Being British

[Ivyvictrola]

I am relatively new to this forum. In fact, this is my first real post. I'm not exactly sure what I am getting at here, but I have noticed that a great majority of you ladies are British. I am an American and live in California, but my dad is from England. Could there be some reason that us Brits are more prone to emetophobia? I have wracked my brain and don't know what it could be but I feel the need to point out this correlation.

[kaiilyn_23]

I too have noticed a lot of Brits! Perhaps there are more resources there to make this a known phobia? Many suffer with this phobia without knowing it's a real thing. I did until I finally got curious and google'd it years ago.

[Ivyvictrola]

That must be it. I hadn't heard the word the word emetophobia until a year or two ago. Everyone just referred to me as a "hypochondriac".

[Syrup]

I've had the same question! My dad is from England as well. It is odd that there are so many Brits on this board and others when you compare. White, female Brits always abound!

[betsie]

White, female brit here! I always think there are lots of Americans here!

[thecheesecake17]

I'm also a British female and am thinking maybe it says ALOT about stress ... We are quite an uptight nation...with our obligation to say please and thanks all the time...and if you look at people in our streets, more often than not, even in the sun, we have gloomy worried looks on our faces..could well be the weather haha but I think we tend to panic more

[jasminemarie]

I'm also a British female... I never realised this forum had such a heavy weighting of Brits and let alone females too... I also was under the impression it was more US based - not sure why. It is kind of reassuring but at the same time puzzling as to why this is the case...

[Shubertgoddess]

I have absolutely no family ties to England - not in my immediate or immediately extended family. I was actually 5th generation in the same house growing up. So not sure if there's actually a tie to being British and having/being emet

[crd08]

I just don't think it's very well known either, so many people may have it and not know at all. I didn't know what was wrong will me till I was 15, learned to use google and found this site. I have noticed it's mostly female, but from what research has said so far, more females do suffer from emet than males.
I'm personally from america, native american and german heritage for me.
There could be some cultural influences, I can see that being possible

[mooki]

I find it odd that most emets are female. I'm one of the few male ones. And oddly, the emet females tend to disproportionately be very attractive. I noticed this because we had a thread awhile back where everyone posted their photos.

[canonguy]

rob kelley explained this phenomenon in a lecture. more women have it than men because of "disgust propensity." growing up boys are raised to be, for lack of a better word, grosser. Not ashamed or afraid of peeing in front of others, spitting, getting dirty etc.

i don't know a ton about actual British culture but it seems like politeness and holding your tongue are valued more than in some other countries like america.

[thecheesecake17]

Hahahahahah canonguy so true!!!
It's almost fresher's week here in the UK and people almost WANT to feel disgusting after waking up from heavy drinking...guys do seem to cope better... My dad had a bad fever last month and I never saw him that bad in years and when he said he felt n*...he was laughing about saying 'I have that thing you and your mum complain about...that n* . my gosh! It's the most disgusting thing isnt it?! If I saw a burger Now I'd probs v*' then lay down and carried on watching TV and laughing!!! I was like grrrrr! A classic non emet

I think females are more prone cos we are faced with it more which sucks the fun out of all the stuff we wanna enjoy...my boyfriend and I will be celebrating our one year anniversary soon and I really feel like I wana have kids with him one day but everytime I have an attack, I whack it out my brain cos I know morning sickness will send me to rehab, I really panic these days. =\. On the bright side he said he will look after our son\daughter if they're sick but I don't wanna be an avoider...ehhh hate being a girl haha guys , you're lucky!!!

[Syrup]

rob kelley explained this phenomenon in a lecture. more women have it than men because of "disgust propensity." growing up boys are raised to be, for lack of a better word, grosser. Not ashamed or afraid of peeing in front of others, spitting, getting dirty etc.

Yes, I heard that lecture as well. VERY interesting and informative. I was shocked when he said that 97% of emets are female. It's the ONLY phobia that is so drastically different among the sexes. Every other (and some far more 'embarrassing') phobia is closer to 50/50. I do think that the 'grossness factor' plays into it and the fact that boys are 'expected' to be gross forces a lot of guys to do their own form of CBT because they don't want to talk about it so in turn it leads them to 'deal' (face their fear, self talk, experiment, etc.) and eventually recover.

[pogopig]

Yeah I also thought there were more Americans on here than British people (don't know why, I haven't counted). I'm British though.

[Ivyvictrola]

I've come to the conclusion that I the British posters must have just stuck out in my mind more because of my dad. There certainly appear to be a lot of Americans here as well now that I am paying more attention.

[Syrup]

I don't think that anyone believes there are MORE Brits than Americans, but when you do the statistics thing, there really does seem to be something to it. America is bigger than the UK, so when you consider the amount of people here (and in other countries) and the % of Brits posting on emetophobic boards, there's a large number you're dealing with. It really can't be missed! Wonder why....

[XDark_MinxX]

Interesting thread! The UK has a population of just over 60 million, and around 3 million have emetophobia, which if you think about it, is quite a significant number. Although there may be more emetophobes out there who have no idea they have it. The UK is indeed a nation riddled with mental illness, the most common being anxiety and depression (around 1 in 4 have it) yet common mental illnesses like these get unnoticed or untreated because of the state of healthcare in the country is underfunded. Because of that, appointment times for treatments (including therapy and blah blah blah) are full. I have to wait for appointments at the doctors for weeks.

I guess many people in Britain have health anxiety (with or without emet) because we often see scary news headlines about widespread diseases and problems with health in general. After all, the UK is overpopulated and unemployment is high. Add that altogether, no wonder why we are an anxious bunch.

I have not seen any statistics on how many emetophobes live in america, but I guess there are more because the population is much higher (around 320 million).

Oh, and we do have a massive drinking problem when abroad on holiday. Almost everyday you hear about a bunch of young people who go abroad and get slammed drunk, which probably adds to the cases of emets.

Not sure if what I explained is 100% true, but I hope it sheds light on the subject. And on a final note... One does not simply skip tea-time in Britain!

[kyle1989]

Well, I'm from the uk too. there was always quite a few british emetophobes.

I recently met another british emetophobe (who didn't know thats what it was) on another site for another anxiety disorder.

[crd08]

rob kelley explained this phenomenon in a lecture. more women have it than men because of "disgust propensity." growing up boys are raised to be, for lack of a better word, grosser. Not ashamed or afraid of peeing in front of others, spitting, getting dirty etc.

That makes so much sense, honestly. And I think my fear stems from it being "gross" and "dirty". Very interesting. Interesting thread overall.

[Ivyvictrola]

I guess we must also take into account the fact that although this is the "International Emetophobia Site", it is written in English. Emets from non-English speaking countries likely have their own sites. I guess I like disproving my own theories.....

[Syrup]

I guess we must also take into account the fact that although this is the "International Emetophobia Site", it is written in English. Emets from non-English speaking countries likely have their own sites. I guess I like disproving my own theories.....

True, but in most places in the world english is taught from an early age. Most schoolchildren in other countries are fluent extremely early on in their careers. Nigeria, for instance, boast 53% English speakers. Pakistan is close to 50% as well. I hear what you're saying, but I don't see ANYONE from either of those countries on here.

[horsewoman]

Very interesting. I'm from a very rural area In the US. People still don't talk about anxiety, phobias or depression very freely here. No one knows about my emet. Not even family. I do enjoy the British influence on this forum.

[paulinek]

I always thought there were more Americans/Canadians here than Brit's so I'm not sure now I think male emets are in the minority, but possible there are just as many but they suffer in silence? Men are generally more reluctant then women to seek medical help about anything, so a mental health issue is probably even further down the list of things to go and see someone about or admit to. Women also speak more than men too, i can't remember the figures but i read once that women speak hundreds more words a day than men, so maybe it is the same online, maybe alot of men only go to a support forum when they feel they really really need to or when they can offer some advice whereas women will more readily hop straight on a forum to talk about whatever is bothering them? It would be interesting to see the membership stats for this site though on a map or by country.

[kyle1989]

I don't think its that in the majority of cases in my experience, I've met several female emetophobes through social phobia forums and they had no idea that they had something additionally that they were coping with. I'm not sure why men are lacking with this phobia and why it is more common in women than men, but i sincerely believe that it is how it appears - that it is common with women but not men. Something about the traits of women on a biological or personality level must some how be more liable to it, I'm not sure. but i believe it. I don't think i'm effeminate though lol