Emetophobia anyone?

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In case you don't know what it is, it's an intense fear of vomiting. I know nobody likes vomiting and tries to avoid it, but I really have an extreme fear of it. If somebody has a sick bug in my house, I will literally scream, and I spray disinfectant all over my room and on my hands and face (making my skin incredibly sore), and I even keep a gas mask in my room to put on! Now, that is what reacting to fear is, so it is that bad.

When it's winter and I hear about the Norovirus going around or somebody tells me that they've got or had the sick bug, I start panicking, and for the rest of that week I keep thinking I've got it when I haven't. I then feel really sick in the night, and each time I burp I keep tasting afterwards to see if it tastes funny or unusual (because they say you can have tastes of sulphur in your mouth when you're getting a sick bug), and I even keep a sick bowl underneath my bed just in case.

I remember I caught a sick bug off someone when I was 17, but I didn't actually be sick. I woke up in the night feeling really queasy, and I was shaking so hard that the whole bed was shaking, and I was also fighting the nausea back so hard that I was sweating - until the bed was soaking wet and had to be changed. I did finally manage to fight it all back and I fell asleep. The next day I had no appertite all day and felt unwell, but at least I managed to prevent any vomiting. The fear is so strong that I can really fight it back.

I haven't been physically sick in over 10 years. Anyone else suffer from Emetophobia?

It used to be really bad when I was younger. It was so terrifying because I couldn't breathe and felt I had no control of my body.

Me Me Me!! !! As well as the lysol and hand sanitizer and absolutely refising to touch anything within yards of the person who was sick; I have been known to climb trees and refuse to come down until everyone is completely well.

I have emetophobia too. It used to be the driving force of my OCD before I was put on medication for it, and even to this day I am still terrified of vomiting. One time when my nephew threw up after getting a cut on his hand (he has an intense fear of blood), I collapsed on my hands and knees and couldn't move because I was so scared that he had a stomach virus.

Whenever I hear that there's a stomach virus going around, I live in constant fear for my health and keep looking for "signs" that I or anyone who lives with me might be coming down with it. Additionally, whenever I hear that someone has a stomach virus over the Internet or on a TV show/movie, I worry that I got "jinxed" and will catch it soon myself.

I know how you feel! I have my own habits and rules to try to prevent me from sickness. One of those is only choosing veggie or red meat at a strange restaurant (red meat because you can eat that raw). I never choose seafood because that can be risky to get right. I've got a habit of when sleeping alone, I always start off facing away from the bed so if I get sick it won't go on my bed then I face the bed after about an hour or so. I get very nervous at barbecues and never choose white meat products and risk offending people when I carefully inspect my sausage (which I often leave). I am picky with expiry dates too.
I am also fearful of other minor illnesses such as flue and diarrhoea.

Having a slight fear of vomiting is very normal. Having it rule your life is not.

Definitely me. It is the most horrible, scary and disturbing feeling in the world. I carry Tums everywhere with me and have them next to my bed so I can take about 10 of them (you're meant to take 1-2). I always leave the bathroom door open in case I need to rush in and puke. I hate it when someone pukes and so I get away from them. I hadn't puked in over 10 years either until a few months ago - there was this sickness bug and I held in this disgusting, horrific feeling for hours. I thought, "I have to face this fear, then at least the stomach pain and horrible burps and everything else will go". I vomited and it was revolting, but then it was all over.

I hate it, but only for the practical reason that I'm afraid that I'm going to physically injure myself. Hopefully not TMI here, but my throat slams shut at the last instant while my stomach keeps pushing which leads to intense pressure, which makes me worry that I'm going to rupture my esophagus. (I can even imagine how doctors fix that.)

I used to have really bad emetophobia when I was younger. I would think of vomiting and how horrible it is several times a day and sometimes wake up at night thinking of it. The thoughts sometimes triggered panic attacks. Every time I heard someone had a vomiting bug I would stay away from them for days. The times I did get sick I would be in a right state and wonder what I had done wrong in protecting myself from illness to manage to get sick. And then I would never again wear the same clothes I wore the day I was sick even if they had been washed several times after that, just in case they still were infectious.

The phobia has as I have got older been replaced by other phobias :S I still do not like being sick though (who does...), every time I know I have to be sick I start panicking. I also get quite disturbed by other people being sick around me.

As a kid I could not even read the word "vomit," "puke" or "throw up" in a BOOK without having a panic attack. Kids could terrify me by pretending to puke or saying the words related to vomit, and they loved to do it. I remember it being triggered by a kid at school vomiting in class, and just being absolutely horrified by it, as I became sick myself that night and found the experience completely traumatic. It was as if I felt offended that the body was even capable of anything that disgusting and ugly. Now I would say it's more of a deep aversion/disgust than a true phobia, but if I hear people vomiting I can't deal with it. I never liked drinking or hanging around people who drink or do heavy drugs for this reason. I also am really horrified by the new trend in music videos and album covers where they actually have censored or allusive images of people vomiting (Lady Gaga, Santigold, Will.i.am, etc). It just seems not only in bad taste to me but really, really horrifying... to me it's as if they showed a close up image of a menstruating vagina or something... sorry to be graphic but it's that horrible to me, even if it's just someone vomiting pretend glitter.

When my daughter was an infant she caught rotavirus and had projectile vomiting. She lost 1/4 of her bodyweight and I'm not really sure, to be cruelly honest, which was more traumatic to me... the worry I felt as a mom over her well-being, or the terror I felt about being vomited on, cleaning it up etc. And this was just a breast fed baby... nothing too bad. But it was so upsetting to me that I just prayed to God to PLEASE never let her get this again. Thankfully she is a pretty healthy kid!

I have a hard time with any type of loss of control in my body. I found the experience of labor, ironically, so traumatic to me emotionally and physically that I decided if I ever had another child, I would prefer to adopt. It was that bad for me. People say that "you forget the pain" but I never did, nor the feeling of losing control of my muscles. I did everything beforehand to anticipate a "gentle birth" but the loss of control for me felt a lot like vomiting, which triggered a lot of horrible emotions.

I never knew this was an AS thing.

I don't know if any of you had problems as a child (or do now) with seeing gore as well, or if it's related. I hope this isn't off topic but I used to also have a terrible fear of having surgery as a child. I was an awful hypochondriac and to some extent still am. I have an embarrassing, secret special interest in scary, rare and bizarre medical conditions, as well as different types of chromosomal defects, disabilities, etc. I feel like my emetophobia is somehow related to that...

Im a major emetophobe, hate watching it in movies or TV etc. I especially hate seeing people be sick around me, or having to be around people who i know are ill as i think ill catch whatever they have and end up being sick myself. I end up convincing myself that Ive got it and making myself feel sick just out of worry.

When i am sick (which I havent been for almost 10 years (knock on wood) not counting drunken episodes, which for some reason I never find as bad) I always try and hold it in till the very last moment as it just scares me so much to vomit. Especially when its being violently ill, like with food poisoning or something, just not being able to breathe properly etc, scares the crap out of me.

I even developed contamination type OCD because of it, Im past that now but it did kind of stop my life for a while and took a lot of personal effort to get over.

In the past Ive done things like throwing away game console controllers after someone who had a virus recently came over and used them, and ive done the old dettol-spray-everything-in-sight thing a few times too. One time I was on the upstairs of a double decker bus and someone was sick in the stairwell. I think he was just drunk but I couldnt bring myself to get off the bus. I knew I would have to walk past it and some sick particles might be in the air or something and get me ill. I ended up staying on till the end of the line (which was like 10 stops past where I wanted) and then leaping pretty much the whole staircase like a loon so i wouldnt have to touch it, lol.

I wouldnt call myself an emetophobe, but i do take extensive steps to avoid stomach illness. When I eat out, i go for one of two options, pizza or a well done cheeseburger.

If i have eaten somewhere questionable, i drink two shots of hard liquor as alcohol is anti-microbial and two shots will not make me sick or hung over.

My strategy has been sucessful. My last vomiting incident was June of 2003. I will never eat ranch dip again. (it was expired)

I am emetophobe in a sense that I don't want it to happen to me. Other than ralphing every time I drank, I only get that ill about every 5 years or so. When I do I'm always convinced I'm going to die from doing it.

While I haven't done this in, like years, while I have no fear of it, I kinda worry about it.

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