Awesome Girl Beats Emetophobia! Read how this amazing 10 year old girl did it!

Is your child afraid of vomit? The Thrive Programme has created a specific book for children and teenagers suffering from emetophobia, to help them overcome their fear of vomit - Cure Your Emetophobia Young Person’s Edition

Matilda, a ten year old girl, had emetophobia since she was five years old.

One year ago her symptoms deteriorated so much that she would wash her hands obsessively to the point that her hands would be red-raw and bleeding. Driven by her fear of being sick and the germs she could potentially catch, she would scrub her hands after touching door-handles, surfaces and the TV remote.

Matilda’s obsessive behaviour became so intense that she would even avoid walking on a particular patch of carpet that she had been sick on five years previously. Similarly, having once been sick on a single step on her staircase at home, she would avoid stepping on that step, hopping over it each time she would walk up or down the stairs.

Searching online for a cure for emetophobia, Becki , Matilda’s mum found the Thrive Programme and was even more delighted to discover the Cure Your Emetophobia Young Person’s Edition. Having now completed the programme and emetophobia free for the first time in 5 years, Matilda explains how her behaviour has changed from the constant avoidance of anything she deemed as related to being sick, to a life free of the intense stresses that she suffered with previously.

Matilda’s transformation has been nothing short of remarkable. She has no more meltdowns, she doesn’t work herself up into a fretful state anymore and, as she states, she feels like a completely opposite person !

This is proven by her recently volunteering to help another child in her class at school who had complained of feeling sick – something she would never have done before !

What a fantastic change and a massive well done to Matilda for putting in all that effort and ridding herself of her emetophobia. Great Job !

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.”