Here to give hope!

[beccabubba]

Hi all, Last visited this site a good year or so ago, just as I was beginning CBT treatment.

A lot of time has passed and I wanted all of those sufferers like I was to know this can be beaten!!!! I am living proof of it.

I had suffered Emet since I was small and couldnt really remember a time when I wasnt worrying about being sick. My diet was simple things that were not associated with being ill and my life had been so restricted at one point that I couldnt take my own children to school. I lived within a 25 mile radius, never slept away from home, never travelled in a car too far, never went out for the evening too far from home, never ever went abroad and basically looking back I feel I didnt actually have a life! All because of the fear of puking!

So here is my triumph on the Emet situation, I was reffered for CBT and after trying pretty much everything I wasnt holding out faith. Im still not sure what happened during it, but I didnt have to do anything radical or uncomfortable. It was all about questioning my negative thoughts on the subject and putting my theories of how I couldnt cope to the test!
Amazingly I had diarhoeah one day and went to work with it!!!!! (would have hidden away alone for days usually) I came home early from work feeling really sick and just accepting that I would be. I made the decision that if I was sick, I was sick, and I felt oddly calm. Usually I would tell my family to leave me alone in the house but I had them home and felt ok.
THAT was the day I changed my thought process about it. I have since travelled by car all over the place, stayed in hotels and even last month too my first flight to Gibraltar!!! I have missed out on so much! Im a changed person.

After suffering from this for almost 35 years I feel a lot calmer. I wont lie, I still get a tad anxious, the other day a girl was sick in town, but it is nothing on the scale as it used to be. I can happily walk past vomit now and not have a panic attack at all.

Please please, I urge anyone to try cognitive Behavioural therapy! I was annoyed that a simple technique of questionning your thoughts could actually work. I was convinced I should have to do something more???????? After all those years??????
There is hope, and there are people who are now free of this awful phobia. I am the proof of that!!!!!

[reganstorm]

Hi,
Thanks for posting. Makes me feel like there may be a bit of hope after all.
Much as I want to be treated, I can't get past the thought that if I get treated and don't have the fear anymore, that I will get ill like a 'normal person'. My emet mind can't see how that's a good thing I guess
Can I ask, are you in the UK and if so how did you go about getting referred, my GP doesn't seem interested.
Congratulations on your new, happy life!!!
x

[beccabubba]

Hi Reganstorm

I can reassure you we wont get ill like normal people, in fact the phobia isnt holding us from being ill, just making us petrified of it happening in any circumstances!
Yes I am in the UK in Essex, I went to my GP who referred me to CBT. It really does depend if your area has a CBT trained therapist because I was told they are few and far between.
Your doctor sounds an idiot, try another doctor and really stress how this is affecting you, it can be so easy to gloss over the real issues and make yourself sound like you just dont like it in general. If you can, get a parent, partner to go with you to emphasise what your like.
I was so interested in CBT that I am now taking a course In counselling with a view to training in CBT, after suffering depression, and OCD I feel I have a lot to offer!

Let me know how you get on and if you need any encouragement shout my way! it CAN be done.

[beccabubba]

Also learn that avoidance of the actual problem is what keeps this phobia feeding and alive! If we learn to introduce ourselves slowly to whatever the problem is, we can then see that our thoughts of being unable to cope are dumbfounded! Thus breaking the chain.........

[sage]

Hi beccabubba - thanks SO MUCH for coming back here and posting this triumph! Sounds like your therapist really stressed the cognitive aspect of CBT and that you were willing and committed to work hard to overcome your phobia. That's awesome.

I hope your post inspires a lot of people here to begin changing the way they think (and act) in relation to the things they fear. Thanks again and bless you on your way from now on!

[gyroscope]

Wow! This is amazing

[Cupcake x]

This post is really uplifting to me, especially right now when I'm in a state of anxiety. I'm so glad to hear that this phobia can be beaten and our real lives can begin finally! I'm currently about to start back with CBT and look forward to triumphing over this phobia!