Help Needed for my little sister :(

[AGD]

Hey everyone,

I have signed up to this site not for myself but for my sister. She is 13 and she has Emetophobia. some of her symptoms include:

• Not eating out of fear of being sick
• Hoarding food (in an attempt to eat it when she is hungry- but never does)
• watching cooking channels all day
• talking about food and cooking food- and not eating it
• exessively washing her hands, becuase of the fear of germs on her hands
• fear of certain colour foods, (predominantly dark colours) becuase she is scared they will make her sick (chocolate etc)
• Low energy
• Extremely underweight
• fear of leaving house or taking car trips incase she is sick

My mum took her to the doctors today and they were no help at all, trying to convince my mum she has anorexia!!! doctors just like to label people not actually listen to the symptoms patients describe :/

anyway: my sister has the emataphobia recover system and it is helping her to understand her phobia, but is there any other therapies out there to aid what we already have in place?

Maybe Cognative Behavioural Therapy or Medication?

As a relative what can I do to help?

I'm scared becuase of how thin she is and her age and how this condition is hurting her.

Please help

AGD

[JellyBn83]

Hello. First off, I want to say how nice and sweet it is to help your sister!! That shows true family love!

As for CBT and medication, I would recommend it. I am currently doing both. My emet was ok, it was there, but not a though every day as it is now. I went off my meds and it came back full force! I am now back on my meds and currently seeing a therapist who does CBT and I am now able to go through some days without it being the first thing I think of and the last thing I think of! Also I take probiotics to help with the digestive track. I take both an acidophilus pill and Philips Colon Health.

As for not eating, that can actually make things worse for an emet. It is a common thought that if I don't eat, nothing will come up. But your body, if it thinks it needs to be sick, that is when dry heaving and retching happens and I would rather (I can't believe I am saying this) but I would rather actually get sick than to have dry heaves and retching! She needs to at least do some of the BRAT diet (bananas, rice, tea and toast) to get something in her! She needs to also keep up with fluids!!!! Water is a must!

I got to the point where I couldn't leave my house, but I now arm myself with my Gold Bond Hand Sanitizer and Wet Ones and I feel like I can function because the only way to get a sv* is to ingest the particles of v* or poop and I know that as long as I wash my hands with soap and water before I eat (and of course to wash them after you use the bathroom) there should be NO reason why I could get sick! Let her know that is the only way to get a sV* is to ingest it. Yes, food poising is something that can happen as well, but there is really no way to know sometimes.

I hope I have given you some answers or ideas. I am not sure where you are from, but if she takes the right precautions (washing hands and keeping her fingers out of her mouth, nose and eyes) there should be very very few reasons to get sick. My mother lives by those things and she works with 1st and 2nd graders who get sick a lot and have NEVER gotten sick from them!! She has been doing it for almost 20 years. She never even got sick from my sister and I when we were little.

[KaydeeJayde]

I think that it's wise to try CBT or another therapy without medication first. If it's not effective, all good, then try some meds as well, but my doctor always encouraged me to try therapies before putting medication into my body, and I agree. No judgement, but I think if she's not taking anxiety medication, to try and avoid it if possible. But I guess her doctor or a therapist would know th best way to go in terms of that.

There are plenty of therapies she can try. CBT is what helped me in the end, but I tried counselling, which didn't work at all, and hypnotherapy, which was amazing in that it helped me relax for a few days, but after that I was back to normal (well, normal for me ) and I couldn't afford to keep going back for appointments every few days.

Does she have any safe foods? I know a lot of emets on here have safe foods which they feel safe eating because they've never made them vomit before. Ask her if there are any foods she'd feel safe eating and then kind of try and find similar foods that she might also feel safe eating and see if you can encourage her to build up her diet (a friend's therapist did this for her in treatment for anorexia, but it's worked well for another friend of mine with emetophobia).

It's so nice of you to join for your sister! Can you show her some of the posts on here? I know that feeling like I wasn't alone was a huge help for me, if only because I knew I had some people to talk to if I needed to, and that they understood completely.

The biggest piece of advice though is to be there for her to talk to and come to if she needs to. Don't judge her or belittle her phobia, and you seem like you know already, but it's a huge part of her life, and when people belittle my fears, it makes it worse for me. Make sure you're available for her. Thank you for caring so much about her. A lot of people don't have someone like you in their life when they need them, so you're already helping her by just caring

I hope this has helped.

[asianeko]

Your sister is extremely fortunate to have a family member who is concerned and trying to understand! She definitely sounds emetophobic. The biggest thing you can do is just be there for her and do your best to help her stay strong when she needs it. I'm not sure if you've ever had a panic attack, but they are terrifying. If you're able to be strong for her if that situation arises it's really one of the best things I've found. My boyfriend is insanely supportive, and I found that was instrumental in my recovery process.

Therapy is wonderful, I think over the span of this forum we've had people find success with nearly every type, from CBT to hypnosis. We've also had people not find luck with each type, so it really depends on the individual. Now that you know what the source of her fear is you can help her get through it!

[Trice]

I think you're the greatest sis ever!!! Wish I had a sister...And yes it sounds like she's an emetophobe but the first and last things I have too (I have other phobias as well). So I think therapy would be best before you try to get her to take meds. When I was younger, it was a bit easier to deal with and therapy helped a lot. Eventually, I did have to be put on meds but I think the approaches discussed above are great. You are so sweet! And good luck to you and your little sis

[summerdazies]

It definitely sounds like she has emetophobia, but listening to the things you describe I can see why someone would think she has an eating disorder as well - I had anorexia for several years as a teenager (11-14) and still struggle with it (now 20) [fyi I've been emetophobic since I was about 7, maybe earlier], and I know that I had several of those behaviors (particularly obsessions with food, hoarding). Emetophobia can make people act strange around food, and whatever she's got going on, I think she would really benefit from a good therapist. Honestly the diagnosis is secondary to the therapist understanding what is bothering her. Like several above posters, I was eventually put on meds as well but it was a long process of finding the correct antidepressant.

I am sorry if this isn't terribly coherent ... it's finals week!

I wish you and your sister the very best and I hope she gets the treatment she needs. It sounds like you're a very caring sibling.

[randall3329]

Hi,its lovley to hear you care so much for your sister, but i can understand why a dr might think she has an eating disorder. I am a therapist for adolescents with eating disorders and the classic symptoms are there - underweight, hoarding food, low energy, preoccupation with food. It may be just the emet, but is it possible that the emet has given her an eating disorder. Eating disorders are very rarely just down to not wanting to be overweight, not eating because of a fear of it making you sick is still the same anorexia as it would be if you wernt eating due to fear of weight gain. I was anorexic for a good chunk of my life and those behaviours were very typical of me.
i hope she gets the treatment she needs and shes very lucky to have you x