After 19 years of suffering from emetophobia & social anxiety, Jenni made a huge change in her life...

Jenni, who lives in Thailand, spent 19 years suffering from emetophobia, social anxiety and severe anxiety. That's about three-quarters of the 25-year-old's life.

As with many emetophobes, Jenni developed her fear of vomit / sick very early in life and carried it through to adulthood, all the time restricting what she did and ate in a bid to manage her phobia. She ended up missing out on lots of experiences that she might have otherwise enjoyed, school field trips for example, and was constantly anxious and worried.

Social anxiety was also a bit issue for Jenni as she worried about being ill or encountering vomit in every situation - for example, she had to know exactly where the toilets were every time she went out, in-case she needed to be sick. She would constantly worry about being sick in public, but it hardly ever happened.

After researching various treatment options online, Jenni came across The Thrive Programme's Cure Your Emetophobia and Thrive - a programme devised by Rob Kelly over ten years ago. It's not CBT or therapy, but an educational programme that helps people address challenges in their life and overcome phobias, addictions and other issues. In essence, it helps people Thrive and live the life they've always wanted.

After completing the six-week course with one of The Thrive Programme's licensed consultants, Jenni is now living the life she's always wanted and is planning holidays, social events and even a mountain climbing trip, something she never would have done before the course. She is also now free of anxiety in day-to-day life, as well as the social anxiety that prevented her living life to the full.

"I'm a totally different person now, compared to how I was before. The Thrive Programme has turned everything around for me and I'm so happy I did it," said an elated Jenni.

Watch Jenni Steele's video diary overcoming emetophobia or read about Jenni's Cure Your Emetophobia and Thrive Experience

Jenni overcomes Emetophobia and Social Anxiety...

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.”