I know a lot of people who are having some success with exposure therapy and emetophobia. Basically, they are desensitizing themselves to vomit by watching youtube videos over and over again until it is doesn't bother them anymore. Apparently this can also be done with any episode of Tosh.O as I learned last night.
I think exposure therapy is great for some people. It is not for me, because when someone gets sick onscreen I am generally not bothered by it. i just close my eyes and then open them when it is over. I am lucky. Watching it on TV does not cause me to have a panic attack.
This is not the case with every emetophobe. Some of us can't handle the sound, sight, or even the word. I highly recommend going outside of your comfort zone and researching exposure therapy for emetophobia. It seems to me that it works.
That being said I do not recommend using any method where you make yourself actually throw up. This might help some people, but 95% of the time it won't. I can say this from personal experience as I am vomiting several times a day (down to about two) with this pregnancy and I am still scared to death of vomit. Put me in a room with one of my children when they have a stomach ache and I will find the nearest possible exit.
Have you tried exposure therapy? Did it work for you? Please comment because a lot of readers want to know.
I think exposure therapy is great for some people. It is not for me, because when someone gets sick onscreen I am generally not bothered by it. i just close my eyes and then open them when it is over. I am lucky. Watching it on TV does not cause me to have a panic attack.
This is not the case with every emetophobe. Some of us can't handle the sound, sight, or even the word. I highly recommend going outside of your comfort zone and researching exposure therapy for emetophobia. It seems to me that it works.
That being said I do not recommend using any method where you make yourself actually throw up. This might help some people, but 95% of the time it won't. I can say this from personal experience as I am vomiting several times a day (down to about two) with this pregnancy and I am still scared to death of vomit. Put me in a room with one of my children when they have a stomach ache and I will find the nearest possible exit.
Have you tried exposure therapy? Did it work for you? Please comment because a lot of readers want to know.
4 comments:
I definitely think exposure therapy works. For everything but the actual vomiting itself, like you said.
I think this is just because it's not possible or healthy for someone to make themselves vomit enough times for exposure to work. Vomiting is rare, and exposure needs to be frequent. And probably ongoing too. If someone had a phobia of flying, and they put considerable effort into successfully overcoming it through exposure therapy, but then for whatever reason didn't get on an airplane for the next ten years, I wonder if they would still be anxiety-free when they next flew. I feel like for most major fears, whatever you're afraid of needs to become a consistent, regular part of your life in order for you to stop fearing it, and it's unlikely that will ever happen with vomiting.
But I think exposure therapy can help with every other facet of the phobia - fearing words, pictures, movies/videos, going to restaurants, going out places, etc. And every time you desensitize yourself to one of those things, no matter how little, your life gets better. Because you are more able to actually live it.
I get nervous watching it on tv. I was watching MTV the other night and some girl in a commercial started doing it. I had an instant panic attack. Now I see where the norovirus is breaking out like crazy just when I am about to go to Disney. Now I don't even want to go. I am terrified.
Exposure to vomiting definitely helped last year when I finally vomited for the first time in approximately 15 years. For a few months after, I felt invincible. But now that the dreaded season has rolled back around and it being so long since I last vomited, I'm starting to really get nervous again. So I definitely think it's something that needs to be ongoing to really be effective.
Hi I am afraid of both being sick and seeing other people being sick. I desperately want to work in a caring profession but my emetophobia is stopping me. I am 26 and have trained myself not to vomit to the point where I haven't brought anything up since age 7. I already see a therapist who is willing to help but even just talking about it makes me sweat and my heart race.....how will I ever get better? Xx
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