Finally! A treatment that actually makes sense to me.

[out_of_order]

http://www.fearintopower.com/cured/emetophobia.html
This has been featured on the Discovery Health Channel and when I read through their website, it made too much sense to me to not try it, especially since they offer a no-questions asked 60-day full money back guarantee, so I have nothing to lose. And because it made so much sense to me, I wanted to let you all know about it so you can decide for yourselves if it's something you too might like to try. Reading through their site, I kept saying "YES!" because there were so many things that make so much sense about how our brain works and why traditional treatments don't work, and so on. Maybe it's just good marketing and the program itself is useless, who knows? But everything else I've tried has been useless so if this turns out to be a waste of time, oh well, add it to the pile. If I don't try it, I'll never know.

I purchased the downloadable audio program on MP3 ( http://www.fearintopower.com/FYFTPA/...al.extras.html ) which cost me $137 US but with their $50 rebate it's just $87. I quickly went through the program to get an idea of what was actually there, and it's quite extensive and thorough. So far, I'm impressed.

Over the years I have done all the usual types of therapy many times with many different therapists:

1. Talk therapy. I did this more times than I can remember with various psychologists and psychiatrists. This did not do anything to lessen my fear of vomiting but it did help me figure out WHY I'm emetophobic and why I hate my mother lol (kidding). Mothers always get a bad rap.

2. CBT with exposure therapy. I did this twice with two different CBT therapists. This form of therapy initially made my anxiety and phobia much worse but I expected that so I stuck it out. In the end, both times it eventually did lower my anxiety and lessen my emetophobia somewhat but didn't take it away completely and the results didn't last so I ended up right back where I started.

3. Hypnotherapy. I completed two full rounds of hypnotherapy and am currently doing a third (3 different hypnotherapists). The first two did nothing to reduce my fear but I did feel very relaxed for the rest of the day when I had a session. My experience with this third master hypnotherapist I'm currently seeing seems to be promising but I've only seen him twice and the first time was just a consultation so too soon to say anything for sure yet.

4. EFT. Emotional Freedom Technique aka "tapping". This did nothing to help me with emetophobia but tapping while feeling anxious served as an effective distraction, although it's not really something you can do in public without drawing a lot of unwanted attention to yourself, especially when you're panicking.

5. Emetophobia Recovery System. Unfortunately this self-help program didn't help me, and I hate saying that because I really like this website and I would have liked nothing more than to say it worked but, sadly, it did not. For me. Doesn't mean it won't work for you.


Sooo, feeling like I've exhausted every reasonable treatment option, I'm going to continue with the hypnotherapy AND really apply myself to the How to Free Yourself from Trauma, Phobias & Anxiety in 7 Days or Less (we'll see about the 7 days claim) program and see what happens - can't hurt. I'll keep you all informed with daily updates. After all, according to their claim, I should get relief within a week even though I can keep it for two months if I need to before getting a refund. Fingers crossed. Wish me luck!

[afraid213]

I'm very interested in how this works for you..please keep me updated cuz if it works,iim willing to try it..I tried "the emetophobia recovery system" and it didn't work for me!

[out_of_order]

I'm very interested in how this works for you..please keep me updated cuz if it works,iim willing to try it..I tried "the emetophobia recovery system" and it didn't work for me!

So this is what I did so far:

Yesterday I listened to the introduction which is quite detailed and extensive, so I listened to it very careful to make sure I "got it". The introduction explains things like the purpose of this program, how it's going to work, how we create anxiety, the role of focus, reconstructing our imagination, difference between fear and anxiety, the physiology of fear, anxiety is a future-based emotion, the problem with worry, we are in charge of our emotional states, difference between the conscious and unconscious mind, the source of emotional responses, the role of our five senses in creating our emotional states, why we feel the way we do, how we create our beliefs, it's not what we say it's how we say it, beliefs about self, the power to create the power to destroy, change your perception change your state, couple of case histories, how panic attacks grow out of control and how to take control, how this program can work so easily, why change can happen in an instant, the true basis of phobias and post-traumatic stress (we all had to be traumatized by vomit at some point to have this phobia), the positive purpose of fear, why there's nothing wrong with us after all (they don't believe it's a disorder or chemical imbalance), the structure of subjective experience, subjective vs objective experiences (reality), channels and subchannels - visual auditory kinesthetic, applying this information to you, it's like baking a cake - change the recipe change the result, the secret of lasting change, how to change your own personal history. So that's just the introduction.

Today I did the first exercise. It's important to note that I first had to listen to it several times to really "get it" and I had to do it in a quite room, alone, without distractions, it took about 15 minutes. I'm going to do it repeatedly throughout the day (maybe a half dozen times or however long it takes) so that it really gets seared into my mind. Here's a brief rundown:
　
Exercise 1 - How to neutralize the trauma of your past. "The fast phobia trauma cure"
You must feel that you've completed each step before moving on, that's very important, which is why I'm going to repeat this exercise many times before moving on to the next one. I was asked to think of a memory I'd like to neutralize emotionally. For me this was easy because I remember exactly what happened that caused me to become emetophobic. He talks you through very specific steps to do, based on NLP (neuro-linguistic programming) in order to neutralize the fear and trauma. When you've successfully completed it, you're asked to "Try to find those old (negative scary) emotions" - they're not there. They really were not there! I was asked to rate my fear from 0 -10 before and after. Before it was about an 8 and after it was maybe a 1 or 2 and my feeling about the eperience totally diminished. He explains that our brain does not know the difference between something that really happened in your past and thinking about it now, which is why we can either create more fear about it or erase that fear by re-framing the traumatic event. When you reframe that event, your feelings (fear) about it also changes. You're asked to come back in an hour and check on that event once again and do it it again tomorrow and next week just to make sure it's really gone. He talks about why it's necessary to neutralize anticipatory anxiety, and teaches how to eradicate anticipatory anxiety.

The terror I associated with that specific event that led to emetophobia is totally gone. I can't believe it. I feel very neutral about it now and when I think about it, the pictures in my mind are very dull (like a distant memory) whereas before they used to be very sharp, bright, vivid, detailed.

As previously stated, I'm going to keep doing this exercise several times throughout the day just to make sure it stays and I'm going to do what was recommended - keep checking over the next week to make sure the negative feelings associated with it are gone. If by the end of today I'm convinced that the change is solid, I'll go ahead and start on exercise 2 tomorrow, if it's not, I'll continue repeating exercise 1.

Overall, so far, I am very impressed. I honestly wasn't expecting this much of a result so soon in the program. Will it last? Dunno. Time will tell. But I'll tell you one thing, all the traditional (and not-so-traditional) therapies I tried over the years combined did not create this result in me. I don't know if this is a momentary "woohooo" or if real permanent change happened in my brain with a relatively simple but powerful exercise. This is so weird because it's difficult to put into words exactly how I feel. I'm a little freaked out because the memory that's haunted and terrorized me for years all of a sudden feels like just another "thing" that happened but no big deal but I guess because I've marinated on it every day for so many years, it feels kind of weird not having it there anymore. Don't get me wrong, I still remember exactly what happened but it feels more like an emotional dull toothache rather than a throbbing OMG kill me now to make it stop abscess, if that makes sense. And I'm happy, very happy, with the result but wow, I didn't expect to feel kinda lost without the chronic feeling of fear in the pit of my stomach. Not that I want it back! God no! Does that make any sense to anyone else???

[out_of_order]

DAY 2

Yesterday I repeated the mental repatterning processes outlined in exercise 1 four additional times throughout the day and checked to make sure that the change I felt after doing it the first time was still there - it was. It's still there today. And for the first time in a very long time, I had a full night's sleep without waking up once during the night and without weird dreams. Also, I didn't wake up with the usual weird chokey-gaggy feeling I always wake up with and sticks with me for a couple of hours.
It's only been one day and one exercise but so far so good. I'm cautiously optimistic that this program actually delivers what it promises.

Now I'm going to do exercise 2 and report back on that a little later.

[out_of_order]

More about Day 2

Exercise 2 The Subchannel Shift

So very briefly.... this exercise talks about why it's important to eliminate future-based fear - ie anticipatory anxiety.
And it teaches how to stop doing anticipatory anxiety because, yes, we "do" it, it doesn't just happen to us just like we don't "get" panic attacks, we "do" (create) panic attacks.
You Identify your unconscious negative trigger picture. What are you seeing in your mind just before you get the feelings you don't want.
You learn to slow down the picture that now seems to happen instantaneously.
You lean how to put your problems behind you.
And how to neutralize fear about events happening in the future - ie upcoming events that we're dreading.

Before really doing this exercise properly, i went back to exercise 1 and applied it to every scary memory I have of vomiting. Lucky for me, there haven't been many, but it was important for me to neutralize the fear I linked to each one of those because it's that fear that my subconscious automatically brings up (nice choice of words eh?) now in the present every time I'm faced with something that makes me think I might get sick.

So then I did this second exercise and I used a real upcoming event that I'm feeling anxious about because "what if I do that and I get sick?" Well, after applying this exercise to that upcoming event, I gotta tell you, that awful gnawing feeling I've been carrying around in the pit of my stomach about it is gone. The "event" is tomorrow so I'll know for sure then if it really worked BUT all the anticipatory anxiety I've been carrying around about it is seriously gone right now! And it ALWAYS gets worse the close to the dreaded event I get rather than better so because it's the day before and my anxiety about it is GONE - wow that's huge for me!

I'll do this exercise a few more times today just to make sure it "sticks" and I'll report back tomorrow after the event to say how it went. Fingers crossed!

[afraid213]

Wow!....I wish I could remember what it was that made me so afraid....cuz otherwise,idk if this program would even work for me... :\ but I'm glad its helping you!

[out_of_order]

Wow!....I wish I could remember what it was that made me so afraid....cuz otherwise,idk if this program would even work for me... :\ but I'm glad its helping you!

I don't know if this will help you, like every other treatment out there, it won't help everybody but I gotta tell you, I haven't experienced these kinds of results with anything else I've tried over the years. So for me, this seems to be the answer I've been praying for. You don't have to know what caused your emetophobia, you can use a time you DO remember that terrified you and start there. Maybe the first panic attack you remember having. Even though I know the exact incident that caused my emet and started with that, I also went back and used the techniques to "erase" other situations in which I was absolutely terrified and re-traumatized. Again, it's not necessary to do this with each and every thing that ever happened, with every memory, but I found it useful to apply to the things that really stand out in my mind as traumatic.

[out_of_order]

I completed exercise 3 of the program and had my 3rd appointment with my hypnotherapist. For the first ever, I feel 75% recovered. This is going to sound crazy but that scares me a little bit. Full recovery is what I've wanted for SO LONG and now that I'm finally experiencing some real relief from this debilitating phobia, I'm not sure how to feel about it. Probably because I've been emetophobic for so long, being "on guard" every minute of every day had become my norm. Now that most of my emet is gone, I'm not sure what to do. How am I supposed to behave now? I know how do "do" emetophobia and panic really really well, but I don't know how to do "normal". Don't get me wrong, I want this phobia GONE 100% and forever but I really didn't expect to feel lost when and if I ever did recover. I expected to be jumping with joy, doing cartwheels down the street lol.

[out_of_order]

I have now completed the entire program and what they promised seems to have happened. No matter how hard I try, I can't feel the terror I used to so easily feel when I think about the worst case vomiting scenario I can conjur up in my mind. It's just not there anymore. I can also think back to the "trauma" that started emetophobia in me and while I remember it completely, there is no negative emotion attached to it anymore. When I think of it, it just feels like a neutral memory of something that I experienced in the past.

I have never had a problem with anyone else vomiting unless they had something I could catch or unless I didn't know why they were vomiting, but the sound of someone vomiting, even on TV was something I always found revolting and if it was a particularly graphic vomit scene with full sound, I would start feeling that little gaggy thing in the back of my throat. Well, since after the second exercise of this program, I've been able to go back and watch the most graphic vomit scenes with the sound on and have no reaction AT ALL. Today I was even able to eat my lunch while watching a half hour of endless vomiting scenes on loop and at one point I was actually laughing because of the look on this guy's face. And speaking of lunch, I went to a chinese takeout (something I would NEVER do) that apparently has amazing food but isn't exactly clean, and ate the whole thing even though the place wasn't very clean and the cook looked very greasy, like he hadn't showered in a while. Had I been brave enough to do that before this program, I then would have worked myself into a severe panic because the food was now IN me and I would have spent the rest of the day, and probably the next couple of days, waiting for food poisoning to hit. But now, with a full tummy, I feel fine, zero anxiety, zero worry about getting sick.

I'm aware that this could be a short-lived recovery so I'll wait and see what happens after about a month before declaring myself "cured" since that's roughly how long it takes to develope a new hapbit or change a behaviour, but I gotta tell you, this has been absolutely amazing for me, better than I had hoped. I am seriously surprised that not only does it seem to have worked as promised, but it worked so fast! Especially because nothing I've done so far has ever made me feel this fully free of fear and anxiety for ANY length of time.

It's important to repeat that I have been seeing a master hypnotherapist in conjunction with doing this program and I'm sure that has helped too because while this was my 3rd go at hypnotherapy with a 3rd hypnotherapist, he is very very good and what he does is along the same lines of what this program teaches. So I had the benefit of doing the self-help program and then having a really good hypnotherapist solidify it in my brain in person.

So if this really is the end of my emetophobia, what am I going to worry about now? (I'm only half-joking)

[Jimmy2e]

Hey, out_of_order, could you PM me when you get a chance? I have a question about this program.

[out_of_order]

Hey, out_of_order, could you PM me when you get a chance? I have a question about this program.

Yeah sure Jimmy.

[afraid213]

Hell, I want to try the program just to feel anxiety free...even if it is short lived, id give anything to feel what it would be like to live without this damn phobia..if only for a day! Thank you for posting about this ! I will definately try it....when I save up enough for it...

[out_of_order]

Afraid, please check your private messages.

[MG-Mama]

Hello, I'm new to this site and I was wondering if this treatment is working for you. I've been emetophobic for nearly 30 years now and I just want it to be gone. I want to be able to take care of my kids when they get sick. I don't want to pass this phobia on to them. I've been able to handle it in the past, but lately it's been really rough and my anxiety is now causing real health problems (high blood pressure). In the past I was able to talk myself through the panic attacks and eventually they went away, but the panic has come back after a rough Fall/Winter where my kids and I were sick for months. Now school is starting again (kids share nothing, except germs, lol) and I don't think I'll get through another season of OCD hand-washing, surface-avoiding, human contact avoiding paranoia.

[out_of_order]

Hi MG-Mama, welcome. I don't know if it will work for you but it's the only thing that worked for me. My emetophobia is completely gone, which is something I thought would never happen because I had tried all the other standard kinds of therapy repeatedly but the fear wouldn't budge. So for me, this program has been a godsend and I can't say enough good about it. I'm sure that's not the case for everyone because no one thing works for every single person, the only way to find out is to do it. If it doesn't work, you can get your money back so you lose nothing but the time it takes to do the work. I don't know about you but I'd rather be spending that time at least working on something that might help as opposed to doing nothing but living in fear.

[transcend6887]

I am so glad you posted this information! Do you think I could talk to you through messaging? I am new to the forum so I'm not quite sure how it all works I felt like everything you said REALLY resonated with me. I have also been involved in many treatments as well as three hypnotherapists, the emetophobia recovery program, EFT (multiple times), brief counseling experiences, NLP and others. I really felt like I was gonna give up!!! I just happen to be an energy healer too (what would people think if they knew about my phobia I was good at pushing the phobia down so i forgot about it for a few months. Then I was learning new energy healing techniques and it actually brought my fear and nausea to the surface.(not a very delightful experience) Since then (about 9 months ago) I have been on a mission to get rid of this phobia once and for all. I thought I was seeing progress with hypnotherapy cause I had an amazing hypnotherapist but I kept backtracking. It was very disappointing and I found myself at a loss for the next steps to take. Your story is inspirational because I either hear that hardly anyone has been cured or it took years and years to cure it. I also feel weird about letting it go like you had mentioned...when I started to feel a bit better from hypnotherapy I noticed some resistance to change. Like how do I act now? what will it be like? Does the program help you with that? I have had the phobia for at least 20 years now so it would be like starting a new part of my life.

I appreciate any of your help and advice! and I would love to talk to you through messaging!

[out_of_order]

Do you think I could talk to you through messaging?

Yes, of course! Message me anytime.

[sage]

out_of_order: thanks for posting your experience with this program and I'm so glad that it has helped you in such a short time. And by the way, I completely agree with you that it is not necessary to make someone vomit or scare them with flooding (exposure) for them to get better. I'm a CBT therapist and have never used such methods with my clients. I have good success with those who really apply themselves to the homework exercises, but it does take a long time. At least 6 months if not a year.

The program you purchased is NLP or neuro-linguistic programming, which seems to work very well with some people and has absolutely no effect on others. The first scholarly studies of it were quite critical, but I read one from 2010 that concluded that many phobics do actually get better. Perhaps it has to do with the personality type of the person in the program. Although the same can be said of CBT or any other method.

Since this program offers a money-back guarantee, I hope some people will try it and let us know, as you did, what they think of it and how it worked for them. Nevertheless, it worked for you and that's awesome and even if some people report it didn't help nevertheless the numbers held up when a scientific study was done.

No matter what, I hope you continue to speak about the ridiculous notion by some therapists that you have to vomit to get better. Do people afraid of dog bites need to be bitten to get better????

Good luck to you and be sure to keep us posted as to how you do in the future!

[out_of_order]

Thank you Sage! I'll definitely keep you posted.