What is the worst thing that could happen?

[Lostlikethis]

This is a question, I am not judging anyones beliefs or ways of coping. I just want to know.

Is throwing up or seeing someone else throw up the worst thing you could imagine that could happen to you, personally? I don't want you to all to try and think of something worse, but try to go with your automatic response to the question.

Is your daily plan to avoid getting/seeing sick? Is avoiding whatever your phobic of, more important to you than facing it?

Right this second, if you knew that facing your greatest fear, have it happen to you, with this phobia still racing round your head, meant that you would no longer have to fear it, would you let it happen to you, if you had the choice?

[ButterfliesInHerEyes]

Excellent questions.

For me it was always ME throwing up that was the worst case scenario. I never had a problem with others doing it, or seeing it, as long as I knew that they didn't have something contagious. So if a pregnant woman vomited, I was fine with that and would even help her - ie hold her hair back or whatever.

My daily plan - every minute of every waking and sleeping hour - was spent on scanning my body for the littlest symptom that might mean stomach issues, followed by what can I do, what can I avoid, to make sure that under no circumstances will I feel sick and vomit today. It was like living an emetophobic groundhog day - same shit repeating day after day.

Right this second, because I have overcome my fear except at the dentist's, if I knew FOR SURE that going to the dentist and puking my guts out would guarantee that the last of my emetophobia would be gone forever, I would be scared, I would have a huge panic attack, but yes absolutely I would do it.... because I KNOW what a relief it is to be completely free of this horrible fear in other areas of my life. If I didn't have that firsthand knowledge, then my answer would be something like, I want to overcome this so bad, but I'm too scared to do what I know I need to do to get over it.... because I have a fear of the unknown. I need to be able to predict the ending from the beginning.

[hairyfairy]

I have a problem with others vting, I think it`s a really disgusting thing to do, & it makes a person seem weak & vulnerable, but the worst case scenario would be me vting, especially in public, as I wonder what people would think of me. It would be one of the most humilliating things that could happen to me.

[KaydeeJayde]

The worst thing that could happen to me would be to have my life in danger. Even though I have the phobia, I can think of worse things that would happen when i'm in a rational state. I think if I got asked this when I was panicking, my answer would be completely different. I would probably feel, in an irrational state, that the worst thing that could happen would be someone being sick near, or on me. I do not feel that it makes someone seem weak and vulnerable, nor do I think it's a disgusting thing to do (I think it's a disgusting thing, but I don't think that people who have done it are disgusting), I feel extremely bad for people who are vomiting, and perhaps it's the fact that I can't do much to help them that makes me panic, because all of my life, I've been the one out of all of my friends, and even the one in my family that helps with everything. People come to me for advice, people tell me their problems, people ask me for help. I think thats the part that freaks me, that it's one thing I can't help them with.

[Rebecca85]

Kaydee- can I cut and paste this for my answer?

[KaydeeJayde]

Haha, sure :P