I have this little card that I give to my clients to carry with them wherever they go. It has several things on it such as "vomiting is not dangerous, so you don't need to fear it," etc. It also has this: to become normal you need to act normal.

Now right off the bat I want to say that I realize there is no such things as "normal" when it comes to human behavior. Lots of people who don't have emetophobia are far from what the average person would say is normal. So in this context "normal" means "people who don't have emetophobia."

What do you currently do, or could you do, which is "normal" even though it feels scary? For instance, do you open doors with your bare hands? "Normal" people do this; emetophobes normally don't.

In this thread, I'm not looking for all the ABnormal things emets do....we already have a long list of those! But rather, what do you do in order to face your fears? What could you do? What goal would you like to set for yourself?

I'LL GO FIRST

Even though I consider myself emetophobia-free I still don't like to ride in cars with people who feel sick/nauseous. It still makes me nervous. Luckily, my daughter is going to help me out with this now. Last weekend she felt sick (she has a sensitive stomach so this happens often) and we were all supposed to go out together in the car. I was wary of it, and asked a typical emet question: "might you throw up?" She answered "even if I do, it's not dangerous for you" and you wouldn't believe how HELPFUL that was! I was like "you're totally right - let's go." And we did, and I was fine. Why I needed HER to remind me of what I should be reminding myself, I don't know. From now on I'm going to go out in the car more with her and her husband...because that's normal.