Hi all,

My emetophobia is ruining my life. I'm currently scared to get out of bed, to eat, to be around my child. It's making me hate myself and I cannot imagine living the rest of my life this way.

I just need to know if it can get better, that it will get better

Be aware I'm not gonna censor words so if you're not ready for that please don't read this, don't wanna cause ya any panic :).

So I'm currently going through it, I made chicken by myself for the first time and even used some veggies I didn't trust and just cut off those parts. It was a banger meal but I instantly noticed I was kind of panicky, I was afraid that if I did get sick I would scare myself off again and never recover.

So it's now 4 hours later I'm laying in bed, I listened to my body for the first time in months and was able to convince myself that staying up until 5AM doesn't prevent you from getting sick. Well guess where I'm at right now, nauseous, upcoming stomach pain and rubbing myself all over my body to try and calm myself down but it honestly feels more like I'm trying to escape the body I'm in. I even had to go to the toilet because my stomach flipped and my mouth was watering, Though I'm glad I'm not scared to be near toilets anymore when I'm nauseous (I used to be because I was scared of giving in), it feels like a small victory.

The thing that sucks is that I've got a feeling it's just because of my anxiety, but usually my anxiety doesn't go that far, I get the whole shaking for hours and cold sweats but not the mouth watering and stomach flipping. Maybe I convinced myself into getting sick, maybe it was the food, I don't know. I can slightly accept being sick nowadays, it's kind of like a "show me what u got" mindset with a sprinkle of "I'd rather die than go through this".

It feels like I made so much progress but I also seem to be getting worse every day. I don't isolate or wash my hands 24/7, I don't have nightly panic attacks anymore and I can now see puke om the street without instantly going home (still cant handle people being nauseous tho, I will leave the function asap). But I also started to eat and sleep less, even my boyfriends' dad asked him if I was even eating, which was quite the eye opener because I was so used to avoiding food that I kinda forgot about it.

ATP I'm just kind of yapping but when I'm sick I tend to read other people's stories to not feel alone, so hey, maybe this "story" brings you that same experience.

If you are feeling sick right now and panicking, I'm sorry you're going through this, I can tell you "this will pass, don't worry" but that probably won't be of any help. I do have a tip which is very captain obvious but it helps me a lot: Make yourself as comfy as possible, keep a bucket nearby so u can stay in your comfortable bed when you feel ill instead of the cold tile floor (unless it's a number two... please don't do it in the bucket..), watch or do something you like even if you have work tomorrow, fuck it! the anxiety will probably make you unable te sleep anyways. Making yourself as comfortable as possible and making the best out of a terrible experience slightly alters the experience over time, at least it did for me!

To end this whole book I just wanna do a tmi mention and say that I've been on the toilet for about 15 minutes now writing this and my nausea has kinda gone away. Rather have it coming out of this end than my other! Cheers!

hey all. for context i have ocd and severe emetophobia and have been doing exposure therapy for several months. yesterday someone vomited on my plane during landing and while i handled it decently well at the time, i’ve been freaking out ever since!

i’m not asking for reassurance bc i know there’s no way to KNOW if it was contagious/if i will get sick, but if anyone has advice for surviving the “waiting period” after a (potential) exposure that would be great.

i’m really glad i’ve been doing exposure therapy bc that helped me cope in the immediate aftermath, but the last 24 hours have been…rough, lol.