What aspects of your life are most affected by your condition?

[dd1ps]

And also, what aspects of your future do you think will be as well?

I currently suffer from a long term illness which causes me constant nausea and of course a lot of anxiety. It currently leaves me stuck at home about 23 1/2 hours a day.

It affects my life the most in areas of food, food preparation hygiene, worrying about catching something, being very worried whenever I feel a little worse etc.

But recently I realised that maybe some of the things it might heavily impact are yet to come. The main two I can think of are:

1. Wanting to get married, and feeling I won't be able to because I will not want to get to close to my wife, especially if she has been out in the day and doesn't have such over the top levels of hygiene as me. So worries about catching something mainly.

2. Off the back of number 1, having children, we all probably know what children can bring into the house after school and if they became unwell I don't know how I would deal with it. I would be constantly worried about getting too close to my children too. Before I had to leave school for good because of my health, it was a real problem when anyone spoke to me because I thought along the lines afterwards of, I could have flu now, they were close enough to me to pass it on etc. Of course that heavily affects general social life too


At the moment I have no social life because of my illness but I have social anxiety, other general anxiety, depression and high stress levels so I don't know how I would deal with one anyway aside from my physical illness.

It is something that I suppose I have suffered from since the age of 5 maybe, emetophobia that is, and that coinsided with a time I was feeling ill a lot and seems to have come back with a lot of force over these years I became ill again.

Currently I just feel I am going to be ending up living on my own out the way somewhere, barely going out, both for physical and mental reasons.

How does it affect you and how do you think it will in the future and do you share any of the problems I mentioned?

[mhartse]

I think my emet holds me back a lot. Socially, from going to peoples houses, going to parties, eating food out, going out to eat, anything like that. Mentally it messes me up because I some how am convinced that anything I feel is negative and will make me sick. I agree with you, kids are gross and I could not imagine having any right now. As for the marriage, my husband is supportive and you will find people who will support you. As for you being worried about them, I guess thats your personal decision. My husband works with the public and he's been healthy thus far (knock on wood) but yeah, you just never know. There has to be a balance, and it has to come from your own personal end. I just have to remind myself a lot that avoiding germs, only make us weaker.

[xKawaii]

Well I'm 19 and never had a boyfriend so I worry that when I do eventually get one... My emet will ruin the relationship:/
i also have ulcerative colitis which can make me N* often and the emet gives me mild social anxiety, it has improved but I think it'll always be in my mind:/

[kam142]

I turn 30 in a month and have pretty much made my peace with not getting married or having kids. I did think about starting dating again but asides from the emet I'm finding myself to be really randomly shaky right now particularly in social situations so I don't feel like that's an option either (too much pressure and potential embarrassment!). I hope we can all find ways to have happy healthy futures though!

[yourjedi]

Eating out is hard for me, so that kind of puts a hinder on my social life. I've been better about it the last few months, but I still struggle.

My phobia gets worse when I'm in an anxious situation or out of my comfort-zones, so when I spend the weekend at my boyfriend's family's house, for example, I get "nauseous" and panic in front of them. They're understanding, but it's still so, so embarrassing for me.

I have the world's most confusing sleep schedule. This phobia totally affects my sleeping routine (or lack thereof!)

Pregnancy is the most wonderful thing in the world to me (to the point where I wanted to be an OB/GYN for a long time and it's still my "dream job"), and so is being a mother someday, but as of right now, I don't know how I would handle being exposed to contagious puking kids. Lol. I hope I have everything figured out with this phobia by then.

The worst, though, is it affects my ability to attend college. I was so scared of A) being exposed to a virus and B) being sick and not being at home that I wouldn't go. My bed is my safe-haven and just the thought of going to school brought on an anxiety attack. This last semester was so bad that I was too scared to leave my house and I had to drop all of my courses and wasted about two-grand. Not a great feeling.

[Goingmonkeys]

Surprisingly Emetophobia isn't a nuisance in my life as it is for others. I'm not strict with hand washing or sanitizing (except when I return home from doing errands), not scared about handling raw poultry or beef, nor will I obsess or overcook it to ensure it's done. I drink alcohol for fun and never worry about v* or hangovers. Also not afraid of living with anyone (currently live with my boyfriend and have been around him dozens of times when he's v*). At the top of my head, I'd say my three concerns are:

-Eating at restaurants. I always get anxious because I'm so far away from home in case the food settles strangely.

-Being unable to take prescription medication and/or antibiotics if I direly need to... obsessing over side-effects, etc.

-Pregnancy. Marriage is cake, and I'm very excited when the day comes, but kids? I'm not going to let emet stop me, nor morning sickness... but I am dreading it. I hope I can cope, because I've been told I'd be a kick ass mother. We'll see.

[Andi23]

Having this type of anxiety makes me think about my future on a daily basis. I too think about having children and getting married.

My first thought/ worry is usually about my boyfriend. While I fear others getting sick more then myself I know I drive him crazy with always making sure he is washing his hands and what not. I worry my obsessions will be too much for him. We have been together for two years now and he has only been sick once (food poisoning) and it was the worse 4 days of my life. I think it was the first time that I thought dying would be the only way to get peace from being so fearful. I worry that if we want to get married that my obsessions will only tear us apart. Just doesn't seem fair.

The worry and the obsession makes it hard to think about the future, that's one thing I think most of us have in common.

[Collie]

- Traveling! I am terrified of traveling, all the new foods and getting sick somewhere unfamiliar where I can't be in the comfort of my own bathroom It sucks because my bf is really into traveling and I want to be but I get so anxious..

- Kids- technically I've always not liked/not wanted children but emetophobia solidifies that. they are just little vomit factories ready to blow at any minute! lol. makes me super nervous to be around em.

[ScaredSavvy]

I have noticed my party life is affected, per say. This condition is an absolute pain in the butt but when I am upset and panicked I remember the benefits (yes I do see the light in emetophobia sometimes.) I don't do hard drugs, or any drugs for that matter, for fear any of them may make me vomit (besides zofran-- god bless that miracle pill).... and I don't drink, at all.. in fact I honestly don't think I have ever been drunk. I eat very healthy and am very hygienic and conscious of what I do to my body/ put in it. So you could say this condition can be beneficial.

(there are many many negative aspects, but I decided to focus on the good!!) xo!!

[Readynow]

I've been contemplating this a lot lately... Emet effects everything in some small way for me. It takes a toll on my husband and kids. (I love my own kids but can't stand other peoples because of this fear!!) I hate having house guests and since my husbands (large and kid crammed) family is military they think staying (or living) with each other is totally normal and great. I do NOT. My house is my safe bubble and I don't want to contaminate it. This effects my marriage greatly.

Also, so, my fear based reaction to emet is either panic, anger, or uncontrollable sadness and depression. Or a mixture. My kids and husband are affected by this on a daily basis. Especially in times like now when an sv is still hanging around my house. As for me, I live in constant guilt and heartbreak because I am well aware of what this does to my family.

As for the future, I can't even see into it. I was in nursing school but I dropped out because I had to go off my meds when I got pregnant, and I could never have my kids in daycare. I want to get out of the house and be that super mom/wife/woman that I know is there hiding inside me but I have to kick this fear first.

Sorry for the depressing post. Geez. I'm in need of some happiness.