Is emets hereditary?

[Puddin1976]

I learnt something new today, my mum has admitted she too has a mild form of emets. She is nowhere near as bad as me thank god, but she won't mix certain foods and she refuses to eat food that in the past had made her ill. She's obviously able to cope with others being ill as I know she looked after me and my siblings when we were ill as youngsters. I think she understands more of what I am going through and we talked quite openly about how I am ATM. Never knew she felt that way....I wonder if anyone else is in similar circumstances? Xx

[Grace47]

My dad has passed on, but I think now he was also an emet.

[jadeshine]

Me too, Grace, looking back on his habits I think my dad also was. My mum isn't at all.

[Grace47]

My dad used to wash his hands until they bled. I do remember him bugging out when we were sick as kids. Now, I find myself doing some of his rituals - like complusive hand washing.

[punchbuggy]

Could very well be. Neither of my parents have emetophobia but my mom suffered from anxiety and my dad is claustrophobic . My grandmas on maternal side suffers with anxiety and she has a fear of fainting in public

[Puddin1976]

Certainly sounds like there could be a connection xxx

[jkl81]

I think it's the propensity toward anxiety disorders which has a hereditary component. I don't think that the professionals understand enough about exactly how that works yet to decide if a specific phobia could be hereditary or not. I lean toward no, because if that were the case we'd see that most of the time emets had emet children and/or emet parents. More often than not emets have non emet parents and non emet children. I'd think the examples of multigenerational emetophobia are the exceptions not the rule.

[bluebell242]

Yeah it's the anxiety that is, thrive programme does say that too.

[Grace47]

I would agree. However, seeing a parent with emet may make a child tend towards that particular phobia - because of learned behavior not gentics. I don't think I have this problem because my dad may have had the same thing though.

[MrsFox]

I think it's definitely the anxiety aspect teamed with learned behaviour - as Grace said. When I was a toddler/young child my Dad worked full time so I was in my Mum's care the majority of the time - and she is emetophobic also. I think a lot of my phobia can be traced to her often being hysterical if I was sick. My Dad (who is no longer around sadly) was the complete opposite, much like my husband, he always would rather make himself sick to stop the nausea; I can't help but wonder if it'd been different if my Dad had been the stay at home parent.

They both had anxiety disorders though, so either way I think I was more genetically 'primed' for it

[Elski]

I think it's definitely the case sometimes, and I'm terrified of passing it on to my kids. Saying that though, neither my mother or father are emet at all, nor do they have any anxiety or other mental health issues so in my case, it's not hereditary.

[Puddin1976]

Some really interesting comments being made thanks guys xxx I do agree that my emets is a result of learned behaviour and my own physiological make up rather than it being an inherited trait. I dont have any memories of mum and her behaviour towards s""" as a child so thankfully at the very least she was able to deal with me and my siblings

[Sicky-Ricky]

I agree what Ms Fox says, I do not think emet is genetic but being prone to anxiety or having a nervous system that is could be yes. Look at all of Eysenks stuff, along those lines. You could learn certain behaviours from your parents though. There are lots of theories in developmental psychology about this and how we look to our parents to assess a situation etc. Interesting stuff don't you think?

[Puddin1976]

Definitely

[Sicky-Ricky]

Sorry I was a bit vague, Social Learning theory etc, however some traits or a predisposition for anxiety have shown to be biological. So it is a synthesis of factors of nature and nurture. Great question though as being an emetaphobe you scratch your head and think why did I develop this? Is this normal?

[Puddin1976]

Thanks - so what's your hypothesis as to why you suffer from it? I think mine stems from early childhood trauma x

[Sicky-Ricky]

I think I was traumatised as a kid, my sister was always sick and my mum said I would always run behind the couch covering my ears lol. From then on you try to control it and learn avoidance behaviors and or safety seeking behaviours till it consumes every thought and creates anxiety and low and behold you begin to feel sick all the time. It is a cycle I think, which can b broken. It's a learned phobia I am determined to unlearn and live as normal a life, no I take that back an amazing a life as I can. I think we will all get there in the end.

[Sicky-Ricky]

It's always good sharing ideas, thank you.

[Puddin1976]

I know where you coming from with avoidance. As a teenager at my worst I avoided clubs an pubs and shut my ears and held my breath in public toilets. I started eating only "safe " foods... I had CBT when I was approx 19/20 and that helped for many years but sadly it's no cure. I have gotten bad again

[Puddin1976]

In particular the last 4 months. It's never been this bad but I'm already trying some of the old techniques... I'm eating out and trying unsafe foods but the nausea and the what ifs never go away xx

[Sicky-Ricky]

Did you do behavioural experiments in your CBT, I always try to stay on top of those. I also thought a great book to help with your nerves is "Essential Help For Your Nerves" by Dr Weekes. I found this book great. I think you always have to put effort in at the begining. I had CBT in March and it did make it better I had a thing where I always had to walk, compulsively. This obviously caused problems. I could not stop walking in the middle of the night. I have all but dropped this and relax a lot more if I feel sick but recently I have started going through Essential Help again, and started that thrive program. Things are a lot better than they used to be now. I also take anti emetics but this only about 6-7 times a month. I am going to continue to work and drop using them slowly.

[Puddin1976]

The CBT was more exposure based then cognitive, infact thee was never any questioning really that I can recall about my emets. The therapy consisted of several sessions and started with what I considered to be less stressful exposure. I can go into more detail privately but as you can imagine the more CBT I had the more intensive it became. It didn't cure me but it certainly kept my emets at bay for many years...unfortunately this year it's come back with a vengeance.

[SoVerySorry]

I don't think it is heridetary, but its habits are easily picked up from a childs point of view.

[Sicky-Ricky]

Yes message me and I will tell you about my CBT and the compulsions I had to start to drop.