DAILY ANXIETY AROUND SICKNESS LED THIS SUFFERER TO EXPERIENCE WHAT SHE CALLED ‘TREMBLING HANDS EMETOPHOBIA’

Many phobias and fears have very debilitating effects upon the sufferer... some suffer intense anxiety and stress, others live with a constant sense of worry and agitation.  One of my recent emetophobia trainees (a client who wanted help in overcoming emetophobia) described her phobia as 'trembling hands emetophobia' because she was so nervous and anxious about it. She would wake up with anxiety in the morning, and maintain that anxiety all day long...

Only once she began to understand the way her beliefs and unhelpful thinking styles were actually causing her anxiety (and not anything to do with being sick) did she start to feel more in control.  Three months down the line and her emetophobia is completely gone!  Her initial score on our 'emetophobia severity scale' was 27... post thrive it is just 3!

You do not need to live with your fear - you can COMPLETELY beat emetophobia - just like this client and all the people in these emetophobia video testimonials did. Take control of your life, learn to thrive and overcome daily 'Trembling Hands' Emetophobia!

What is emetophobia?

Emetophobia, the fear of vomiting, is widespread; it is one of the most common phobias for which people consult The Thrive Programme's licensed coaches.

Research into emetophobia has suggested that prevalence of a fear of being sick ranges from 0.1 to 8.8% percent of the population (Hout & Bouman, 2011).

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…) and 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. People can fear vomiting themselves and/or others vomiting. Most individuals with emetophobia are female, with research studies revealing that 85-97% of their emetophobic participants are women (Hout & Bouman, 2011; Lipsitz et al., 2001; Veale & Lambrou, 2006).

Emetophobia tends to be a severe symptom and often significantly affects sufferers’ ability to lead normal lives. People with this fear often go to great lengths to avoid encountering anything that could lead to vomiting. They may, for example, be teetotal or heavily limit their alcohol consumption and avoid pubs or clubs where others may drink heavily and then vomit. They may worry a great deal about hygiene, and be fussy about making sure everywhere is clean. They may take excessive time off work or school because they worry about being exposed to germs that will cause them to be sick.

Many sufferers of emetophobia have unsuccessfully tried a range of treatments, such as CBT, exposure therapy, CRT. 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.”