Emetophobia: Why it's NOT about your past.

Podcast : Emetophobia: Years of Nausea, Physical Pain and Endless Tests — Then I Learned It Was Emetophobia, Not Illness


In this episode Shannon shares her long journey to discover the root cause of her physical pain, nausea and discomfort. From a young age, Shannon was living with almost constant nausea and a belief that she had something wrong with her, and was returning to doctors for years of testing! She was given an IBS diagnosis but Shannon knew deep down this wasn’t what she was experiencing...
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Shannon wasn’t aware of what emetophobia was at the time, however was aware that she struggled to cope with feeling out of control. She began recognising that she was creating a lot of anxiety around anyone feeling unwell and had a strong need to avoid these situations. Shannon began limiting her university experience because of her Emetophobia and kept her anxiety hidden from most of her family.

Shannon began realising that Emetophobia was taking over her life experienced chronic pain on a family holiday which resulted in an emergency doctor being called and when her dad informed her that he'd been unwell in the night – everything clicked that this truly was a mental struggle rather than physical!

Shannon spent a lot of traditional therapy sessions talking about sickness and difficult events in her life, however this was not benefitting her or positively impacting her phobia. At this point, Shannon’s mother discovered the Emetophobia-free programme!

From session 1, Shannon’s mindset was transformed! Each week that followed, unravelled new light bulb moments for her which transformed her Emetophobia completely. Because the programme is backed up by research and focuses completely on how we are creating the fear, Shannon was able to immediately understand how to change this which provided her with the power to push through!

Now Emetophobia-free, Shannon shares that “It is mind-blowing how different my life is now, and I cant believe I was that person”. Shannon has built a business, travelled, achieved goals and become resilient, all because she overcome her Emetophobia with the programme. In her words, “The good experiences are even better, and the bad experiences aren’t that bad.”

This episode featured discussion between Michelle Johnson and Shannon Sullivan