthy body's digestive system at work as nausea.

So, I'll consider myself cured when:
1. I stop avoiding life for fear I might vomit at some point.
2. I stop believing that vomiting, should it happen, is somehow dangerous.

[turbokinetic]

I'm pretty well "over" my emetophobia.

I'm with you on the item 1. That was the core problem I had. I was basing numerous decisions every day on emet factors instead of the things that I really should have considered for those decisions.

When my phobia started, it was definately about V being dangerous. As I was educated on how things work, that faded. But; the fear of getting humiliated and embarassed in front of people - stayed.

As the years go by without me having to V I realize that the chances are infinitely small that it will happen.

And on item 2, it's only dangerous to my feelings. I have pretty good self-esteem now and that really has taken the edge off this part of the fear.

I still think about it, but it is a memory of the fear, not the fear its self.

About the mis-interpretation of internal feelings? One side effect of my in-depth learning about what goes on inside my body is now I really enjoy the sounds and feelings in there. I've got an awareness that is on a level most people can't even imagine. This is 100% positive, and even extends to hearing sounds from my friends' bodies. Instead of thinking of "problems" I think of all the life, warmth, and wonderful things that go on inside!

Looking forward to others' responses here!

Respectfully,
David

[ButterfliesInHerEyes]

the fear of getting humiliated and embarassed in front of people - stayed.

Right. But this is normal. Nobody wants to be humiliated and embarrassed - has nothing to do with emetophobia.

[turbokinetic]

Right. But this is normal. Nobody wants to be humiliated and embarrassed - has nothing to do with emetophobia.

It was far beyond normal. Beleive me - FAR beyond normal.

David

[ButterfliesInHerEyes]

It was far beyond normal. Beleive me - FAR beyond normal.

Understood, however, the operative word being "was".

[turbokinetic]

Understood, however, the operative word being "was".

Yes! And for that I am really thankful!

[love_and_truthiness]

My definition of cured is:
Not thinking about it everyday, in fact, not thinking about it ever, unless rational, like if it comes up in conversation (why would that happen haha?), or in real life. (This part I've pretty much achieved by now, yay!)
But also, when it does come up, not freaking out, instantly feeling sick or panicky. (This does still happen, to an extent though, I'm afraid.)
So, I think I've improved a great deal, but I'm not "cured" based on my definition.

[tanechka1984]

For me, being cured is
not trying to stop vomiting when it's going to happen ("if it's going to happen, that's fine, I'll feel better")
not thinking of vomiting obssessively.Just not placing it in the center of everything.It exists. It happens to everybody. Nevermind.

[jkl81]

It's unnecessary to make myself vomit. I think doing so could actually re-traumatize me. This isn't avoidance, it's common sense. If I had a fear of heights, I wouldn't jump off a building to overcome my fear.

I think it's perfectly acceptable and "normal" to BE afraid and NOT want to vomit when I really AM sick (ie flu) because people who are NOT emetophobic don't WANT to vomit and most are afraid to when it's about to happen. Emetophobics, on the other hand, live in a state of perpetual fear of what is almost always only an imagined threat - 99.999% of the time we misinterpret the normal feelings, movements, and noises of a healthy body's digestive system at work as nausea.

So, I'll consider myself cured when:
1. I stop avoiding life for fear I might vomit at some point.
2. I stop believing that vomiting, should it happen, is somehow dangerous.

I can't improve on this. I'll be very happy if my anxiety and avoidant behavior only comes out when and if I do actually get sick. That's because for most people like us who don't vomit often that's only about once every few years or much more. Even normal people only vomit a couple times a year or less and that figure is probably an overestimate skewed by the people that do get sick often. I'm cured when it doesn't mess up my daily life at all or hold me back from what I want to accomplish with my life. I can do what I want to without excessive anxiety and not think about vomit unless it is rational to do so and a realistic probability that it might happen.

[turbokinetic]

I can't improve on this. ......

You may not feel you improved on it - but you said the same thing in fewer words! So your improvement was in the area of data compression.



David

[iggypiggy]

I'll consider myself cured when:

1. I stop getting mean and furious and depresive when it happens to someone. I really envy my friends that can help others unlike me. I really wanna be like them.

2. I stop avoiding everything and jumping over invisible things on the floor.

3. I stop thinking that vomiting is taboo or bad for people (like porn).

4. I stop storing all the images and chew them to torture myself. If they don't torture me, then I'm cured. I feel I'm sort of masochistic. I wonder if getting exposed to images does help me. Could they, if I collect them to harm myself?

It's silly now that I think of it. I get mad because of how I react to these situations because of the mood swings and I harm myself replaying all this... and again and again until it hurts. And when it starts hurting real bad, I let the worst memories out. I guess that means I'm cured when I stop being masochistic, and when I stop using all this as a tool to hurt me.

[sage]

For me, "cured" has nothing to do with vomiting. It has everything to do with anxiety. When your anxiety is gone, or at least does not interfere with your enjoyment of life and relationships then you're not a phobic anymore.

(I don't like the word "cured" anyway because phobias are not diseases. They are constructed systems in the brain that lead from the stimulus [vomiting] to anxiety. New systems can be constructed, and the old systems will take a back seat and not cause you trouble or ruin your life anymore. This is cause for great hope.)

[ButterfliesInHerEyes]

(I don't like the word "cured" anyway because phobias are not diseases. They are constructed systems in the brain that lead from the stimulus [vomiting] to anxiety. New systems can be constructed, and the old systems will take a back seat and not cause you trouble or ruin your life anymore. This is cause for great hope.)

Yes, rewiring your brain - neuroplasticity.

[sage]

*geek award goes to Butterflies* lol

[ButterfliesInHerEyes]

*geek award goes to Butterflies* lol

LOL Thank you, thank you! I'd like to thank my parents, and God, and everyone in The Academy who voted for me.... oh, there are so many people to thank, I hope I don't forget anyone... umm.... let's see....

[Andrilla]

(I know, older thread, but I finally have an answer!)

I will consider myself cured when my concern for the other person's health and wellbeing is greater than my fear. The fear of myself throwing up will only be connected with nausea, not when I am hungry. If I am sick, the fear will go away as soon as I feel better, not hang around for the rest of the week. THAT is when I'll consider myself cured.

oh, and when that happens, I'm getting soft-shell crab to celebrate!

[iggypiggy]

I will consider myself cured when my concern for the other person's health and wellbeing is greater than my fear. The fear of myself throwing up will only be connected with nausea, not when I am hungry. If I am sick, the fear will go away as soon as I feel better, not hang around for the rest of the week. THAT is when I'll consider myself cured.

Amen, amen! I totally agree...
woah, I kind of fell in love with that answer, lol.

It's like, I really wanna get cured. And I really want it the way you said it.

[NatalyKay]

I will consider myself cured when I think about it for the first time in weeks, and not get terrified that I jinxed it by realizing I am fine.
I just want to realize, that I'm fine. And stay that way.

[Rebecca85]

Thought I'd replied to this already, but I guess not! I want to be able to take care of a sick family member without suffering a panic attack, nightmares, obsessive thoughts or flashbacks after. Like iggypiggy, I have a nasty habit of chewing over stored images, and torturing myself with 'what-ifs' and 'shouldas'.

[hairyfairy]

My idea of cure would if I became unable to V, then I wouldn`t have to worry about it anymore.

[Rebecca85]

But you would then worry about something else. Besides, I'm sure there's someone on here who had the Nissen op for acid reflux, which physically prevents v'ing, and they're still emet!

[Lieke]

When I feel my body is my body again and I don't have to be afraid of it.

[lisalulu]

I am cured now When I feel sick to my stomach I tell myself it's probably nothing but if not I think 'well if I vomit then I'll feel better' and then I carry on with my day.

[asianeko]

I think I'm almost cured of emetophobia. Once I can see it happen on tv or IRL and not think of the word emet I'll consider myself cured.

[Avath]

I'll consider myself cured when I do not think about it everyday and avoid life to avoid being sick. I will consider myself cured when I am not wracked with anxiety everyday. I'll consider myself cured when I can drink the v-syrup and not be afraid and face what I have been so afraid of. I won't drink it until I know I will not be scared through it. It will be like the exam. If I can do it without fear then I am cured. The day I do it will be a day of celebration.

[JustLacey]

When I have no anxiety, and can think about it without being nauseous.

[Jen06]

I will be cured when I am able to put my anxiety aside and enjoy life again. To be able to go out to eat with my husband or friends without constantly searching for a place to escape incase I feel the need to get sick... or having to leave where ever I am and go home because I'm scared (to death!) to get sick in front of others. When I no longer have to carry a bottle of Pepto and Phenergans in my purse at all times. When I can be around others and not obsess over whether I'm going to catch their stomach bug...or was it even a stomach bug? What MADE them sick?! When I can comfort my husband when his head is hanging in the toilet...instead of panicking and locking myself in our bedroom...plugging my ears and trying not to get sick myself. When I can go on more than a half-hour roadtrip...as a passenger, not the driver. When I finally get on that airplane to go to Florida to see the ocean for the first time. When I decide to go to a fertility specialist to get pregnant without fear of morning sickness or labor sickness. When I can finally distinguish the difference between anxiety nausea and real, true nausea. When I can FINALLY live a normal life without altering everything and missing out on important things in my life because of this phobia. That is when I will be cured.

[LondonLow]

I've come to this post late but oh well. I like what Jen06 wrote.

I think I will be cured when I stop thinking about it full stop. When it's not the one soul thought that's lurking in the background of anything and everything I do.

But I really wanted to comment on the post written by David, "It was far beyond normal. Beleive me - FAR beyond normal. "

That's the grip my emet has on me. I'm not scared of sick, I'm not scared of being sick, looking at sick, or hearing someone else be sick - my life perpetually revolves around the idea of, 'what if I was struck down with a violent stomach bug while I'm out or with people'. Which makes me obsessive with hand washing, avoiding foods, avoiding places, full stop avoiding eating, and results in a rush of adrenaline, 'fight or flight' response whenever I feel a bit below par.

For that I totally agree with David, my obsession is FAR beyond normal. People get sick and they just cope with it at the time and laugh about it after - they don't look at it like it's the worse thing that ever happened to them, and they don't stay in the house or not eat certain foods for fear of it happening. They don't feel ashamed and humiliated, they just feel ill. They get better and think, so glad that's out my system and get on with their life.

For me at the moment it literally feels like it's the worse thing that could ever ever happen to me. Which is ridiculous, they are far worse things in life then a stomach bug, no matter where it decides to strike.

But even writing that sentence is enough to make me feel shakey, like I might jinx myself.

I'd love to hear more success stories of people overcoming this phobia because at the moment, I have no idea where to start.

I want to get to a place where I could be in the middle of nowhere, no toilet in sight and think, who cares I'm too busy enjoying my lunch with my friends - to be bothered thinking about 'what if's'. Then eventually to a point where I just don't think about it at all.

I'm just taking the slow steps to learning that anxiety is not my friend, it doesn't keep me safe or comforted. It's my enemy and it's out to ruin my life - and it's that, that has switched something in my head that I've been living with since I was 15 years old and made me think - this relationship ain't working, I want out, you're abusive to me, you need to be out of my life and become a dim memory like when I look back at myself with an old boyfriend and think, how stupid were you to put up with that!

But like I said, I'm not sure where to start overcoming my phobia, other than saying I'm committed to overcoming it and I need help.

[turbokinetic]

I've come to this post late but oh well.......

Better late than never!

One of the ways that I attacked the phobia was through education. I learned everything I could about my body and how it works when everything is working right. Before that, I had only focused on what can go WRONG. There is way way more that goes RIGHT every day than can ever go wrong.

Before this point, all the info in my mind about how my body worked was stuff I had read about THINGS GOING WRONG. So, whenever I felt a feeling inside, all I had to relate it to was which possible malfunction it could be!

As I got a better basic understanding, then the feelings I noticed inside me begain to fall in place with what I had learned about things working RIGHT. It laid the foundation for my mind to accept the FACT that I am very unlikely to puke, and it is virtually impossible for this to happen without warning.

That took away most of the fear of being surprised and caught out in public and puking all over the place without warning.

Eventually I could focus on the physical sensations without instant anxiety. I noticed that most of the times I "noticed something" in my midsection - it was actually a pleasing sensation.

Well I got to go about to meet work buddies for dinner.
Be back online later!

Sincerely,
David

[oksana]

"Cured" will be when I can live a day without giving emetophobia a single thought.