Hello all!


I'm relatively new here - I made a few posts on the old forums but idled out because I didn't want to think about it...


I'm one of those emets who isn't that bothered about the worry of being sick myself (though it would terrify me if it actually happened for the first time in about ten years), but my problems revolve around seeing or hearing other people be sick. I also have major shame problems around it, so very few people besides my (wonderfully supportive) fiance know about my phobia.


Now, however, my UK NHS waiting list hell just took an exciting turn. I was sent a letter telling me I was still 10 months from the end of the list, but giving me an offer to see a 'member of the community mental health team' sooner instead. Not quite sure what the difference is between that and whatever I was on the list to see, but needless to say I accepted. I met my therapist last week and got on well. (Her phone went off during the session, which always relaxes me! Givesme the chance to be the one nodding and smiling and telling the embarrassed person it's okay!)


So, here I am standing on the bottom rung of graded exposure therapy. I'm familiar with it in theory, thanks to an A-level in psychology, so now I'm trying to work out what the first couple of steps should be.


I've already desensitised myselfto sims in the PC games Zoo Tycoon and Theme Hospital being sick, so that's a good start. Since a large proportion of my avoidance is of films, I need to find two or three films that are really mild to get me going. One I had in mind was Seabiscuit, which I've already seen - boy gets very panicky, then sticks his fingers in his throat. No visual beyond that, and audio limited to gagging noise - no actual retching. Another was Disney's Atlantis: boy on ship looks very ill, then leans off camera to be sick. No visual beyond that, audio very mild and fake, then a joke about carrots.


Can anyone think of films with VERY mild non-visual v* scenes similar to these? If I can desensitise myself to the suggestion of people being sick, that would be another step in the right direction.


If I complete this therapy through to the end, as I intend to, I have an idea of creatinga grand and rated film list for other emets to use in their own therapy - or for those who want to make a start themselves but are on waiting lists or whatever. I'd rateevery v* film I'd seenfor its intensity invisual, audio, suggestion and overall, invite othersto do the same,and thus create a ladder of films to try.


But first I need to get somewhere myself! So, your help is much appreciated in building step 1.


~ Clare