- Date posted
- 6y
- Date posted
- 6y
My first anxiety related fear was emetophobia. I was specifically afraid of vomiting in social situations and being humiliated. Other than being uncomfortable what are you afraid of about the experience?
- Date posted
- 6y
I think even if you made a mess, no one would blame you for it. I’ve literally had someone vomit on me before and I wasn’t mad because I know they were truly ill. I can understand not wanting to associate vomiting with certain situations but at the same time, don’t let the fear that it could happen determine your choices.
- Date posted
- 6y
Yes! Doing erp specifically for it and have seen a huge improvement. Also on medication which has helped a ton. Still have a long way to go but have also made huge progress on a fear I thought would be with me the rest of my life. Now I can see life without it!
- Date posted
- 6y
I’m mostly scared of 2 things: making a mess, and tainting things. I have a GI issue that makes me nauseous pretty much all the time, so it’s hard for me to know if I’m going to throw up or not, so I’m scared of not knowing and then making a mess. I’m also scared of tainting things like foods or experiences by having a bad memory of throwing up if that makes sense.
- Date posted
- 6y
Vomiting has been my core fear from age 5-6 to the present day (age 37). I get nausea from my anxiety and have actually thrown up a lot from it. I fear throwing up from feared foods, from anxiety in front of others, and especially while eating with others. It has lead to a lot of avoidance of social situations and friendships/relationships. I also fear losing my appetite in social eating situations and embarrassment from that.
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 2y
My parents would get mad and yell at me when I would throw up. I could never make it to the toilet. It would always get on the floor. And they would get so upset and yell because they had to clean it up. So I felt scared, embarrassed, ashamed, like I was a bad person who did a bad thing. Disgust and anxiety are linked in my brain now so when I'm disgusted by something I also feel fear or anxiety. I'm not sure how disgust can exist as a separate thing from fear/ anxiety. What would that even be like? It's definitely a trauma thing for me. Plus I have a congenital heart condition and I was told by my family that if I get severely sick, I could die. My great grandmother died of colon cancer and so did my grandpa. So I associate vomiting with having a terminal illness and dying. There are many negative associations I have with vomiting, plus the experience itself is very unpleasant. I always worry about how long it will last, like, "What if it just keeps going and doesn't stop and I dehydrate and starve and then die?" I hate the feeling of not having control over my body. Plus it smells, tastes, and feels gross, too. I feel like I'm a bad, disgusting person for vomiting, especially if it's around other people. It's like I'm thinking, "If I vomit around others, they will be disgusted by me and run away and never want to associate with me again after discovering how disgusting I am!" I don't really like myself and don't feel comfortable inside my body. I feel like my body is going to betray me at any moment. Like a ticking disease time bomb. I wish I were like a floaty spirit entity or a robot or something without a mortal "fleshsuit" to have to care for and worry about. It feels like such a burden.
Related posts
- Date posted
- 23w
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.
- Date posted
- 18w
This is my first time posting - I have a fear of throw up and I’ve been told it is cause from my OCD (repetitive thoughts) which makes sense because if someone gets sick it replays over and over again and I can’t get it out of my head. It’s gotten a lot worse in the past maybe two years. I’m always on edge that someone is going to get sick around me. I’ve heard the “best or most common” way to help with this is exposure therapy and OBVIOUSLY I don’t want to do that. Anyone have any tips or anything for this (or maybe have done the exposure therapy)?
- Date posted
- 11w
Sometimes I feel like nobody really gets me. Nobody knows what’s going on in my head. I try to explain in vivid detail, but my ocd immediately reads the other persons face and registers that they don’t get it. It’s a very isolating experience. Anyone else have something like this?
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