Emetophobia Resources
Emetophobia help and resources, so you can learn more about a phobia of being sick, whether you're suffering from it yourself, or want to help someone who is. Learn more about emetophobia, how it develops, why people suffer from it and effective strategies to overcome it. For more emetophobia help, get in touch.
Emetophobia Help - Useful Blog Posts and Articles
Help for a fear of being sick
Emetophobia is a fear of vomiting and/or other people vomiting. It is widespread; it is one of the most common phobias for which people consult The Thrive Programme.
Research into emetophobia suggests that around 0.1 to 8.8% percent of the population (Hout & Bouman, 2011) have a fear of being sick. These different figures probably depend upon whether the researchers assessed participants for any sort of ‘fear’ of vomiting or solely focused upon a severe ‘phobia’. These prevalence figures suggest that somewhere between around 63,000 and 5.5 million people in the UK suffer from emetophobia.
Emetophobia is known by many names (emetophobia, specific phobia of vomiting (SPOV), vomit phobia, sickness phobia, fear of vomiting…). It is associated with other fears and disorders, such as phagophobia (a fear of gagging, swallowing or choking), a fear of pregnancy, social anxiety and obsessional disorders such as OCD. People can fear vomiting themselves and/or others vomiting. Research suggests that 85-97% of emetophobia sufferers are women (Hout & Bouman, 2011; Lipsitz et al., 2001; Veale & Lambrou, 2006).
