Panic attacks
Emetophobia and panic attacks
Samantha had both, for eighteen years. She was married in a private ceremony because a crowd might have triggered an attack. A few weeks of the programme later, she describes herself as “a functioning person”.
Samantha’s story
Samantha developed emetophobia, anxiety and panic attacks very early on, and — like most people with this fear — struggled to find anybody who understood it. Doctors prescribed sedatives to help her relax. With no real treatment on offer she became genuinely unwell, unable to hold down a job or have much of a social life.
The moment she knew she had to deal with it came during a conversation with her husband about chemotherapy. She did not have cancer, but she told him that if she ever did, she would refuse the treatment rather than risk being sick. She would rather die than feel ill.
She had tried NLP, hypnotherapy, EMDR, CBT and exposure therapy. None of it worked. Then she came across Mary’s story — an eighty-one-year-old who had just rid herself of a seventy-five year phobia — and ordered the manual.
After going through the programme with a licensed coach, Samantha put it plainly: “After 18 years, I am not an emetophobic — I am a functioning person!” The phobia, the anxiety and the panic attacks all went with it.
How to calm an emetophobia panic attack
When you are frightened of being sick, panic attacks tend to come along too — in any situation where you feel nauseous, or trapped, or where somebody else might be ill. Spotting what sets them off and knowing what to do gives you a way to stop one before it takes hold.
Panic attacks are not spontaneous, whatever it feels like. They have causes, and causes can be changed. Five things worth working on:
Coping skills
A panic attack is, at bottom, a belief that you could not handle what is about to happen. The more you avoid something, the more frightening it looks. Build up your tolerance for discomfort generally — the busy supermarket, the crowded room — and you teach yourself you can cope.
Perceived threat
Emetophobia tells you that being sick is unbearable, on a par with a real danger. It is not. When the anxiety starts, ask yourself what the worst outcome actually is, and why it would be so terrible.
Emotional regulation
Emotions are not facts. Recognising that is what lets you step back and reframe a situation rather than be carried off by it.
Tunnel vision
Anxious thoughts feed on small triggers. Giving yourself perspective early, while the unease is still mild, is what stops it building into panic.
The urge to escape
Panic makes you want to get out. Staying put, distracting yourself and repeating that you can tolerate this is how the urge loses its grip.
If it is your child having the panic attacks rather than you, there is a podcast episode on exactly that: My child is having a panic attack — how can I help them?
Where the fear comes from
Panic is the symptom. The fear of being out of control is what produces it, and that is what the programme works on. If you want the background first, there is a fuller piece on what emetophobia is and another on what treatment actually works.
Bella Ramsey had this too.
And came out the other side.
“It’s not controlling my life anymore.”
The BAFTA-winning actor — The Worst Witch, Game of Thrones, The Last of Us — was housebound at one point as a teenager, and took travel sickness tablets and antacids to get through a working day on set. They had tried self-help books, CBT and hypnotherapy. None of it worked.
Bella went through this programme, and describes no longer thinking about sickness, no longer being frightened of it, and no longer letting it decide what they can and can’t do. They talk about all of it, openly, in their own words.
Listen to the episode →
Where to next?
Everything else you might want to read.