worst thing someone can say to you

[melindac798]

what do you think is the worst thing someone can try to say to try and cheer you up whilst you're panicking? mines definitely "so what if you are sick"

I'm new to this page but have been struggling with emotophobia/anxiety my entire life. so glad I found this website..

[canonguy]

"what is the worst thing that will happen" i know rationally NOTHING WILL HAPPEN. i'll live but my fear response kicks in and i'm not in control

[mhartse]

"oh its not that bad"

[melindac798]

"what is the worst thing that will happen" i know rationally NOTHING WILL HAPPEN. i'll live but my fear response kicks in and i'm not in control

YES! I get this a lot !!!!!! like I know nothing's going to happen I go thru the same thing several times a day, but being aware of it doesn't make it go away???!!!

[Claire-]

Ooh, I like this poll xD Mine would have to be 'Just relax!'

Yeah like it's THAT easy xD. Also, welcome to the site!

[gumdropper1]

"Get it over with."

[khernández99]

"It's what humans do." Or "Grow up."

[cycle]

"Are you ok--you look tired"

[Hannah A.]

when they say "well if you're sick, you're sick, oh well" like THANKS THAT WAS REALLY REASSURING. (not)

[melindac798]

"Are you ok--you look tired"

I hateeee this!!! it's like an instant trigger 😡😡😡

[Leslie735]

"Just get it over with." We were at a theme park with my inlaws 2 weekends ago and I felt n* while we were there and my mother in law just told me to go v* in the bathroom and I'd feel better. Ummmm no thanks!

[butterfly91]

"what is the worst thing that will happen" i know rationally NOTHING WILL HAPPEN. i'll live but my fear response kicks in and i'm not in control

I hate it when someone says that to me

[ddemke]

"No one likes to be sick. But it makes you feel better after." I hate this!! No one understands unless they know true anxiety and panic attacks.

[lizziescarlett]

"No one likes to be sick. But it makes you feel better after." I hate this!! No one understands unless they know true anxiety and panic attacks.

So true, the amount of times i have heard that 'nobody likes to be sick' and in my head I'm thinking yeah but do you shake, panic, sweat, think your heart is thumping so hard it's going to burst out your chest, worry you are going to faint and then choke on v, then after the deed is done obsess over it and relive it in your head for months afterwards, mmmm no I don't think so.
Another is when I am driving friends home after a night out (I dont drink so therefore I am always the driver) and somebody
says those god awful words...I feel sick

[Koizumiii]

Something I hate is when I tell people I'm emet, and they say "Oh, you're afraid of v*?" I'll nod and 3 people so far and gone "V* V* V* V*!"

[Anyla]

Explaining to me that v* is a natural process that does not, and I quote, "kill you or anything". Yep. That's the worst I have had to put up with.

[Maddie-_-]

nothing specific but my friends feel the need to gather round me and share v* stories, then say, see? not that bad!

[cat1]

"If you need to v*, just v* then!" just typing that makes me anxious!

[kaymdem]

I have to realize that the people with me are just trying to be comforting but the phrase I HATE when I am out with my family or husband is "you are fine."

[Yeep]

Oh u look pale ! That's what I get often

[KaydeeJayde]

You guys realise that with most of these, people are trying to help you? I know it often doesn't help, but try to keep that in mind when they do say things like that.

As for "Whats the worst that can happen?" my therapist when I was seeing one would encourage me to think about this myself. Make a train of events. It's one of the reasons I'm recovered to the point I am today.

[rrosedawsonn]

'It's all in your head.' 'I don't want to hear about it.' 'You psycho.' Of course my mother said the last one when she was angry at me for freaking out for the hundredth time.. though i dont feel like she was trying to be helpful or reassuring to me at ALL. Pretty much ever.

[HavanaMay]

"I [he, she, it] is/am not /actually/ going to be sick."

Even if rationally I know this, it's still stuck in my head that every time someone feels sick, there is a risk of them being sick.

[Rls1994]

Oh u look pale ! That's what I get often

I thought I was the only one that got told this! Everyone says that to me, lol. I have constant low blood pressure and I think that's why I'm always pale.

[qwertyuiop]

"You look sick" "let it happen, you'll feel better after"

[Cricoceat]

"OMG, I know EXACTLY how you feel! I hate v***,too!"

I get it, no one likes v***, but when people say they know how I feel because they don't like v***, I feel like they are saying that my fear is nothing more than the discomfort v*** normally brings. Unless you go into panic mode and can't even handle people taking about v***, don't tell me you know exactly how I feel.

[ThatGuyWhoLikesSandow]

"Uggh I feel really sick" and then fake a v* noise. Most of my friends know about my emet and one of them did this to me the other day. I punched him in the face. (Oops!)

[Sammi1990]

"It's only 24 hours" been told that millions of times. Or, "Why worry about something that rarely happens?" I have little control of what I'm afraid of, I don't think I'm (majorly) affecting your life with this fear, so just let me live the way I am, LOL. But honestly- those two plus many things I read above are just the WORST

[Sammi1990]

Or what's the big deal, forgot that!

[Dairyfreelife]

When I was really emet, the worst was to "just stop worrying about it". Because it was obviously not that easy. If it was I would have been over the fear back when I was in primary school.

I really do not like it when people say that "everyone hates vomiting" because it really minimizes the phobia. The same way people often minimize OCD, ADD/ADHD and Bipolar Disorder. I do not have the latter, but I have heard so often, "oh my god she's so bipolar", "I love things clean, I am totally OCD", and "I totally can't pay attention to my food without checking my phone, it's like I can't sit still, I think I have ADD/ADHD". Yeah, no. Not the same thing. There's hating something and there's fear of something and there's a little fear of something and then there's a phobia of it. There's mood swings and then there's having a super happy, high feeling and needing to do something great and grand and then suddenly crashing into a deep, dark depression and it is just cycling from super high to super low moods to where you are not fully functioning. There's being clean and organized and there's thinking about things over and over and having serious oppressive and sometimes even violent thoughts and in trying to control them engaging in serious rituals that are compulsions to stop those thoughts out of the illusion of control. There's being busy and trying to do more than one thing at a time and then there's can't concentrate, absent-minded, cannot sit still, cannot fully function because you are losing things and not listening as you should be and even when sitting in class or in a meeting or with family or friends your mind will not settle down and you listen at times, but your mind keeps wandering and you cannot control it.

So, that bothers me because it shows a serious lack of understanding and it can be hard to discern if they will try to understand or not.

On a similar note, on this site the worst is as a recovering emet and to people like me who are recovering or who are recovered, is when we try to say things and instead of understanding or trying to see our sides we get immediately attacked with the No-True Scotsman fallacy that we were "never really emet", that we just "really disliked vomit". That is extremely patronizing and rude and absolutely undermines our experiences.

Beyond that, no. Nothing people say about it bothers me because otherwise they are usually correct even if I do not like to hear it. Saying it is not that bad or to just get it over with and I will feel better is true, so they are just trying to help and minimize vomiting. Not emet, but vomiting. It really is not that bad. It's just in our emet heads that it is.

What's the worst that can happen is actually a strategy people use to help a fearful person at times. The point is to go as far as your mind reaches about the absolute worst thing that can happen and you start to realize how unlikely any of that is to happen and you begin to rationalize and suddenly it is not so bad anymore. It may be hard to hear, but someone saying that to you is most likely trying to help you rationalize the fear. So, KJ is right about that.

And ShadowGuy, that is just irritating. People are rude sometimes. Almost everyone is afraid of something and they would not like it thrown in their face either.