One problem I see with progressive exposure

[mooki]

This phobia is a totally different animal. If you are afraid of heights, that's an easy phobia to treat with progressive exposure. You can choose a skyscraper. Take the elevator up one floor each time until you can make it to the top and look out of the window.

With V'g, it's a huge jump. Like going from the 50th floor to the hundred. You can watch videos of people doing and see sites like rate my v and all that stuff. But the only way you're going to know if you're over it is when YOU do it. But at a certain point with emetophobia exposure therapy, you just have to make the huge leap. How do you go from watching videos to experiencing it yourself? It's not like you can say, "okay, I'm going to let the v come up my esophagus one inch more each time until it finally comes up." It's kind of an all or nothing thing. Watching the videos might dull your anxiety with seeing OTHERS do it, but that's like watching someone else hold a spider to get over your arachnophobia as opposed to holding it yourself.

[olschesky]

also there's the factor of knowing you are making yourself v........not as scary as not knowing if you'll be sick....if that makes any sense......it 's the anxiety before hand that is so crippling to me......once it happens i keep wondering why a get so anxious before hand........the nature of the beast i suppose

[ButterfliesInHerEyes]

Vomiting is not necessary. What we have to conquer is our fear of it should it happen naturally. We have to stop obsessing about it 24/7. We have to stop building our lives around it. We have to stop avoiding things "just in case" it happens.

So, the exposure to those things CAN be done gradually.... ie eating a food you've been avoiding.

Not wanting to, and being afraid to, vomit, when you really are sick (instead of thinking you're sick due to emetophobia) is NORMAL and okay. People who are NOT emetophobic don't want to vomit and feel anxiety when they know it's going to happen.

So, recovery happens not when we make ourselves vomit, but when we finally start living and enjoying life again without the avoidance and fear of emetophobia ruling that life.

I hope this helps.

[lisalulu]

I get nauseated many times a day from lots of things. Exposre is letting myself feel it without trying to stop it and telling myself I'll vomit without fighting the urge. It's the anticipation that really frightens us so we have lots of practice with everyday nausea. I mean how often do emets convince themselves they have 'it' when they don't?

[turbokinetic]

Vomiting is not necessary...conquer is our fear ... recovery happens......... when we finally start living and enjoying life again.......

Now I agree 100% with that, but there was a time I thought otherwise. I wasted alot of time and stress planning where and how I would "do it" and such. I learned one thing: You can not self-create a genuine vomiting episode that will trigger your anxiety. It will not work. The results were very anti-climactic.

In the end, it was the sorting out of my own thoughts that got me moving in the right direction. It was gradual. It depended on learning, distraction and willpower and time spent with others.

...okay, I'm going to let the v come up my esophagus one inch more each time until it finally comes up.....

Oh my - Too funny!!!! The fact that you said that makes me think you're on the right track!

Peace and prosperity!

David

[sage]

I agree with everyone's replies. The other thing about pictures and videos is how your therapist structures the exposure. If looking at them raises your anxiety, then you can learn to lower it to 0 yourself, THEN raise it again, then lower it again, then raise it again and lower it again.....this is key. Your brain is building new neuropathways from the stimulus to a logical thought: "I can control my anxiety." So on top of everything else the replies mention, when you do get anxious you can easily move to being non-anxious. If you are scared once every 10 or 20 years when you are actually sick, that's not a big deal. It doesn't ruin your life.