Hello!

My mom has emet, so do I. My mom is now 50 and has lived a full life, working in important roles, had two children, been abroad on holidays and does whatever she wants! It has gotten much easier for her over the years.

I am 23 now, and have been emetophobic since I was 4. I can honestly say it has gotten so so so much better as the years have gone on. When I was 16 - 18 it was particularly bad, I was terrified of everything. I hated being home alone, I had no idea how I would get a job or even move out. I lived off a bagel a day and was severely underweight. I couldn't do anything. I stopped going to school and I never went out.

I ended up getting so fed up that I had to do something. I got a job, just part time I started at four hours a week. I got a driving license and a car and that helped me tremendously as I ALWAYS make sure I tell myself that my car is a safe place for me to be. & as long as I have my car with me, I will always have a safe place to go. I ended up going to university, which I graduated from last year with honours. Whilst at university I worked 24 hours a week - which on top of uni meant I was constantly out and about and doing things. It was hard, but it was worth it. Getting out the house and having a routine was the best thing I ever done.

I now own a house! I moved out, I never thought I would do that! I work full time and my office is 40 miles from my house - that is a commute! Again, when I was 16 I struggled with the idea of being more than ten minutes from my home. On top of that, my job requires a lot of travel (only in the UK) so I drive all over the place to attend meetings. In fact, on Wednesday this week I travelled 40 miles to another office, sat in a meeting from 9am to 5.30am. I then drove 40 miles to my main office, and got a TRAIN to the city centre and went for a meal with my work team. I then drove the 50 mile trip home. I left my house at 6.30am and arrived back at 11.30pm. I did ALL that without panicking!!

I know it seems like you will never get to a point where you can live a normal life, but I promise you it will get better. The best thing you can do is to start challenging yourself. Small at first, then make it bigger. I used to be in a position where I was terrified to go for a meal or to go to the pub, and I just started doing it. Try and get yourself a job, not one that requires alot of hours to start with but just something which you must commit to a couple of hours a week. Just do it. It will make you feel better and the sooner you can do these things, and they feel normal to you and you know that you are safe doing them the easier it will be to start tackling those bigger challenges.

It's hard, but you can do this! You just need to believe in yourself. Believe me, as an emet you are capable of doing whatever you want to do. Think about it, how intelligent must you be to suffer so deeply with an anxiety of this sort? I honestly believe that it's the most intelligent people that suffer with anxiety of our sort. My partner has awful anxiety. He has no idea what he is terrified of, but he is terrified of something. He is one of the most intelligent people that I know. He never finished school because his anxiety was so bad, but it hasn't stopped him getting himself a bloody incredible job and doing incredible things. He designs networks and data centres. That's not an easy thing to do! Anyway, my point is - you are intelligent, you are capable and you will be able to do whatever you put your mind to. You just need to push yourself out of your safe bubble to realise what you're capable of. It WILL get easier. I promise you.