Struggling with Emetophobia

Thank you HayKay for your very helpful response. I can certainly understand your friend, it's a horrible thing as it rules your life.

I've had children and now gave grandchildren as sometimes wish them older so they are less susceptible to tummy bugs, it's awful, I'm wishing their lives away, I should be enjoying them more. At the end of the day a tummy bug usually only lasts a few hours.

I'm so glad your friend is coping better, I had hypnotherapy quite a few years ago now and it worked to a certain degree but didn't cure me. I will mention hypnotherapy to the therapist though.

I'm looking forward to my appointment and am ready to work hard at it. Also, I will see if there are any specialists where I live, unfortunately the nearest Thrive consultant is approx. an hour's drive from me.

Once again, thank you for your reply and kind words.

xx

Hi Pavidus, I'm so sorry you are also suffering eithbghis debilitating phobia as well.

I felt the CBT was going really well until, on 22 November, I got food poisoning. I had a veg pot that contained rice and a few hours after eating it I had severe tummy pain. I wasn't sick but had diarrhoea and awful nausea, this went on for just over 6 weeks, I felt so down. I therefore wasn't feeling any positive effect with the CBT. I've got an appointment on Friday this week so I'm going to tell her how I've struggled. I know it's going to work but maybe certain parts of my brain need to be targeted more.

I will let you know in a few weeks how I am feeling. I'll private message you now so I don't forget to report back, I'm sure we can beat this together.😀

Hi Pavidus , here is my reply to redpanda28:

Hi redpanda28 , I've not got my appointment tomorrow as unfortunately my CBT Therapist is off poorly, I don't know what's wrong.

I'm so sorry you didn't get anywhere with the Thrive Programme as it does look very good to me and makes a lot of sense but I have to say I am disappointed that it looked like they didn't understand you, particularly as it's not cheap either. I contacted them via Messenger and Rob Kelly did get back to me a couple of times and suggested Skyping a Therapist as there wasn't one in my area, I said to him that I would rather meet someone face to face. I said I was looking at CBT and would take my Thrive book along and he didn't recommend it. I contacted him again a few weeks later and he never responded, think he lost interest after that. Not good customer service there - only interested in money I think, although looking at what you have said they weren't even that interested even though you paid - not sure if I got the wrong end of the stick there.

Anyway, I had Hypnotherapy many years ago and I didn't realise how much it had worked until I was in a situation where there was a tummy bug going round and I didn't even worry about it, I just assumed I wouldn't get it and I didn't so worrying would have been a waste of my life. I was like this for years where I didn't worry about tummy bugs, even just before Christmas 2016 my daughter's children had been poorly with a tummy bug and I saw them that week and didn't worry, my daughter then got it the day after she saw me and I still didn't worry. I actually did get it in the early hours a day later and just 'got on with it'. Yes I felt awful but it didn't actually bother me that much and the following day I was full of energy and right as rain.

Now the story of why I went backwards. The reason why this happened was because I was constantly bullied and berated by the person I worked for between the January and May of 2017, it only stopped when I left. I thought I was okay when I left work as I didn't hear of tummy bugs but then I got another job over a year later (I was going to retire early but I couldn't hack it at home and earning money makes life a lot easier) and was fine initially. About October time last year the first of the tummy bugs started and I started to worry and got worse and worse the more people I heard had a bug. This made me totally miserable.

On 22 November I contracted food poisoning, albeit I wasn't sick I had diarrhoea and initially very bad nausea. This has now been going on and on and I'm still not right and my doctor now thinks I have 'Post Infection IBS', I already had IBS so wasn't impressed with the diagnosis as there really isn't much you can do. The doctor was very good and has carried out a lot of tests so I will wait and see if they show anything.

I've been having CBT since around September and I've come to the conclusion that I'm pretty sure it's helped a lot as I heard in work this week that there are still loads of bugs around and it didn't actually phase me, that is a result and I'm really pleased about that. I would therefore recommend looking at CBT and would also recommend thinking of positive things if you can as that does help. Also, if you think of your condition, quickly change your thinking to something else.

I hope this goes some way to help you but I may also see if there is a Hypnotherapist that I can afford as it certainly helped me big time years ago. I have to say though that I'm pretty sure the CBT has helped a lot.

All the very best to you and I wish you well for the future.

Hi there Scifilunatic , I couldn't agree more. I had basically beaten it a few years ago by having hypnotherapy. I panicked when no saw someone in the street, a long way from me, who put their hand to their mouth. I ran as fast as I could into work and my heart was going at a rate of knots.

It was then I decided enough was enough and I had to do something about it.

After I had the hypnotherapy I had no issues at all for many years until the beginning of 2017 when the person I worked for bullied me. I left the job and thought I was fine. I got another job and was happy but I started to panic more and more.

I have had a few sessions now of CBT and can honestly say I'm getting better and better, not quite there yet but much better than I was.

I will report back again in a couple of me months or so.

Take care x