- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 3y
I also have emetophobia that became ocd! I honestly dont have much for help yet because I just downloaded this app today and havent gotten very far into getting specialized help yet, but it’s comforting to see that other people feel the same way and I’m not just crazy :)
Hey! Sorry I never replied. Thanks for reaching out. I'm now doing ERP with a therapist here, starting with my Emetophobia first. How are you getting on? Here for chats if needed ☺️
Hi there. I saw that you posted this a few months ago, but I too have emetophobia and contamination OCD. Have tried many different types of therapies and am hopeful that ERP will be the way to overcoming both. I often feel very alone in my fears and it’s reassuring to know I’m not the only one dealing with them.
Hey, thanks for reaching out. I am now doing ERP with a therapist and working though Emetophobia. It's still early days for me, but I can start to feel a shift. Keep in touch if you like? It could help along the way. I know how it feels to feel alone in this. I'm here for chats ☺️
@Jb1888 Thank you so much. I would love to be in touch. Just talking to someone else going through similar struggles would be super helpful!
@JMK13 I just followed you ☺️ I don't know how good this app is at alerting my phone when I have messages, as I just went in to this app now to check and I missed this from 2days ago. So I will check in more often☺️ happy to chat whenever you need. I think it's good to have a wee support system. Take care💓
@Jb1888 I was trying to figure out if there was a way to chat with you directly! I haven’t spent much time with the app yet. Do you know if that’s an option?
@JMK13 Hey. I've had a check and can't see any options to have one on one chats... Do you have any OCD support groups you are apart of? I have a WhatsApp group for where I stay locally, we do zoom meetings etc. You can find them through your doc, and they have them on this app too depending on your time zone. What I may think about setting up is an Emetophobia/OCD group maybe WhatsApp group or something. Not sure if you can ask people about joining up here, but can have a look at the rules etc. Hope you're good ☺️
@Jb1888 Hey there. How are you doing? It’s been a rough few days for me… have you found things get harder before they start getting easier?
@JMK13 Hey, yes not too bad thank you. Sorry you had a rough couple days. Of definitely I have found that. Even when I'm moving in the right direction if getting better, there are still many triggers and intrusive thoughts. Are you receiving therapy? :)
@JMK13 Also, there's a book you should get on Amazon. The Emetophobia Manual By Ken Goodman,
@Jb1888 I just added it to my cart and bought it. Thank you! Is it helpful? Yes, in week three of therapy. There are days where I feel empowered and ready to beat OCD and other days like yesterday and today where I feel frozen and unable to recall any of the concepts I’ve learned. It’s so hard.
Ken Goodman is amazing, he is so educated in it. If you look at peoples reviews for the book anywhere on line you can tell it's the best resource to buy :) it helps your journey, especially along side therapy. I still have a lot to read, but I believe it's a great thing to have! That's great - Remember that's only week 3, and so much to learn. Give yourself a break, and it will come naturally soon enough. I've only had about 9 sessions and I'm learning! I made little flash cards with RPMs on them for things I do (exposures) day to day. Then you can't forget! That means responsive prevention messaging. Let your therapist know how bad your Emetophobia is. My therapist has started with exposures for emet, as it's the main thing that brings me anxiety! So as exposures I listen to sounds and look at images etc. I go outdoors and look at people and I listen to the sounds. I do all this with my flash cards with RPMs on them. Hope this helps
Would you mind sharing some of the RPM flash cards that you’ve made? That sounds really helpful. My therapist is totally aware of how much I struggle with emetophobia and we are using emetophobiahelp.org for exposures with sentences/paragraphs/photos etc. I haven’t gotten to the point where I can look at actual pictures - still on cartoons/drawings. Even I was shocked at my reaction - I don’t think I was even aware of how much just reading sentences/paragraphs would bother me. Definitely have to remind myself that it’s not an overnight process… that it’s taken me many many years to get to this point and that it isn’t going to go away as quickly as I wish it would.
Hey 👋 I could write them for you, just to make sure you won't find the words triggering? All words like Vmt and more. Just let me know before I write it all here :) And what type of things you will need them for. Like I use mine for eating outside my home, prepare food and eating in my home, and listening to noises indoor and looking at images, and a few more.. everyone is different with Emetophobia I think, same principle but we are all worried about different things sometimes. Like I'm watching a germ video for exposure too as I worry about that aspect most with Emetophobia, like the passing on of a germ/virus. It is crazy how much you shock yourself, I have found that my anxiety actually has lowered with looking at things I found hard at first. But doing exposures daily is the key! :)
This has recently developed into something much bigger than it originally was. When this past winter season started, i noticed more people were getting the stomach bug than usual. I was fine at first, until I was noticing almost one person in every class was saying they recently had it. I researched about it, and I found what I was looking for unfortunately. Norovirus cases were surging across the U.S because of a new strain of NoV that recently had been spreading. This immediately altered my way of thinking. Everywhere I went, I would be overly cautious of what’s around me and whose around me. The first obsessive compulsive problem I had was that I couldn’t eat at lunch anymore unless I washed my hands. One time, I didn’t have an option to wash my hands, so I didn’t eat lunch. That’s when I knew it was interfering with my daily life, and it was becoming a serious issue. There was another time where some guy threw up near me in the hallway trash can. My mind was spiraling. all. day. long. It felt like it was consuming me alive. Not a minute would go by where I wouldn’t think about it, and the high possibility of me catching this virus. There’s been so many other scenarios where I feel myself losing it. I’m not the best of explaining in detail how my mind feels when it spirals, but the best thing I could say is that I could feel myself slowly losing my mind. It takes over my life. I HAVE to act on my compulsive acts, if not, i’ll have these obsessive thoughts until it consumes me whole. I’ve had nervous breakdowns, panic attacks, anxiety attacks, insomnia, and it almost feels like it’s causing me to have an eating disorder. Most recently, I went to use the bathroom and saw what looked like puke on the toilet seat. I was already using it, so I just finished my buisness and rushed out there asap. I figured, if I fasted for two days, what’s there to puke if I do catch NoV? So, I did. I missed school because on the second day of fasting, I became very dehydrated. I was weak, and couldn’t move. I realized what this all rooted back to. That’s when I knew I needed help.
Hello, i have very severe contamination ocd, and as i am writing this i feel my hands are dirty lol, but anyways i wanted to know if there’s anyone specialised in Contamination ocd? No matter what type because i really need help and i looked up things but it doesn’t help please!!
sorry this is super long i just wanna know if anyone else has been thru something similar bc i feel super alone 🩷 i have super bad contamination ocd. it was bad already but my house was like my safe space until a few months ago someone brought something into my house that i considered ‘contaminated’. and so then i felt like that part of the house was contaminated, then it spread to everything outside my room (since family is moving around touching stuff) and then somehow i got convinced everything in my room except my bed is contaminated and i need to wash my hands after touching it. in my mind its like the contamination just infinitely spreads to things after the tiniest bit of touch. idek what im afraid of anymore or even what the original thing was but i can’t let it go. when i have to wash off contamination i have to wash at least 4 times or until it feels right, or sometimes take rlly long showers and wipe down all my stuff. i even throw away food and clothes or just whole items sometimes because they feel so contaminated i don’t want them in my space. i can’t be super near people or have anyone touch me, and i also can’t bring anything new into my room since it had to go through the entry of my house which feels contaminated. i feel like all i do is lay in bed and then wash my hands and do compulsions so i can go eat or do other stuff around the house. also i never go out because i’m bc people outside make me feel dirty, and i hate thinking about how many people have touched stuff in stores or in public and stuff. so im just in my room worrying all day. i feel so trapped and the contamination/avoiding it is all i think about anymore i barely have time for anything else and im never present when i talk to people because im worrying about if i accidentally got contaminated. im starting erp next week and knowing that im going to have to expose myself to things is really freaking me out. does anyone else have this kind of ocd ? im exhaustedddd 🥲🥲💔
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