How and when did yr emetephobia start?

[Bethy-Bee92]

Have you always had emetophobia? Or did it start at a certain time in yr life for a certain reason ? Or have you always suffered from it with no known reason?
For me my emet started when i was 3 im 23 now so have been dealing with it for 20 years! My gramp suffers from epilepsy and is a heavy drinker which doesnt help his condition atall, but at 3 years old i was too young too understand and when he started fitting once when i was in the room i thought he wa going too die from choking on his own V* and even now that i know it was his tounge he was choking on emets alwats stuck with me cbt didn t help and the only thing that gets me through the day is my anti sickness tablets i get cyclazine and ondansetron on prescription. My dad recently passed away he was only 46 & it was a sudden death and since then my phobia got worse i think its because of my association of V with death! When did yr emet start and why? & do you find its improved stayed the same or got worse with time??
Im new here and never met or spoke with another emet! So hearing yr experiences would be good

[thecheesecake17]

Honestly I believe mine really started properly last year when my boyfriend at the time came down with the most awful bug(or fp, we never found out) and he was in the bathroom every twenty minutes and cried his eyes out all day.... after that, I lost a stone within two weeks and needed help from my doctor as I stopped eating three meals and literally had one a day... before that I could usually put up with a bit of n* here and there but only said "I hated it" when it was brought up in conversation..... I think it was the shock of being around someone I love who caught the death virus...but then again in 2009 mine flared up badly when my bro got a bug....then six months later I very very very nearly threw up and it sent me emet crazy for that whole year...I have a theory that we all reach peak emet when someone around us gets sick..... I think I'm a part-timer as my mind isn't on it 24/7 anymore unless someone gets sick.....

[gumdropper1]

Age 8, threw up in my sleep. Truly awful.

[tiredofitall]

I honestly can't say what started mine. I have very few viruses as a child. My brother only had one that I remember. My parents never had them when I lived with them. I remember being fine with v when I was a small child. I did have on virus around Christmas that was very bad but it didn't last longer than 24 hours and no one else caught it. We only had one bathroom at the time too. I feel my emet started after that but I don't know why that particular illness started it. I was about 10 or 12, so I've suffered from this awful phobia for about 40 years! It waxes and wanes. It was very bad when my kids were little. It is much better now but definitely not gone. I don't think it ever will be.

[Jess44246]

I've never meet any emetophobic who's emetophobia started as mine did, yet mine is very severe. I've always had some degree of emetophobia. It did not come from any trauma or traumas, and I can't remember a time in my life without some degree of emet. I'm a teen now. As I aged, my emetophobia kept getting worse and worse. It still does. Worse and worse and worse. Very limiting to my life.

[cmu315]

I believe when I was around 13 (I'm 25 now). I had pneumonia when I was 13 and had to be hospitalized for 2 weeks. I had many v* episodes during that time due to the fluid in my lungs, and it was very difficult to breathe. Since then, I've had pancreatitis (more hospitalization and painful v*) and have also been diagnosed with Crohn's Disease, which is an autoimmune disease that affects the digestive tract. I receive immunosuppressant medicine to keep my Crohn's under control, which makes me very susceptible to infection. For example, a sv* would land me in the hospital for weeks if not months, because my body would not be able to fight it off. So...I would say my emetophobia is founded but still sometimes the way I react to situations is quite extreme. That's why I appreciate the support of this board.

[leahmarie7269]

I can re-call being emet for most of my life but I think it started because my biological father was an alcoholic and would violently v* very loud and forceful multiple times in the night. He was also very abusive towards my mother, my brothers and sometimes to me. I was sexually assaulted when I was 3-4 years of age so that sent me into OCD and anxiety at a young age I also had Strep throat constantly so I v*ed quite a bit..I remember my OCD being so bad I would cry and panic while attempting to organize the cabinet with all our canned veggies, everything around me had to PERFECT and I had to feel in control over everything I would not for days on end and constantly ask my mom if daddy was going to be sick and if he was going to get sick on me (which he had many times)..Dealing with my father's abusive for 10 years my mother left him and married a guy that began molesting me at age 10 and raped me at age 13. I was put into foster care when I finally felt love and compassion my emetophobia tapper down but never went away, more or so just on the back burner..there but not gone, my OCD was under control and things were finally normal. Well, after having my son and contracting a sv* 4 years ago I have been in full fledged PANIC mode all day, everyday and it is so hard to live like this..my OCD is bad, my anxiety is higher than ever, my phobia is not just v* I also fear food and large crowds. I know you all can relate. I went through 10 years of abuse in every shape or form so maintain control is the only thing I have left. I am lucky to have married a man who tries to understand and makes an effort to ease my anxieties with love and support, not all of us have supportive loved ones..most people just say "that is dumb" "it's just vomit it won't kill you" or they laugh and start making gagging noises, that just angers me so much! When people do that I ask them "would you enjoy me pushing you out of an airplane at 32,000 feet with no parichute? No you wouldn't because that is horrifying to you, right? Ya, that is how I feel about vomit"...well there is my story in a nutshell.

[Sparkles13]

Mine was age 7. A boy was sick in the back of my moms car while we were driving home. Can't believe it's been 23 years now.

[ChiGal]

I actually don't. But I am sure it was anxiety-related. Which is why I am not giving in anymore - I am done with this fear. I'm finally free and living again.

[KimberlyP]

It always made me nervous since I was a kid. I'd pray when I felt ill and ask God to spare me from it. When I was 11 I drank untreated water from a stream and was violently ill. When I was 22 my baby was injured intentionally by a family member and we nearly lost him. That sent me over the edge and I had a complete nervous breakdown. I should have been hospitalized but I didn't understand what was happening to me, so I didn't seek treatment. I'm now 28 and doing the best I've done since having my nervous breakdown. I'm on medication and I've learned coping techniques. I still fear vomit and I'm terrified it will happen to me but I don't obsess over it and I'm able to be around my children (wearing a mask) while they vomit. I used to run and hide.

[mamabear93]

I've had emetophobia since I can remember but it started getting really bad when I was 8. It was a really dark time in my life. I was feeling things that I couldn't control but I learned to live with it. I got some therapy for it. Some of the tools I still use. By the time I was 16 I didn't fear it anymore. I went years without an anxiety attack but for some reason after my 3rd pregnancy it came back worse than before. I think with hormones, and stress that I've never had to deal with before triggerd it. For the first year of my youngest child's life I was a complete mess. But now that has passed. I only seem to have anxiety attacks in stressful situations or if I know someone is sick. Since my daughter turned one this passed October I've actually been able to be around my hubby who was very sick with a migraine and sleep beside my youngest while she had a sv*. I just need to work on taking care of my kids when they are sick. Thankfully I have a supportive hubby who doesn't quite understand but he takes on the job of caring for the kids when they are sick.

[Razzle]

I think I have always had emet but I'm not really too sure. The absolute WORST experience was having noro as a kid this one time (I had sv a few times when I was kid, but this one time was an emet's nightmare)
I was only 3 and was the one to bring it home. I v* in the middle of the night when I got myself a glass of water. I took a sip and v*. Now, at the time while I panicked right prior to v, the act itself I don't think scared me quite as much at that time as I v* a lot with that sv and just went back to playing or watching cartoons.

Anyway it got me, both of my parents and both of my siblings within one week. It was a very involved "both ends simultaneously" kind of deal and when you get something like that at a young age, it kind of stays with you. Or at least with me it did

[CMM811]

I have no recollection of when mine started. My mom has said even as a young toddler I would freak out if my stomach was upset and she would stand in the shower with me if I felt sick and I would cry and shake. Therapist had thrown around the idea of trauma but both mom and dads houses both denied it. I'm almost 33 now and have had very highs and very lows. When I was 6 therapists diagnosed me with anxiety and depression. My elementary years were some of the worst by far, I remember kids getting sick in school and then my mom would have to drag me to school literally kicking and screaming. Then all of a sudden Jr high it just went away, but by age 12 I started drinking and getting into trouble that followed all through high school, and while I was around drunk sick people a lot I just ignored it and went the other way. Then one day a month before I turned 18 it came back with a vengeance, I couldn't leave my house (I was living with my dad and boyfriend) and my dad didn't understand, we moved into my moms where I literally would cry the whole way to therapy and home until I got regulated on Zoloft. Then I went back to a normal 18 year old again, we got our own apartment we partied, a lot, experimented with drugs and did heavy drugs off and on. I would drink myself to where I was feeling sick but never got sick, I wouldn't let it happen. So the fear was there but it didn't "control" my life. It wasn't until I was 22 and caught a bug that I passed onto my son who was only a year that it came back, not as bad but I did go back on Zoloft and it helped a lot. I eventually weaned myself off it it. Now I have good and bad days or good mornings bad nights or bad mornings good nights. I don't take anything except Valium when I'm panicking. I do natural things to try to help with my anxiety and depression and I refuse to let it bring my children down. We travel, hubby and I even leave the country and visit Jamaica once a year, and we take the kids to amusement parks and all that, the fear is there but it doesn't control me every day. As I get older and as my kids get older I've become more relaxed and less stressed. I've read a lot about our fear and I don't think you can just overcome the phobia, for a lot of us it's something deep rooted in our brains that is stored up and locked tight, like mine. I did try some hypnotherapy to try to get to the bottom of it but it hurt, it was helping but I was asked do I want to know, do I want to know if I was traumatized at a young age, do I want to know if it was my father or one of his friends or my step dad or one of his friends or a uncle. And right now in my life no. No I don't. Maybe as I grow and my kids get older I will go down that path, but I know how I felt days after the hypnotizing and I didn't like being that mom, I was anxious and felt disconnected and scared or what had been brought up. My kids are youngish still and need mom bringing up something like that I would need time and space, and my hubby and I agreed I'm living I'm trying and I'm doing right now, it's not something I need to try to solve immediately.