Hey guys I havent been around for a very long time i just wanted to give
you an update on how I am doing and hopefully provide you guys with
some inspiration...

First of all as most of you know I fist discovered i had emet about a year
ago when my friend was sick in front of me... I was miserable i couldnt
focus on anything except being sick, I was on this website looking for
reassurance every chance i could get. I started seeing a therapist
immediatly, he helped o felt a little better but eventually i felt like i was
getting nowhere with him... i stopped therapy for a while and then I had
another bad expirience with a really bad stomach virus going around my
camp. I got a new therapist and this guy was way too passive he believed
that trying to control everything else in my life would help me control my
phobia... i was not a fan I wanted to get better and I wanted to do it fast.

I told my parents that I didn't like this guy and he wasnt helping me, i had
said this about the last one so they were a little skeptical. One day my
dad and i were at my doctor who perscribes me my zoloft, and he
recommended another woman...

This woman has changed my life in less than 3 months... I want you guys
to know that you can get better, but you have to be willing to. She was
VERY agressive... she wanted me to attack my phobia...

Think about your phobia this way... There are two campaigns in your
head, and they're runnijng for president. One is your anxiety, and one is
your RATIONAL mind. Everytime you do something like washing
your hands very often or not typing vomit or puke or stomach virus or
whatever you are funding the anxiety's campaign. Its all about who you
want to win. You are in control. The more you avoid your problem or try
and keep yourself from being sick at every measure you are fallling
deeper and deeper into this hole that will be harder and harder to get out
of...Your giving millions opon millions of dollars to the anxiety's
campaign....

So what my therapist had me do was only wash my hands after i went
number two and no other time, unless someone vomited on me or
something like that nothing like extreme, she tought me how to breathe
with my stomach when i got nervous to calm myself down. She had me
say over and over that i can handle being sick and i am stronger than
this...

I was really worried about going to college next fall, but i realized that
getting sick at home would be no different than being sick at college.
She helped me teach my mind to just worry about being sick when it
happens and to not give up so much time in my life worrying.... Wouldnt
you rather be happy for the 3 days or whatever that you are worrying
about being sick, and if it happens it wont be fun but you B]CAN[/b] deal
with it....

I wasn't sure if i really was any better because i hadnt known anyone who
was sick... she told me that if i was going to worry about people i know
being sick, than i might as well worry about the people i dont know about
who are sick...it is much more likely that they are going to affect you than
people you know...

Recently i was exposed or might have been exposed i dont know... i had
been at a party last saturday night and i was hangin out with my girlfreind
the whole time...she woke up in the morning and called me and said she
couldnt stop throwing up... at first i was like o no and i got nervous but it
went away... i realized that i might get sick but the chances i was exposed
were slim... that tuesday i was delivering chinease food and i went to a
house and i heard some weird noises from upstairs... the man tells me
that his daughter ha