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

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 when she experienced chronic pain on a family holiday, which resulted in an emergency doctor being called. When her dad informed her that he’d been unwell in the night, everything clicked — this truly was a mental struggle rather than a physical one!

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!

Light bulb moments

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 can’t believe I was that person”. Shannon has built a business, travelled, achieved goals and become resilient, all because she overcame 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.