Children and Teenagers with Emetophobia - must-see videos...
Emetophobia when you're young can really impact your life, preventing you from being able to make the most of your childhood years and do things that you would otherwise be able to. Emetophobia can appear in different ways. You might:
• Fear other people being sick
• Fear being sick yourself
• Fear both
• Mainly fear being sick in public
As a child or teenager with emetophobia, there is often a lot of shame and embarrassment around it, and you probably feel isolated and 'different' to your schoolfriends. It can be hard to explain the daily struggles and constant anxiety you're experiencing to people - especially if they've put you on the spot and challenged you about why you can't do something, or told you 'being sick isn't so bad.'
This is frustrating, but it's important to recognise your feelings are valid and this is a very real phobia.
Symptoms such as these...
- Excessive worry
- Anxiety and Panic Attacks
- OCD behaviours (constant checking)
- Low self-esteem
- Social Anxiety
- Eating difficulties (which can lead to disorders)
- Persistent feelings of nausea
- Lacking confidence
... can develop into...
- Avoiding going to school
- Trouble sleeping
- Avoiding car journeys/public transport
- Self-harm
- Feeling suicidal
- Social withdrawal
- Avoidance of food/objects
- Avoidance of social gatherings
If you can relate to some of the symptoms and behaviours listed above, then you may very well be aware of the significant impact that emetophobia can wreak on not just your life but also on the lives of your friends and family.
Emetophobia has a severe impact upon sufferers’ lives. Research studies have indicated that emetophobic individuals show impairments across many domains of their lives. Many children engage in a range of safety-seeking and avoidance behaviours in an attempt to prevent themselves from vomiting, including, for example, avoiding school, particular forms of transport, restricting their food, maintaining very high levels of hygiene, avoiding social gatherings and keeping away from people who are ill.
These safety-seeking and avoidance behaviours, whilst despite giving emetophobes some temporary, short-term relief, will in the long run help solidify the notion/belief that sick is a terrible thing and that they cannot face it under any circumstances. Which then develops further into more severe avoidance behaviours, creating a very unhelpful cycle-of-behaviour. Unchecked, these cycles of behaviour can last a lifetime.
Daisy talking about her experience with various forms of therapy for her emetophobia
"The Thrive Programme is different because it gives you the psychological knowledge that you don't get with other treatments like CBT. It's all about seeing yourself for who you really are and then working on things you need to improve (to beat your phobia) instead of looking at how awful and negative things are. It was really amazing."
Sadly mental health services often aren’t aware of emetophobia and the devastating impact it can have on children and teenagers, leading to misdiagnosis or a long road to recovery. It’s extremely confusing and distressing when your child, seemingly out of nowhere, stops eating enough, starts getting panic attacks and avoids things they once enjoyed. Seeking help from trained professionals who fully understand emetophobia is essential.
One of our messages is that the parents’ mental health is just as important to help both yourself and your child's. This is something we firmly believe. After many years of doing this, we have learned how beneficial it is for the parents to also go through the programme (reading the manual or with a coach). This is to reinforce what the child is learning, but it also has huge positive benefits for the parents’ wellbeing.
We're not here to waste your time and money on short-term fixes. Our focus is on helping your child beat their phobia for good, so that they can get back to enjoying life without fear and you can get your child back.
Nearly 20,000 people worldwide have overcome Emetophobia and their accompanying symptoms using our unique programme. A large proportion of these ex-emetophobes are under the age of 16. Also, a significant amount of adults with emetophobia report having emetophobia since childhood. Based on clinical experience, scientific research and applied psychology, we will explain how your child's emetophobia was created, and how you can - safely and carefully - get rid of it completely.
Although Emetophobia is serious psychological illnesses, you should not feel disheartened or overwhelmed. Over the past 30 years, we have successfully helped thousands upon thousands of sufferers - of all ages, from all walks of life and from all over the world - to completely overcome their phobia and take back control of their mental health.
We've created an easy-to-follow, 6-8-week, step-by-step programme that anyone can go through to overcome emetophobia completely and permanently.
The programme with manual + support videos are inexpensive, easy to access and are inspiring and empowering from the very start.