How Many Males On Here?

[SUM1]

I've noticed around the forums a significantly higher prevalence of females to males. I've read that emetophobia is more common in females than males, but I didn't know it was this much more common. I've also noticed this in Facebook groups for emetophobia. They seem to have almost all girls, with a few boys in between. If there are any other males (apart from me), please let me know here, as I'd like to see how many I can actually find. I find it slightly harder to talk with other females who have emetophobia because I've noticed their attitude towards it is very different from mine, so I find it hard to relate to them.

[Sam Schroeder]

20-year-old male here!

[jkl81]

Male 31 here. There are a few of us if you poke around long enough but I'm guessing the ratio is 70/30 F/M, at lest on IES.

[Alex-London]

Male 31 had it for 20 years

[LostNoob]

18 year old male here had it for about 9 years I think. honestly from lurking around on the forums today it seems that women seem to cope better with emet, when I'm sick I just break down and cry like a little baby.

[mooki]

I'm a male, age 36. Yeah, that was one of the first things I noticed, it that it was mostly girls and women in this forum. And when they posted their photos they were disproportionately great looking women at that. More than you'd randomly expect. I wonder if that factors in somehow as well.

[turbokinetic]

Male, 36, had it since grade school. Thankfully I'm mostly over emetopohobia, and stick around to encourage others more than anything!
Sincerely,
David

[turbokinetic]

It seems to me, guys tend to suffer in silence with this. It was years before I knew anyone else felt the same. I thought this was just some weird quirky problem with me only; and no reason to talk about it! That's not the way to get over it, for sure.

[SUM1]

How did you get over it?

[turbokinetic]

How did you get over it?

Long story.

It took a changed way of thinking. Part of it was throuh learning as much as possible about biology and getting a good understanding of how my body works. That took away some of the fear of what COULD be happening and replaced it with knowlege of what normally happens.

Then, distractions helped. I stayed busy with my passion; working on mechnical and electrical things. When I'm doing this, I'm not distracted by anxiety much.

Also, related to above, my work became really busy. This kept the distraction going, and also really helped me to feel good about myself. People like to see me around and that lessened the social anxiety that went hand-in-hand with the emetophobia.

After 'dealing with' it for a few years, it faded to a memory. I think giving other things mental priority over the emet thoughts, over time, re-trained my brain to give less urgency to those thoughts.

[SUM1]

I don't think I could do that. I know ALL of the biological facts. I've had them told to me so many times, but my fear is too strong or too irrational, because even though I know how my body works and that being sick is natural, etc. I still have the intense, traumatising fear whenever I feel very sick or fear something will make me feel sick.

[turbokinetic]

I don't think I could do that. I know ALL of the biological facts. I've had them told to me so many times, but my fear is too strong or too irrational, because even though I know how my body works and that being sick is natural, etc. I still have the intense, traumatising fear whenever I feel very sick or fear something will make me feel sick.

I think you CAN do it. I felt the same way at one time, but I know better now.

Truth be told, it's not normal or natural to be sick. You're sick when something goes wrong. If you only go by the numbers, the chances are very very remote. How often do you FEEL sick, but don't get sick? You're probably a lot stronger than you realize....

It helped me a great deal when I finally accepted the fact (and it is a fact) that I hardly ever get sick. Then only later could I start to approach the 'what if' I did get sick. But accepting the fact that I did not HAVE TO get sick; and that on any given day there is no reason to expect it, was a good start.

[SUM1]

That may be true, but you talk about the chances of it happening. It probably will happen. It's not uncommon, and when it does happen, it's the actual event that would scare me. That's why I'm scared. I'm scared of when it could next happen. Although I do feel sick a lot (due to an IBS-like problem I have) but never am sick, on the certain occasions that I feel really bad, I do get scared, because I never know that it could be 9 years or 4 days before I am next sick. It's the lack of control, and inability to know when it will next happen which scare me. Of course, it's the actual act of being sick that scares me, but anything that stems from that or is the slightest bit related to it will worry me too, such as, when it will happen. When/if it does happen, I go into a frenzy of reasons why I get scared. The lack of control of the actual event (not just when it happens), the inability to breathe when it's happening, the taste, the smell, the not knowing if I'll be able to do it feeling, the horrible pressury feelings you get inside you just before it happens, all of these things terrify me. And it's mostly irrational. That's why I find it hard to help it. Someone, for example you, could go on and on about how infrequent it occurs, how I always feel sick but am not sick, but no matter how much they said, I'd still "uncontrollably" consider the "but it doesn't never happen", "it will happen again at some point", "I don't know when it will next happen" points. I only think logically about these things, and the logic is that people are sick. It happens. It could happen (again) to me. I don't know when. I'm scared of it. Therefore I'm always scared of when it will happen. Facts.

[turbokinetic]

That may be true, but.....

Giving in to the way you've always allowed yourself to think is easy; even though you know it perpetuates your anxiety. You will have to, over the long term, keep conciously guiding your thoughts the other way. Nothing noticable going to happen overnight; but over time it gets easier. I explain how I changed myself to get over emetophobia, but did not say that it was easy. Nobody can do it for you. You have to change yourself.