Just joined after reading lots of forum posts. Wow, so amazed that I am not the 'only one'... I am in my mid 20's and have suffered from this since I was about 5 or 6. my stepdad was an alcoholic and got sick a lot as i was growing up. I -think- that is where this all stems from.. not too sure. I do not have a fear of myself getting sick, although when I feel it my anxiety goes through the roof. My fear is others getting sick. And worst off, its mainly -men- getting sick. I do not really have an issue with women getting sick... weird i know. This is one of the reasons my past marriage fell apart (it was also an abusive marriage). that's how severe it is. I am calling a counseling center tomorrow to schedule my first visit. very nervous since I've read a lot about exposure therapy, and man my heart races just thinking about someone making me go through that.
maybe I will start another thread about all my issues with emet, just as a discussion/support for myself and others.
but my issue right now is that tomorrow my boyfriend and I and our friends (a couple) are going to a concert. I'm so scared that my boyfriend and his friend will drink, and we will have to drive 2 hours home and what if they get sick... ugh. this emet has caused me to miss out on SO much in my life, and I miss having fun. I am forcing myself to do this but my anxiety is soo bad.
does anyone have any coping mechanisms or advice for my trip tomorrow? I will update all and let you know how it went. At this point, I am looking at any reason to cancel. I hate that this fear makes me miss out on life.
**also, anyone else here suffer from the fear of just - others - getting sick?? I saw a couple people comment on threads about it, would like to get together a discussion based just on this. I heard this part of emet is extremely rare...**
looking forward to hearing back from people who actually understand this. <3