Podcast 23 - Lucy: My journey to Emetophobia Free!
This week Michelle Johnson is joined by the lovely Lucy in the first of our 'Real life' podcast series. In this series we are inviting people who are currently going through or have already completed The Thrive Programme for Emetophobia to talk openly and candidly about their experiences of life before, during and after the programme.
Lucy had suffered with Emetophobia since around the age of 9 or 10 and (only 3 months since starting the programme!) is now living life Emetophobia Free!
Lucy explains before the programme she was living in a constant state of anxiety and dread everyday due to her Emetophobia. She was always feeling nauseas and found that when she was with other people she would retreat into herself and was unable to stay present and enjoy their company due to her constant worries.
Lucy explains that she had known about The Thrive Programme for a few years but believed that she stuck with her Emetophobia, that it was part of her and that she couldn't change it. Lucy tried lots of different therapies to overcome it and it was her partner who eventually bought her the manual to help her overcome her fear.
Lucy explains that the main difference between The Thrive Programme and all the other treatments she had tried was that by going through the programme she finally understood what was going on in her own mind. She was able to learn how her own mind worked, how she was creating the anxiety and the nausea and then put in effort to change it. Lucy explains that all the other treatments she had tried before just tried to mask it or deal with the symptoms without addressing the root of the problem.
Whilst going through the programme, Lucy put in consistent effort everyday and kept her goal of overcoming her fear at the forefront of her mind throughout. Examples of the effort she put in included setting a daily intention, working through the manual, not beating herself up when she didn't do as much as she wanted or respond in the way she wanted to and setting herself small achievable challenges.
Lucy is now able to go out to restaurants, she enjoys eating chicken, infact it is now one of her favourite meals! She describes how she no longer has to stand over her partner and watch how he is cooking the chicken, she doesn't over cook it or take control of making sure the chopping board is clean. She is finally able to relax and enjoy life without the constant worry.
Enjoy listening to Lucy's inspirational journey through the programme and keep an eye out for our next guest, coming soon!
Well done Lucy and thank you for joining us!
Have you watched our other Emetophobia Podcasts?