Any person we interact with could have a stomach bug and not know it yet, which they could pass along to us. Such disordered eating can easily be misdiagnosed as anorexia nervosa, though it's a totally different illness. And if they think they're nauseous, they won't eat. (I can't count how many times our daughter has asked us to smell or taste something that is not the least bit old.) Obviously, they can't not eat, but they often start limiting their diets to things they deem "safe."Īdditionally, in an emetophobe's brain, pretty much every normal stomach sensation-hunger, digestion, gas-gets interpreted as nausea. They ask for reassurance that food is safe to eat. This literally sums up what it\u2019s like having /W9WMpscpTM - kayles all know that anything we eat has the possibility of giving us food poisoning-we know it's rare, so we take reasonable precautions and don't worry about it. And the biggest triggers for emetophobia-food and other people-are also unavoidable, which makes it a particularly challenging disorder. There are no breaks, no periods of relief from the fear. Many phobias are situational-people don't generally freak out about heights or spiders or small spaces unless they're in or around those situations-but a person can't avoid or escape their own body. People with emetophobia are basically afraid of their own bodies. But the why is less important than the what and the how to treat it. Sometimes emetophobia is a PTSD response to a traumatic vomiting episode, but often-as in our daughter's case-there's no clear cause. Totally irrational, but that's what makes it a disorder. My daughter has said if she were given the choice between throwing up and dying, she's not sure which she'd choose. No one loves throwing up, of course, but when it becomes an actual phobia it can be incredibly debilitating.įor our daughter and other emetophobes, throwing up is the most terrifying thing that could happen to them. One study found that up to 3% of men and 7% of women are affected by it. In scientific literature, it is often referred to as an " understudied" or " underresearched" disorder, but there is a growing consensus that it is surprisingly common. "Does that sound accurate?" She flinched when I said, "throwing up," but nodded "yes."Īs a shot in the dark, I googled "intense fear of throwing up," and found the clinical term that would change everything: emetophobia.Įmetophobia (also called specific phobia of vomiting, or SPOV) is a pathological fear of throwing up. "I've noticed that most of your anxiety seems to be centered around you worrying about throwing up," I said to her one day. If she found out someone had a stomach bug, she'd hole herself up in her bedroom. If a character in a movie or TV show gave any indication that they were about to vomit, she'd hop up and leave the room. She obsessively checked every bite of meat to make sure it looked cooked enough, and if her stomach felt the slightest bit off, she wouldn't eat at all. I took note of how many times she'd ask us if food was OK to eat and how frequently she'd refuse to eat certain things. It began dawning on me how often she talked about feeling nauseous. They each helped a little, at least to keep the spiral from getting worse. It was clear she was struggling with anxiety and we tried a couple of different therapists. We could see her trying to do things, but more and more she was paralyzed by a fear she couldn't name. When I took her to orchestra practice-something she enjoyed-she couldn't make herself get out of the car to go in. She spent more and more time in her bedroom. She would back out of plans with friends more frequently. And as adolescence approached, she started experiencing more anxiety in general. Those last two things should have been bigger clues, but we didn't have the clarity of hindsight. If she heard someone we knew was sick, she'd immediately ask with a worried tone, "What kind of sick?" She had frequent dizzy spells and stomachaches with no apparent physical cause. She'd always been an easy-going kid, but sometimes she'd flat-out refuse to do certain things or go certain places, and she would panic if we tried to coax her. We'd seen the signs brewing for a while, but couldn't pinpoint their exact nature.
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