Q&A's with The Emetophobia Experts

Questions and Getting in Touch

We always love to hear from you. If you’d like more information on The Thrive Programme®, or simply want to get in touch, please see our contact details at the bottom of this page.

You may find that your question has already been answered in the Q and A below - so please have a browse through that first.

Emetophobia Questions

Emetophobia is a phobia of vomiting/seeing others vomit. It is known by several names: a specific phobia of vomiting (SPOV), vomit phobia, sickness phobia and fear of vomiting. It’s associated with other fears and disorders, such as phagophobia (a fear of gagging, swallowing or choking), a fear of pregnancy (tocophobia), social anxiety, anxiety, OCD and eating disorders. Research indicates 0.1-8.8% of the population have a fear of being sick (Hout & Bouman, 2011), and around 85-97% of sufferers are women (Hout & Bouman, 2011; Lipsitz et al., 2001; Veale & Lambrou, 2006).

Emetophobia can significantly affect the sufferers’ ability to lead a normal life. People with emetophobia tend to go to great lengths to avoid encountering anything that could lead to vomiting, this can include:
- Not drinking/limiting alcohol consumption
- Avoiding pubs or clubs where others might drink heavily and vomit
- Not travelling on public transport
- Worrying about hygiene: obsessively cleaning; hand washing
- Taking time off work or school to avoid being exposed to germs - Restricting eating
- Eating ’safe’ foods
- Not eating out in restaurants etc. - Obsessively checking sell-by-dates - Taking ’stomach settlers’
- Avoiding medication which has nausea as a side-effect
- Avoiding/terminating a pregnancy.

Many sufferers don’t even realise there is a name for their condition, or even that their issues are related to a phobia of being sick. It is a widely misunderstood condition, with many medical professionals unaware of it. Because of a lack of understanding, sufferers aren’t given the correct medical or therapeutic treatment, or are made to feel like their issues are not valid.

Most sufferers of emetophobia don’t believe they can be helped/cured, this is one of the most common questions we are asked. There are two main reasons why you might feel this way: (1) Because having Emetophobia is so horrible and debilitating, that it feels impossible to overcome, and (2) because most emetophobes have already tried lots of different therapies and interventions, as well as trying to make themselves better everyday, that they have ‘run out of hope’. However, if you take some time to watch any of the hundreds of video testimonials we have, or, have a look at our research study where all 62 participants overcame their phobia in just 6-8 weeks, you’ll soon start to challenge your belief and realise that actually a cure is not only possible, but predictable with this programme.

It’s natural to assume that a long-term phobia which has heavily impacted your life should take years to unpick and work to overcome right? However, once you understand what is creating your phobia, it’s actually fairly simple to make the changes to overcome it. Most of your unhelpful thinking and beliefs only take a few days to change. Watch this video from Lisa, who overcame her emetophobia in just three days, and this video from Mary who had suffered for over 75 years, but still cured herself in just five weeks.

Sometimes when somebody has had emetophobia for a long time, and perhaps even built an identity around it, it can seem strange to imagine life without it, even if it’s having a really negative impact on your life. In addition, you may worry that you’ll feel out of control if you don’t have the phobia anymore and have less ‘control’ over your life (although in reality you’ll actually feel more in control because your coping skills will be much better).

So focus on the destination instead of worrying about the journey to get there - focus on all the great things you want to do in life that your phobia is currently preventing you from doing. Remember that whatever small gains you may be getting from this phobia at the moment (like control or routine etc.), the gains from getting rid of it are MUCH, MUCH bigger.

Exposure therapy is generally unsuccessful because emetophobia is a combination of very specific thinking styles, so being exposed to vomit without changing those will only exacerbate the problem. Not having the right cognitive skills to process the event in a helpful, empowering way will only reinforce the fear. Furthermore, emetophobia is not about vomit, so it’s not helpful to encourage the idea that it is with exposure therapy.

The average time for an emetophobe is around 6-8 weeks, whether you are doing it by yourself or with the support of a Thrive Programme Coach®. Be careful though not to put a set time on how long this ‘should’ take you to overcome. Some people take longer than others to implement the exercises thoroughly, or may take more time to read and understand the book. Take it at your own pace, steadily and consistently, and don’t compare your progress to anyone else.

It’s not possible to ‘fail’ at the programme! The programme shows you how to change all of your thinking styles to the most helpful ones so that you are thriving and don’t create your phobia. It’s not possible to change all those thinking styles and still have your phobia, so if you still have your phobia then there’s some things that you’re still either not understanding or not doing in order to fully implement the programme. It doesn’t matter if it takes you weeks, months or years to get there - the moment you fully implement the programme, it won’t be long before you’re thriving and phobia-free!

We never recommend for clients to suddenly change their medication. We don’t want anything that is going to unsettle you whilst going through it (and as we aren’t doctors we would never make medication recommendations anyway). Plenty of clients make a decision to change or discontinue medication once they feel thriving and able to do so, but that is a personal decision for them and with consultation with their own doctor or medical professional.

Many doctors have no idea the phobia even exists, let alone how to treat it. We are the only organisation with an evidence-based cure for it and our own emetophobia research paper with 62 participants is leagues above any other research paper out there (the next largest after ours featured only 7 participants by the end because of the ‘high drop out rate or poor response to treatment’!).

So as emetophobia specialists we would advise you to trust us when we say that we know what we are doing, and this programme will absolutely show you how to overcome your phobia, even if your doctor may disagree!

Questions about Thrive

You can undertake the programme at home by yourself - with either one of our books/manuals/online course - or with the help of a Thrive Programme Coach®. It’s a training programme, much like a fitness programme… each day you are required to do some reading, some mental exercises, complete some quizzes, some thinking, and put effort in to change any limiting or unhelpful beliefs or thoughts you have. The whole programme will take you about 6-8 weeks to complete, and each day you will feel better and better, as you take control of your mental health and feel more powerful.

Sometimes when somebody has had emetophobia for a long time, and perhaps even built an identity around it, it can seem strange to imagine life without it, even if it’s having a really negative impact on your life. In addition, you may worry that you’ll feel out of control if you don’t have the phobia anymore and have less ‘control’ over your life (although in reality you’ll actually feel more in control because your coping skills will be much better).

So focus on the destination instead of worrying about the journey to get there - focus on all the great things you want to do in life that your phobia is currently preventing you from doing. Remember that whatever small gains you may be getting from this phobia at the moment (like control or routine etc.), the gains from getting rid of it are MUCH, MUCH bigger.

Exposure therapy is generally unsuccessful because emetophobia is a combination of very specific thinking styles, so being exposed to vomit without changing those will only exacerbate the problem. Not having the right cognitive skills to process the event in a helpful, empowering way will only reinforce the fear. Furthermore, emetophobia is not about vomit, so it’s not helpful to encourage the idea that it is with exposure therapy.

All other therapies and interventions for emetophobia focus solely on the symptoms of the phobia, and not the causes. The Thrive Programme teaches you how you created the phobia in the first place, then shows you how to overcome it completely, and permanently. Most emetophobes have unsuccessfully tried a range of treatments before they come to us, and most other treatments have very low - if any - success rates.. Veale and Lambrou (2006), for example, found that twenty-nine percent of their sample of vomit phobics had received some form of therapy for their fear, which overall they rated as largely ineffective. Veale and Lambrou (2006, p. 139) have stated that “clinicians generally regard it as challenging to treat because of high drop out or a poor response to treatment.” The drop out rate in other therapies and treatments is high, because participants have very little belief that the intervention will work… this is not the case with The Thrive Programme!

Whether you are fit or unfit, well or unwell, happy or unhappy, healthy or unhealthy, your mental health and wellbeing has a profound influence over the rest of your body. The Thrive Programme can enable people to overcome emetophobia and other fears and phobias, but it is also effective at helping a much wider range of symptoms and problems. Here are some of the other problems/symptoms/situations that people have used this programme to help with:

• Stopping smoking, staying a non-smoker (92.5% success in recent research project)
• Resolving relationship issues – in families, marriages, and friends
• Getting over alcoholism, either by stopping drinking, or drinking in moderation
• Unexplained infertility
• Anxiety
• Panic attacks
• Phobias and fears
• Stress
• OCD, obsessions, obsessional thoughts, intrusive thoughts
• Public speaking/confidence
• Obesity, dieting, losing weight, maintaining a healthy weight
• Anorexia Nervosa, bulimia, body dysmorphia, other eating disorders
• Vaginismus, premature ejaculation, frigidity, low sex drive, dislike of sex
• Kids’ symptoms and issues, including: school phobias, bed-wetting, night-terrors, not eating, eating too much, separation anxiety, nail-biting, shyness, depression, anxiety, fibromyalgia, lack of confidence, hysterical symptoms, poor school work, poor academic performance, laziness, sibling rivalry
• Getting a job, keeping a job, interview skills, building confidence skills
• Building self-esteem, maintaining high self-esteem
• Overcoming ME/Post Viral Fatigue/Chronic Fatigue
• Staying strong and positive during cancer treatment and remission
• Getting fit, climbing Everest, running a marathon, winning a martial-arts tournament, learning to play tennis, learning to swim, travelling the world, competing in international flying competitions…
• Insomnia (including not sleeping properly for 40 years!), poor sleep, bad dreams, hyper-vigilance, night-brooding, nightmares
• Just being happy and enjoying life and getting the best out of every day of your life

Basically, it can help in just about any situation in life!

As per the above answer, there is no ‘pass or fail’. Some clients have taken much longer, but only (and admittedly) because they didn’t put the full required effort into doing all the exercises consistently from the start! The moment somebody starts to persistently work through all the instructions in the programme, without taking big breaks or leaving some exercises out, the trend is forwards and upwards, and then they get there!

Some people find they make progress faster and more predictably with the help of a Thrive Programme Coach® because they are being given extra support and motivation to continue implementing the programme thoroughly and regularly. We’ve also developed the online course to offer the robustness of working through the programme with a Thrive Programme Coach®, but at a much lower cost.

However, there is no ‘quick fix’, it does take consistent effort over a certain period of time to overcome this phobia.

Setting yourself very unrealistic goals to get over it quickly and easily is more likely to set you back as you’re more likely to overreact to any blips or perceived failures and believe that you’ve ‘failed’ or can’t do it.

Of course. We’ve invested a huge amount of time and energy into creating a robust and efficacious programme with the sole purpose to help people across the world make the most of their lives, so fake testimonials would be an invalidation of our goal and the hard work we’ve put in. The programme is constantly updated based upon client feedback and new research, so fake testimonials would also be entirely counterproductive to this feedback loop.

General Questions

You can complete the Thrive Programme without the help of a Thrive Programme Coach®, but many clients prefer to work through it with Thrive Programme Coach® support. You can book an appointment with a Thrive Programme Coach® for any reason; they all offer initial consultations for FREE which is an opportunity to discuss your issues or symptoms and find out more about completing the Thrive Programme with them. Every Thrive Programme Coach® is licensed to support you with all versions of the Thrive Programme including ‘Fly Happy’, ‘Thrive as a Non-Smoker’ and ‘Cure your Emetophobia & Thrive’.

Working through the programme with a Thrive Programme Coach® is fun! Your Thrive Programme Coach® will support you as you complete the programme, bring the sessions to life and tailor them to your needs ensuring you fully understand all aspects. Your Thrive Programme Coach® can clarify issues, answer any number of questions and provide the motivation and accountability you need to get maximum benefit from the programme. Typically our clients look forward to their appointments and it is common to leave a session with a big smile on your face, feeling ready to take on new challenges with a sense of confidence and empowerment.

You can, but it is not advisable for a couple of reasons:

1. There is nothing like this programme, so it’s very likely that any other intervention you are going through will conflict in some manner, lessening the positive affects.

2. When your self-esteem starts to rise you begin to create super-confidence and you start to overcome your symptoms. At this point you need to see – very clearly – that it is your new-found thriving skills that are achieving the success. If you are doing some other treatment programme/seeing a therapist as well, how are you going to know what is having such a great effect on your life?

The Thrive Programme brings together scientific research and years of clinical experience in a unique and dynamic manner that is easily accessible to all. Although many other training courses and techniques do focus upon some similar concepts to Thrive, most don’t go into the same in-depth detail of the underlying fundamentals nor integrate the knowledge in such a comprehensive manner. It is because Thrive Programme clients are helped to attain a very high degree of self-awareness, that they are able to clearly see what they need to do in order to ‘get better’, and why they are then also willing to put in as much effort as is required. Unlike some other courses The Thrive Programme is empowering because it is understandable and accessible. It is not based upon ‘magical’, disempowering beliefs. The Thrive Programme is not therapy or a treatment programme where something is ‘done to’ a person. It is all about empowering people to make the necessary changes for themselves.

One of the greatest things about the Thrive Programme is that you can change your life dramatically, and for good in just a matter of weeks – the average client takes less than two months. Having said that, you need to undertake the WHOLE programme – you cannot pick individual elements and expect to get the same results as someone completing the whole programme. However, the Thrive Programme is not a set of techniques. To get results you need to work through the whole programme from start to finish and apply persistent and continuous effort throughout. You will learn how your thinking styles have developed and how to change them. This will involve short reflective exercises and actions that help you to implement what you have learnt so you can make simple but really effective changes in your life.

Many children have learnt to thrive using the Thrive Programme and we think this is the perfect time to start. Teaching children how to understand their thinking and to manage their responses to life’s events is a great gift; something that will serve them throughout their lives. The Thrive Programme for teenagers is suitable for young people from aged approximately ten years old. By working with a Thrive Programme Coach® it is possible for younger children to complete the programme really effectively. Parental support is invaluable and often parents report personal benefit to helping their child work through the programme. Thrive Programme Coaches explain things really clearly and have a knack for keeping things ‘light’, using memorable analogies, pictures and metaphors to ensure that the message really stays in your child’s mind. If your child has a school-related problem, is anxious or lacking in confidence or suffers from bed-wetting or nightmares, the Thrive Programme has proven effectiveness in helping them to overcome these issues, but, more importantly, to learn to thrive. The Thrive Programme is workbook based but it can be completed by a non-reading person, or a reluctant reader. The programme includes pictures and metaphors that are memorable and make sense. Please note that all children under the age of sixteen must have a parent/guardian present at their appointment.

That is the question! Once you have completed the programme, the world is your oyster! We receive hundreds of emails from readers of the book who have learnt to thrive and are now taking on challenges they would never have dreamt of. People embark on the Thrive Programme for a number of reasons and find it a hugely effective way to overcome symptoms – consider weight-related issues, smoking, sexual problems, insomnia, hair-pulling (trichotillomania), OCD – and saying ‘farewell’ to these problems is usually just the start, with ‘thrivers’ going on to achieve more than they had previously imagined.

Questions about The TQ Quiz & Report

It depends why you think it’s inaccurate! If it’s because you know deep down that you weren’t honest in your answers to the questions, or that you answered them how you’d ‘like’ to believe rather than how you are right now, then yes you should retake it. It’s not a pass/fail test, it’s about showing you where your thinking is currently at so the more honest you are the better.

However, if it’s actually that you don’t like or agree with the results, then it’s worth
asking yourself what you don’t like about the results and examining that, because
understanding your own resistance to some of the insight you are being offered is really important. The tests are incredibly accurate so unless somebody didn’t understand the quiz or didn’t answer them honestly, the results are correct.

There are no ‘right’ answers (there’s some perfectionism for you!!). However as we mentioned in a previous question, in general (apart from the desire for control answers which are scored uniquely) answers with a score of 0 are the most external and unhelpful, and answers scoring 3 are the MOST internal and helpful. The explanations in the report itself explain all of the scoring, and what you are roughly aiming for, in more detail.

No! You’re equating desire for control with organisation and motivation, and that’s not quite right. As we mentioned in the Belief and Cognition section, everybody needs some level of desire for control to work to build a good life, to be on time, hold down a job and earn money, work for a promotion, study hard at school, stay physically fit, etc.

The desire for control is very high but your Sense of Power and Control over Experiences (SPACE) is low, because that means you’re trying to over-control everything to feel more emotionally in control (so, over controlling things because you NEED to, not simply because you WANT to). Once you build up your coping skills and your SPACE, you can still be an organised, tidy, motivated person but you won’t NEED things to be that way in order to feel calm and in control yourself!

No, not at all!! Your quiz score is a really really good measure of your thinking, so if your scores still aren’t where they need to be that’s a good thing because a) it means the fact that you aren’t over your phobia is utterly predictable based on your scores, and b) it shows you EXACTLY which thinking styles and beliefs you still need to work on, in order to overcome it completely!

Make sure you view your report in a positive, helpful way (i.e. ‘this is giving me the knowledge of what to work on next to get thriving’) rather than a negative way (i.e. ‘my scores are still rubbish, I’m such a failure, I’ll never get over this’).

Common Questions

There is no ‘pass or fail’. Some people have taken much longer, but only (and admittedly) because they didn’t put the full required effort into doing all the exercises consistently from the start! The moment somebody starts to persistently work through all the instructions in the programme, without taking big breaks or leaving some exercises out, the trend is forwards and upwards and before long they get there!

Some people find they make progress faster and more predictably with the help of a Thrive Programme Coach® because they are being given extra support and motivation to continue implementing the programme thoroughly and regularly.

However, there is no ‘quick fix’, it does take a certain amount of effort over a period of time to overcome this phobia and you can’t really avoid that, so getting a more realistic view of what it will take to get over this phobia is important.

Setting yourself very unrealistic goals to get over it quickly and easily is more likely to set you back as you’re more likely to overreact to any blips or perceived failures and believe that you’ve ‘failed’ or can’t do it.

It’s not possible to ‘fail’ at the programme! The programme shows you how to change all of your thinking styles to the most helpful ones so that you are thriving and don’t create your phobia. It’s not possible to change all those thinking styles and still have your phobia, so if you still have your phobia then there’s some things that you’re still either not understanding or not doing in order to fully implement the programme.

It doesn’t matter if it takes you weeks, months or years to get there - the moment you fully implement the programme, it won’t be long before you’re thriving and phobia-free!

We often hear this from people who are putting in a lot of effort, but perhaps not in the right areas. They may, for example, be doing their positives list 50 times a day, but not doing any of the other 25 exercises (or not doing them very much). Start by making sure you are understanding and implementing ALL the exercises in the first 6 chapters, and don’t move past them until you’ve really understood them and put enough work in to see changes.

The Thrive Programme is a DOING programme, so if you’re just reading the book
again and again and not working enough on the implementation, that could also explain the lack of progress. If you continue to struggle with implementing it, it may be that getting some help from a Thrive Programme Coach® could help you to figure out where you’re going off track and help move you forwards.

We never recommend for clients to change their medication suddenly going through the programme as you don’t want anything that is going to unsettle you whilst going through it (and as we aren’t doctors would never make medication recommendations anyway).

Plenty of clients make a decision to change or discontinue medication once they feel thriving and able to do so, but that is a personal decision for them and with consultation with their own doctor or medical professional.

Questions about Thrive Programme Coaches

We have our own professional body with our own code of ethics and responsibilities which every Thrive Programme Coach® is a member of.

The Thrive Programme and its coaches are not registered with any external
professional bodies/accreditations. A big part of this is because we challenge many elements of traditional treatments and psychological therapies. Therefore, to be accredited with these organisations would contradict our own understanding of mental health treatment, dilute our individuality and force us to become more mainstream (which would undo what makes us stand out and what makes our programme remain so successful).

In terms of treatment pricing we are actually under the average pricing, as our set price covers the entire course with an end goal, rather than ongoing sessions (at a per session cost) with no idea how long for. We appreciate that for many people though, it is a lot of money to find and that’s why we always emphasise that it is absolutely possible, with a lot of hard work, effort and determination, to do the programme at home with the book by yourself, as many others have already done!

At the moment, this treatment is not available on the National Health Service in the UK. We strongly advise against getting anybody except a fully trained and Licensed Thrive Programme Coach® to take you through the course, you would not be covered by us if there were any issues with the support you received and the results are usually very poor when clients attempt to get a non-expert to deliver this very specialist programme.

Most health insurance providers only pay for treatments with providers on an approved list. As an organisation The Thrive Programme is not - yet - registered with any of these. Individual Thrive Programme Coaches may be able to go through a bespoke assessment and approval process in unique cases with a provider, but this would be on a case-by-case basis and there’s no guarantee of success at gaining health insurer funding for the course.

Completing the Programme & Blips Questions

People can sometimes find it overwhelming to try and deal with all 26 components all at once! Sometimes, starting the book again and working through it slowly and steadily, chapter by chapter, can really help, doing the exercises in that chapter as you go and not moving past it until you feel confident with those exercises.

However, if there are a couple of key thinking styles that are really creating problems for you, start with those ones first and again don’t move onto the next ones until you think you’ve got those ones right first! If you want an even more simple guide, have a watch of our ABC Guide which gives you a structure for what to be doing on a daily basis: ABC's

No - there’s obviously a few thinking styles that weren’t quite habitual yet so you probably hit a small blip. Often people can lose motivation if they hit a blip and think they’re going backwards, and then stop putting effort in entirely. So get yourself back on track - quickly - and get back into doing the exercises regularly on a daily basis!

You’ll be back on track before you know it. Just make sure you’re doing the exercises consistently for a good 3 or 4 weeks at least to try and embed the changes more permanently this time.

The videos and books aren’t going to get you out of a blip, and the positives list is only a small part of the programme, so these alone wouldn’t get you out of a blip, you’re right.

That’s because it’s not the reading and videos that get you over your phobia, it’s implementing all of the exercises in each chapter thoroughly and consistently. So use the DREAM Technique to get yourself out of your current anxiety, and then start implementing the chapter exercises bit by bit to deal with the reasons why you’re creating all the anxiety in the first place.

There isn’t a single exercise that is more effective than others; you have to do all the exercises, as set out in each chapter and as summarised in the final chapter too, in order to truly beat your phobia and get yourself thriving.

However, we do have a Thriving ABCs video which is a helpful guide for building and maintaining a thriving attitude and perspective even after finishing the programme.

It outlines a simple ‘A, B, C’ process for managing your thinking and ensuring you are doing all the key basic Thrive work on a daily basis to keep yourself in a healthy and helpful headspace. It explains how and why to focus on your A (Attitude), B (Beliefs) and C’s (Control) every day, and gives an overview of how to implement each one on a daily basis to fit in easily with everyday life.

Postal Enquiries

For any postal enquiries, please address mail to;

The Thrive Programme
71-75 Shelton Street
Covent Garden
London
WC2H 9JQ