Emetophobia what is it & how do we treat it?

Hey everybody.

Today I'm going to talk
with you about Emetophobia,

So stay tuned.

So like I said,

Today I want to talk with
you about Emetophobia,

What is it?

And if we have it, what do
we even do about it?

So Emetophobia, for those of
you who are not aware,

Is the fear of becoming sick,
i.e. vomiting.

People become so fearful of vomiting that
they may not even eat outside their home.

And the fear of vomiting isn't just,

It was interesting,

Because I don't know that
much about Emetophobia.

It falls in the DSM under
'specific phobia',

And then in the 'other' category.

So it's not something that
I learnt a lot in school.

It's not something that I have
dealt with in my practice.

And so I asked those of you who
told me to do this video,

I asked you for some resources.

So thanks for getting those to me.

It was really great to learn about it.

And the way that Emetophobia works,

It's not just that we fear vomiting,

It's what will happen because of that.

Like the embarrassment,
the shame,

Or whatever we think is going to happen
because of us becoming sick.

And so people who struggle with this,

May not leave the house.

It can get so bad that people
don't leave the house,

Because they don't want to
become sick somewhere

Where they can't get
to the toilet in time.

And it's really that severe for them.

And a lot of people will put off getting
pregnant for fear of morning sickness.

It's that intense of a fear for them,

That they will not have children.

They won't eat out.

If they feel any kind of gassiness
or any GI anything,

They won't leave the house.

And so it can be really really difficult and
really impair their level of functioning.

It is hypothesised that people
develop this type of phobia,

Due to a traumatic event involving
someone getting sick.

I know you're thinking,

'How in the world would that happen?'

But imagine, as a child potentially,

Some of the people talked in the forums,

And there was a lot of information,

About people maybe being
forced to eat a lot of candy,

Because their mom caught
them in the cupboard.

And they got spanked and abused and they
threw up because they ate all this candy.

Or they became really sick and nauseous
after being sexually abused,

And they threw up all over the place.

That happens a lot with children.

And that can be why someone would
develop this type of phobia.

And so because of that,

Now going into the treatment options,

A lot of the treatment is very similar
to that of people with PTSD.

I'm going to check my notes to
make sure I don't forget anything.

But one that they recommend a lot is EMDR.

And for many of you who maybe
don't know what EMDR is,

It is a reprocessing type of therapy,

Where it helps our brain heal from the
trauma that it had in the past.

And so they use either buzzers in our
hands where it goes from left to right,

Or we follow a light,
we follow a finger.

And it helps our brain kind of
heal from the past trauma.

The other that they offer
and recommend is CBT.

And obviously this has
the best track record,

Because it's something that's
been studied the most.

And it's been around the longest.

And I will put a link to my CBT video
here if you want to watch it,

If you want to know more about CBT.

But it causes us to challenge
our own fears.

And changing the falsely held beliefs that
we have about vomiting and becoming sick.

That maybe something bad
might happen to us.

Or something is going to happen.

Or if we have any gassiness and
anything going on in our GI tract,

It's bad and we can't leave the house.

CBT helps you challenge those beliefs.

Step outside the box.

Try slowly desensitising yourself so that
you are able to better participate in life.

And not feel so trapped.

And so I hope this helps you better
understand what Emetophobia is.

Why it might be there for you.

What you can do to help overcome it.

Because just like everything
that I talk about,

The sooner we get help,

The sooner we reach out,

The better.

There are a lot of treatment
options available.

A lot of people out there to help.

So please reach out and
start talking about it.

And if you yourself have information
and experience with this,

Let us know below.

And if you liked this,
give it a thumbs up.

And don't forget to
subscribe to my channel,

Because I put out videos all of the
time and you don't want to miss them.

And I'm all over the interwebs,

I'm everywhere.

Where everyone will find me.

I'll see you next time.

So like I said, today I'm going to
talk about Emetophobia.

And I actually don't even know if that's
exactly how you're supposed to pronounce it.

But that's how it is in my head.

How it looks on paper. So.