Conquering Emetophobia: How Megan Overcame a Lifetime of Fear

Megan’s story

Megan started suffering from Emetophobia around the age of 11. Megan’s grandmother had just passed away and it was the first time that Megan remembered seeing her mum vulnerable. Around that time Megan remembers being on the school bus, beginning to feel sick and having a panic attack. It was after these two events that Megan remembers really being affected by her Emetophobia.

Megan started refusing to go to school and was afraid of being anywhere that she was closed in and couldn’t leave of her own free will. As Megan continued to grow she found her life was more and more strategically planned around being sick. If she was invited to anything she would run through an internal checklist of questions including ‘who is going to be there? When can I leave? Where are the exits? Do I have my own car?’ She also created a ‘safe zone’, which meant that her world was limited to travelling no further than 15 minutes away from her home.

Megan started therapy when she was 16 and was diagnosed with generalised anxiety disorder, panic disorder and a number of other disorders, but never Emetophobia. Megan became really disheartened, believing she was the only person with this phobia, but she really wanted to become a mother so she kept searching for something that could help her.

Megan’s biggest win

Whilst going through the programme Megan was in a restaurant when a gentleman who was also dining there had a seizure and was sick. Instead of leaving immediately and panicking, Megan found herself running towards him and asking ‘what can I do to help?’

Megan reflects on her thoughts at the time, which included ‘who am I? How is this happening?’ She had put so much effort into the Emetophobia-Free programme and was feeling so powerful that she was able to manage difficult situations like this, because she had the skills to do so. She was able to regulate her own emotions and began to get curious about how far she could go.

Megan’s life Emetophobia-Free

Megan now goes on long car journeys, and recently she found herself working on her phone, texting on a windy road in the back seat of a car, and the fact she was doing so didn’t even register. She had started doing it without thinking. She has even been on a ride at Universal Studios that has a room to be sick in afterwards — and she went on it!

“I want people to take away from this that it works. The scepticism for me was a big turn off in the beginning. It’s something real and it actually works!”

This episode featured discussion between Joe Manuel and ex-emetophobe Megan.