Causes Of The Fear Of Vomiting Phobia
Psychologists believe that the fear of losing control triggers Emetophobia. Vomiting is often completely out of ones control. Here are common factors that can cause this phobia:
- Typically, during the flu season, children get upset seeing their friends or closed ones vomit uncontrollably. Also, they might have felt embarrassed about throwing up in school, or might have spent a long night being sick and nauseated. A negative experience of this sort is usually a trigger for Emetophobia.
- It usually begins in childhood, when one is low in life experiences or intelligence, as the brain or the subconscious mind attaches negative feelings to vomiting.
- In adults, over indulgence in food or alcohol or mixing two or more types of alcohol can lead to severe vomiting the brain then learns to trigger the same response over and over, especially in case of nervous or over anxious people. It is a mechanism used by the mind to steer the individual away from such dangerous situations.
- High strung people who are already suffering from other anxiety disorders or social phobias are likelier to develop fear of vomiting phobia.
Phobia Of Vomiting Risk Factors And Triggers
An really disturbing incident from the past, is often the root cause of Phobia Of Vomiting. Your fear may also seem to come out of no where with no memory you can think of. The key is digging down to the source and replacing negative associations with more positive emotions. Those at greatest risk include:
People with a general tendency towards fear and anxiety Ones who are characterized as high-strung If you experience adrenal insufficiency
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After The Fourth Treatment Session
When Debbie and her therapist met for the last time, Debbie indicated that she had planned the bus trip, and that there were no longer any situations that she still feared. In fact, over the past few weeks she had not thought about her vomiting problem at all. To measure the effects of treatment Debbie was asked to fill out an SCL-90 again. It appeared that there were no high subscale scores with the total score being 121 . Accordingly, it was decided to discontinue the treatment for the time being with the restriction that, if needed, she would contact the therapist again.
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After The Second Treatment Session
Debbie wrote in her journal: This week in the train I was sitting reading a newspaper. There was a comic in it about vomiting. It was a poster on the step , at least that is how it was drawn. I did not immediately react with fear! Wow! I even turned the page back another time and continued to look at the picture for a few minutes, while inside myself I said: Actually such a drawing doesnt mean a thing. I can hardly believe it.
Is Emetophobia A Mental Illness
Emetophobia is not a mental illness such as a psychiatric disorder like Schizophrenia. Instead, it is classed as a specific phobia by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders .
Phobias are simply a form of anxiety disorder. Although distressing they can be treated with medication or talking therapy. We regularly work with emetophobia to help our clients overcome their fears. As with any phobia work centres around understanding the origin of the problem, overcoming avoidance strategies and reducing stress and anxiety.
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What Treatments Are Available
If you feel that you or a close relative are affected by phobia of vomiting and would like help or more information, contacting your GP is often the easiest way to get help and further treatment. He or she may refer you to cognitive behaviour therapy for further assessment. This may lead to outpatient treatment or, if more serious in-patient treatment.
Details of obtaining national specialist treatment by NHS appointment at the Bethlem Royal are also on this website.
The treatments offered are cognitive behaviour therapy and possibly medication.
The Quiet Shame Of Parenting With A Fear Of Vomiting
When my kids were 4 and 2, we drove to the mountains in North Carolina to share a cabin with friends for a weekend. The first thing I noticed when they arrived was how pale their toddler looked.
Hes just carsick, my friend said, shifting him to her other hip. I think.
I swallowed hard. How sick?
He threw up a couple times, she said casually.
My breath felt stuck. I tried to convince myself we could stay pretended she hadnt uttered the words that would make me leave.
This wasnt the first time Id caved to my anxiety. Id bailed on easier-to-escape events like block parties and holiday gatherings after someone mentioned stomach illness. But because I never owned up to it, no one except my husband grasped the depth of my fear of vomiting.
It turns out theres a term for this condition: emetophobia, or the paralyzing fear of vomiting.
The disorder isunderstudied but according toone estimate, it affects up to 7 percent of women, who are four times more likely to be impacted than men. Another study found a prevalence rate of only 0.1 percent. Researchers I spoke with think the true incidence lies somewhere in between.
But the root of anxiety is highly specific: vomiting or being exposed to someone elses. The phobia typically begins during childhood, sometimes with a traumatic event. Other times, as in my case, theres no known cause.
But I couldnt.
I also let her know that she doesnt need to worry about eggs or throw-up, and that I am working to get over my fear.
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Treatment With Exposure Therapy
Kylies doctors began addressing her OCD and emetophobia with a kind of behavior therapy called exposure and response prevention. The clinician works with the child to create a hierarchy, rating the things that trigger their anxiety on a scale of one to ten. Then, starting with the lowest rung, the child is exposed to the things theyve been avoiding, often in tiny, incremental steps. For an emetophobe, that could mean starting by writing the word vomit, then progressing to talking about it, drawing it, seeing cartoons or photos of it, possibly even being around a facsimile of it. They experience anxiety, but they also learn that the anxiety fades.
When we expose patients systematically to things that theyre afraid of, without allowing them to push it away, their anxiety will go up and up and up, peak, and itll come down by itself, says Dr. Bubrick. After the 10th or 50th repetition of an actionsay, eating a potato chip thats past its expiration datepatients experience a cognitive shift, in which they realize the thing they feared wasnt as bad as they thought it would be. If theyre constantly pushing the anxiety away, says Dr. Bubrick, theyll never have that experience.
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The Answer To Phobia Of Vomiting Fast Effective And Guaranteed
If youre like most people who live with this fear, you probably wonder if you can ever be rid of it. After 10 years working with people with the most severe phobias, we have never met a case of phobia of vomiting that could not be overcome.
Here is what we offer:
- Phobia of vomiting better or gone in as little as a day
- Privacy and complete discretion
- Clients in 70+ countries have put their trust in CTRN
Nausea Due To Anxiety: Reasons Causes And How To Get Rid Of It
- Nausea is a natural reaction when the human body feels like something is amiss
- Anxiety affects the gut, the eyes, and many other pathways that can contribute to nausea
- Anxiety can also make you sensitive to normal feelings, increasing the severity of feelings that may otherwise have been easy to ignore
- Understanding the role that the fight or flight and serotonin play in both anxiety and nausea can help decrease worry when feeling nauseated
- There are strategies that can decrease the feeling of nausea, but ultimately the only way to prevent it is to address anxiety
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The Warning Signs You Should Be Looking For
Uncover the seriousness of the issue for you by using our 2 minute Test Online for Phobia of Vomiting however its pretty obvious: If this phobia is having a significant negative impact on your life, its time to do something about it.
- Do you become sick at the simple thought of Vomiting?
- Does your mouth go dry and your palms get sweaty?
- Does your heart begin to race?
- Do your legs feel as if they will give way?
Those were only a handful of examples of the feelings you might suffer. Click here to learn more about the symptoms of phobia of vomiting.
We not only help you deal with the symptom you experience, but we find the cause. Its what were all about
Confronting The Problem Head On
To really stop a fear of throwing up a client should be willing to take steps to start to confront the problem head-on rather than continually trying to run away from it. Every time you run away from a fear or a phobia it will only make it worse.
Usually, we work with our clients to come up with a hierarchy of fears around their problem graded from 1 to 10. Number 1 will be the least fearful thing they can think of doing whilst number 10 is the worst. Whilst working together we help our clients to confront each of the fears on the list starting with the lowest first.
As an example, our clients least fearful aspect of emetophobia might be eating fewer mints. Their most feared issue might be sitting in a doctors surgery. We help them to confront their fears one by one until finally, they are comfortable everything on the list.
When you confront your fears they start to dissolve away as your mind realises there is no danger.
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What To Do When Worry Bug Meets Stomach Bug
For most of us, getting sickyes, that kind of sick from time to time is something that we accept and frankly try to not think about any more than we absolutely have to. In fact, please allow me to apologize in advance for bringing up the subject if it wasnt already on your mind!
If only worry adhered to the same rules of etiquette. It doesnt. Ask the millions of children and adults with vomit phobia. For them, getting sick isnt something they think about as little as possible, though they would love to have that liberty. Instead, it is glued to their minds 24-7.
The slightest twinge in the stomach, or even just the mere mention of the word vomit or any of its equally noxious synonyms, can send vomit phobia sufferers into a panic spiral. What is that hot feeling in my throat? Is it a sign? Am I going to get sick? What if it happens now? Did that guy just cough or was he actually gagging? What if hes sick?! Should I eat that? What if it makes me sick?
None of us would like to get sick, and getting sick far from home even less so, but picturing it vividly and preparing for it daily doesnt change the stats. Its still as rare and unlikely for people with this fear as it is for any one else. Worry wont prevent us from getting sick but it will stress us out and make us feel as if we are taking a huge risk by simply going about our normal business as others do every day.
What Causes Nausea And Stomach Discomfort
Stomach discomfort and nausea can be caused by motion sickness, a stomach bug, food poisoning, excessive eating or drinking, food intolerance andanxiety! Thats right: Anxiety and worry can cause stomach discomfort and nausea.
If you worry about the possibility of barfing and are hypervigilant to prevent it, you can cause the very symptoms you desperately do not want. Worrying about getting sick doesnt prevent vomiting, it only makes you nauseated. And when you start to feel nauseated, thats when the worry and anxiety really kick into gear, which of course intensifies your nausea. Its a vicious cycle. Worries about vomiting can trigger nausea, and nausea and stomach discomfort can trigger worries about vomiting.
Anxiety has a way of fooling you into believing that you are going to vomit when you feel nauseated. You believe it even when it has never happened. Heres the good news:
If you do not vomit when youre anxiousyou wont! Anxiety may cause nausea, but not vomiting.
Its important to remember that the only reason you might vomit would be due to food, alcohol, motion sickness, or a stomach bug and you wont be able to stop it. In fact, vomiting is the bodys natural reaction to harmful substances or irritation in the gut. People often feel better after they barf. In most cases its harmless and over within 24 hours. Rather than worrying and wondering if youre going to puke, make peace with uncertainty.
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Prescription Drugs & Medications
To use < pills and medication for Phobia Of Vomiting> isnt supported in our program because we believe they act as camouflage, That said, you should follow your doctors recommendations and always and seek proper medical advice if you want to change any medication. Meds may seem to help in the short-term by temporarily improving your symptoms, but the problem is that they can never cure the core issue of the fearful patterns of thinking that are the automatic reaction to vomiting and which trigger the intense feelings of fear.
No drug has ever been developed specifically for Phobia Of Vomiting, by the way and with so many potential side effects, who wants to risk taking medication as a solution?
The good news is with our program, your Phobia Of Vomiting will be history, without resorting to meds..
A Natural Part Of The Fight
Anxiety is a natural reaction, and in small doses, its actually healthy. It is thought that some of the symptoms of anxiety including nausea developed to tell your brain that there was something dangerous or new in the vicinity so that you would make a smart decision regarding your next action.
When you are under stress but not facing any present danger, nausea can be especially distressing. When faced with stress, the body goes into the “fight or flight mode,” triggering the autonomic nervous system specifically activating the sympathetic nervous system and inhibiting the parasympathetic nervous system.
This action releases a hormone called epinephrine, which is often referred to as “adrenaline.” Additional stress may trigger other adrenal-related hormones. These hormones alter the stomach lining and food digestion take blood away from the digestive system and cause hyperventilation , dizziness, and more.
Stress can also cause muscle tension in your abdomen, and that added tension may squeeze your stomach in a way that leads to nausea. The gut also has an abundance of neurotransmitter receptors and is highly connected to the brain. It is possible that the way anxiety alters neurotransmitter levels in the brain may affect the gut as well.
Finally, during fight or flight, digestion is inhibited, which may affect how you process food and stomach acid and may lead to nausea.
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Woman Works To Overcome Vomit Phobia Ahead Of Wedding Day
Jessica Mellen was afraid of having a baby because of the morning sickness.
Vomit Phobia Threatens Woman’s Dream of Having Kids
— Jessica Mellen, like over 40 million other Americans, suffers from a terrifying affliction called anxiety disorder. She can undergo intense panic attacks triggered by anything from driving a car or flying in a plane to riding in an elevator.
But the one powerful phobia that fills Mellen with the most dread is vomiting.
If someone was like, You can either be shot in the leg or throw up once, I would be like, Just shoot me in the leg, Mellen, 29, from New Hampshire, told ABC News 20/20. To me, thats one of the worst things that could happen to me, if not the worst.
The fear of throwing up is called emetophobia, and millions of people in America have it. Mellens entire life is choreographed around keeping herself protected against it. She takes every precaution against catching the flu from co-workers and carries antacids, tummy drops, cough drops and hand sanitizer in her purse.
The fear just engulfs, and it swallows everything around you, Mellen said.
Her phobia even once threatened the dream she shared with her now-husband of having children. Mellen was so terrified of getting morning sickness that she refused to try and get pregnant.
Mellens phobia was so extreme that she researched hiring a surrogate to have their baby, which she said could cost $40,000 to $90,000.