Gemma Overcomes Lifetime of Emetophobia - Gemma couldn't remember NOT suffering from Emetophobia and Anxiety, but now she's thriving! Find out how...

Gemma Lewis, from Scotland, suffered from emetophobia and anxiety from a very early age, but it really started to dominate her life when she was 14 and started to suffer from anxiety and emetophobia at school, missing lots of time and eventually dropping out of college.

Many emetophobes will recognise the pattern; making excuses not to do things that might expose them to being sick or vomit in general, unnecessary visits to the doctor and constant anxiety and social awkwardness. It makes life very difficult.

Staying at home and suffering from extreme anxiety, Gemma barely left the house and missed out on seeing friends and having much of a life at all. She was reliant on her mum and grandmother for support and wasn't eating well or living healthily.

Gemma was desperate for help but therapy didn't help her now-suicidal thoughts - in her own words, she "wasn't living life." It was her mother being sick that proved to be the trigger to seek further help.

On hearing her mother being ill, she became extremely panicked and was in a terrible state. She had to move out to avoid the anxiety about being near the scene or her mum's vomiting, and decided enough was enough.

Finding Cure Your Emetophobia and Thrive was the moment Gemma's life changed, and she quickly set about doing the programme with the Cure Your Emetophobia and Thrive Workbook, working through her phobia.

Gemma said: "This really was a life-saver, I can tell you. This programme has been so well researched - he knows his stuff, he knows you. He knows how your mind works and how your emetophobia works, and how we can stop having emetophobia. anxiety and depression. That's why this book and this programme works."

By chapter four, Gemma was doing so much better and was starting to enjoy life again, ridding herself of her phobias and anxiety. But she had a blip, as sometimes happens when you're dealing with life-long phobias and related issues (read our guide on common mistakes when trying to overcome emetophobia which includes how to thrive through blips), so she got in contact with licensed Thrive Coach Morgan, who put her back on track. After a few one-to-one sessions, she was progressing fantastically well and was soon living free of emetophobia and anxiety. Check out her video testimonial below for her full story.

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 severe 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.”