Treat the Anxiety or the Fear?

[MarrickFait]

Some say that even if we, the emets, were immune to nausea and vomiting, we'd still have anxiety issues. What is your view point on this? I disagree as much as humanely possible. It's not set in stone that all phobias share other problems.

[Jess13]

I know i always had anxiety even before i realized i was emet. I think alot of it for me us a control issue. I always have to be incontrol of my surroundings. Never drank or did drugs because of that and there fear of v*. The fact that i cant control my body cause the anxiety. You cant control it when u get a virus and that scares me. I know for me if i wasnt emet i would still have anxiety. But everyone is different so i agree with you its not all set in stone. I think that is what makes it so hard to treat.

[Erica1649]

That's an excellent thought. I think the emet would definitely be less.

[asianeko]

I think the emet would be less, but it would be there. I do believe that if all of us suddenly became immune to nausea and vomiting tomorrow, many would still be nervous that it might reverse, causing our anxiety to continue in a lesser form. I also think many of us would still have false nausea (or anxiety nausea) which may make it worse as well.

While I don't think all phobias always share other problems, anxiety is a big part of ours, and that horrid cycle of anxiety>nausea>more anxiety>more nausea doesn't help.

[KaydeeJayde]

To be afraid of something is one thing, to be phobic about something is a complete other situation. I'm afraid of bees, but I have a phobia of vomit. A phobia is anxiety. People with anxiety will pretty much always find something to be anxious about whether it be vomiting or something else. Just my opinion.

[MarrickFait]

I can understand some viewpoints surrounding Phobias. I think it has to do with mental strength as well as how one grew a Phobia. Thoughs who built a Phobia from not vomiting in a while should have more anxiety issues than an one who went through a traumatic emetic event, no?

[KaydeeJayde]

I'm not quite sure what you're getting at. Are you talking about a traumatic event regarding vomiting? If so, not at all. It's not to do with mental strength in my opinion. Different people have unique experiences which shape their fears and the like. Some fears are healthy, some go much further and become phobias, and it seems to me that the people whose fears become phobias are the ones with anxiety. I've always been told that you can't have a phobia (in the actual, clinical sense of the word) without anxiety (again, the illness, not the feeling), though you can have anxiety without phobias. For example, I have a friend who vomits quite frequently, it's not traumatic, just events of vomiting, but she's still deathly afraid of it as a lot of people on here are.

[MarrickFait]

You are right about Phobia = Anxiety. But the anxiety doesn't always have to stretch beyond the fear. Some emets struggle with gastric disorders that may have caused their fear. If their gastric disorders were fixed, would not their anxiety with it¿

[KaydeeJayde]

That's what no-one can really answer. It's a matter of opinion. I believe that if their gastric disorder were fixed, their anxiety would manifest in something else, possibly something else that scared them BECAUSE of their emet would become a phobia in itself. Who knows. The mind works in weird ways.

[Janelle]

Anxiety and stress can contribute to gastric disorders as well. A lot of it is fear of the unknown as well. Not very many emets actually get sick. Does this take the fear away? No. I know that even if I were told that I would never feel nauseous again, I would still worry about this not being true. Phobias are irrational, so it is not the event or the thing that is the problem, it is our reaction and worry to it./

[person54321]

Phobias stem from anxiety disorders. If you weren't scared of vomiting/nausea, you'd be scared of something else. Everyone has some kind of terrible stomach flu or GI story from childhood, but only a few develop a phobia from it. This is the reason why successful therapies of this treat anxiety as a whole and not necessarily emetophobia specifically. I've had phobias of different things my whole life, they move around and shift from one thing to another. This one has been more severe than the others, but they all share that underlying anxiety. Though I would love not to be able to be sick and have my phobia shift to something else because from past experience, I know they would be more manageable for me. Except a fear of pooping. That would probably be worse.

[claire43]

In my opinion if I didnt have this phobia I dont think Id be anxious. As an individual I tend not to panic even in scary situations but anything v* related be it me or someone else turns me into someone I dont recognise. Ive been held up at knifepoint - didnt panic, was in a sometimes violent relationship but was still very feisty & wouldnt back down, friends know me as someone who doesnt go to pieces & can be counted on to resolve a situation calmly. I agree that its probably the lack of control over my body that feeds this fear, I mean how on earth does anybody deal with the fact that at any time of day or night we may v*. There are so many reasons why this could happen that I find it impossible to rationalize. Just typing it makes me shudder!

[MarrickFait]

"Thehobias stem from anxiety disorders. If you weren't scared of vomiting/nausea, you'd be scared of something else." 2004-2008, I was afraid of vomiting. 2009 I grew phobic. 2010- Phobia diminished. 2011- Now, my phobia returned. When my phobia first started, it was due to my gastric reflux. Once my stomach ailment diminished, so along my phobia followed. Now my stomach has gained problems and my phobia followed suit. When my phobia diminished, I was literally stress free. No true fears. If you are phobic through stomach ailments, if the ailment diminished, so would your anxiety.

[KaydeeJayde]

Not particularly. It's dependant on the person, completely. SOME people would be phobic about something else. There are always going to be exceptions to any rule.

[MarrickFait]

I actually agree 100%, in contrary to my previous posts. I'm manipulative. So, than it should be understood that every case of this Phobia is different and should not be approached the same?

[KaydeeJayde]

Yes, definitely. Every single anxiety sufferer is unique in their phobia and specific anxieties and behaviours and personalities, which is why therapists will try to get to know you specifically on first meeting so they can figure out how to best approach THEIR phobia, or psychiatrists take such a long time on the first appointment so they can get to know their patient and their specific problems. At least, that's been my experience, anyways.

[MarrickFait]

I understand. Then, why do psychiatrists all prescribe anxiety medications? Should the Emet be to blame?

[KaydeeJayde]

That's why they usually prescribe anxiety medications, to treat the anxiety. That's what a medical professional is going to try and do, treat the root of the problem (anxiety), not the outcome of the problem (vomiting). Take it this way, I'm a singer, right? So if I started having problems with my voice because I was doing something wrong with it, if I went to an ENT, they wouldn't try and treat the problems I'm having with my voice, they're going to try and help me fix what it is I'm doing wrong with it. I'm not saying emets are doing something wrong, I'm just trying to use another example so you can understand my route of thinking.

[MarrickFait]

I see. But if all cases are different, who is to say anxiety is the root? Nice analogy btw xD

[out_of_order]

If I didn't have emetophobia, I know FOR SURE I would not have another phobia because there's nothing else in this world I'm irrationally afraid of - not even death. So yes, while emetophobia is an anxiety disorder, I disagree that it automatically means that we're all doomed to be terrified of something all the time. There's a difference between being afraid and having a phobia.

Now, it also depends on the reason each of us has emetophobia. Some of us developed emetophobia after a traumatic event and so if that isn't addressed then I can see where getting rid of emetophobia wouldn't be the end of it because our body/mind would find another outlet for that unresolved trauma. BUT if your emetophobia is a learned behaviour (ie your mom freaked out every time you got sick as a child so you learned vomiting was to be feared) then I think treating emetophobia will also successfully treat anxiety disorder in general because in this case the anxiety is a direct result of emetophobia and not some trauma.

[KaydeeJayde]

In general, anxiety is the root. Actually no, I'd still say that every phobia comes from anxiety. You don't have a phobia without anxiety. Take out_of_order's example of a mum freaking out every time the child got sick. The child developed anxiety and also emetophobia from that repeated experience. I have a friend whose phobia got generally wiped out (she was phobic about the SARS outbreak years ago), but she still suffers from general anxiety. Like I said, you don't have to have a phobia to have anxiety. There's something called General Anxiety. Oout_of_order, I'm not saying that you, or MarrickFait would DEFINITELY still have general anxiety if your chance of vomiting was wiped out, but it's possible. Like we've been saying, no one case is the same, but I think it's safe to say that anxiety (for whatever reason) is the root of all of them.

[out_of_order]

Oh I agree that anxiety is the real problem and it's the anxiety we have to work on, not the phobia per se. It's the anxiety about vomiting that causes the fear. So in that sense, I do agree with you.

[lizzo]

I think you might be reading into this a bit too much. Yes, vomiting is unpleasant. No, it doesn't have to cause a debilitating fear that impacts your quality of life ...

[out_of_order]

I think you might be reading into this a bit too much. Yes, vomiting is unpleasant. No, it doesn't have to cause a debilitating fear that impacts your quality of life ...

Correct. But for those of us on this site, it does. So what do we do about it? And which came first? The phobia or the anxiety? I think that's the OP's question.

[KaydeeJayde]

I think you might be reading into this a bit too much. Yes, vomiting is unpleasant. No, it doesn't have to cause a debilitating fear that impacts your quality of life ...

I don't know, this is an interesting discussion. I guess the real question here is when treating a phobia, any phobia, do you go to the anxiety, or the cause of the phobia?

[lizzo]

I know, and the reason I say it bluntly is because i've had lengthy discussions about why or why not I have the phobia with my shrink. My psychiatrist and I both agree that radical acceptance is the best route. I accept that I had some trauma, it's best to focus on healing the anxiety rather than dwell on the root cause. I'm not a trained professional, but it's probably a common methodology.

[MarrickFait]

Have you guys ever thought of a Fear that Mimics a Phobia? ~A person is afraid to walk down a flight of staircases because said person has fell down the last 10x and injured him/herself everytime. After years of treating the so said root of the problem, anxiety to no avail, said person gets an MRI. The MRI shows that the person has a balance disability that caused said person to loose balance everytime they walked down a flight of stairs. The doctor gave a med that fixed the problem. The person, after encouragement, walked safely down a flight of stairs.~ What I am saying is, anxiety is NOT the root problem, depending on how the Phobia occured. I'm not reading anything, just trying to break standards which don't make sense. *Points to the major fallacy in others posts*

[KaydeeJayde]

That person still has ANXIETY over walking down the flight of stairs. What fallacy?

[lizzo]

Well your last statement was rhetorical. And yes, please educate us on which fallacy the arguments fall under?

[betsie]

I think I understand the point.. the person at first had anxiety over walking down stairs AFTER being treated, but realising that the ailment causing the person to fall has been treated, they are able to move on without fear.

However, in terms to emet, the case is absolutely different. As far as I am aware, the majority of emetophobics vary rarely vomit. It's not like we are anxious and phobic because we wake up every day and vomit. We are more scared of the "what if..", and "what if" cannot be medically treated. It's an irrational fear.

I think every person on this thread has come up with a valid point, but OP you're refferring more to general phobias than to emetophobia specifically. As previously mentioned, every single person is different and as Lizzo stated, the only way to really move on from being phobic and suffering from such severe anxiety is to accept the fact that the action scares us to death, but its a natural bodily function that at some points in our lives we will be unable to control and avoid.