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This is quite a common phobia and seems to occur more often in girls and women. Generally the person has a fear of vomiting themselves, but they’re also afraid of seeing other people vomiting because they fear the other person has a “bug” which they might catch.
This fear is called emetophobia and it can cast a shadow over a person’s whole life, even if they don’t have young children.
They may avoid public transport, or any place which they can’t immediately leave if someone started vomiting. They know that some other people have motion sickness in planes and boats, and of course there is nowhere to escape if someone does start being sick.
Since this problem normally begins in early childhood, people may be very worried as they go through the normal stage of socialising and drinking with teenage friends. Most British teenagers have been sick on occasion due to not yet knowing how much drink they can handle. This is never a pleasant experience. But for the person with emetophobia it is so horrifying that they may avoid socialising altogether, just in case they see someone else throwing up.
People with emetophobia may refuse to try any unfamiliar food in case it makes them feel sick. They may be excessively cautious of food which someone else has handled.
In extreme cases some women even choose not to have children simply because they don’t think they could cope with their child being sick.
For more about how hypnotherapy helps overcome phobias, click HERE.
For more about how hypnosis is actually like, click HERE.
Cost of therapy for fear of vomiting
Therapy sessions are £60 per session, which is about the average going rate in this area. How many sessions are needed varies from person to person, as no two people are the same. However in my experience it’s normally between three and eight sessions. We will be aiming for a permanent change in this time. This is not like seeing a hairdresser where you keep on going back on a regular basis. Once you get over a phobia there is normally no reason why you would get it back.
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You can read HERE how phobias in general usually begin.
How fear of vomiting begins
Emetophobia can begin with a traumatic experience of vomiting excessively or seeing someone else vomiting, where the child and the adults around them are already stressed by something else. All the stress and fear is bundled together and attached to the thought of vomiting. Even a normal experience of vomiting could be very distressing to a child if they’re not used to it, and if they don’t understand what is happening. Some children who have not been “sicky” as babies are very frightened the first time they are sick, because they think there is something badly wrong with them. Vomiting is a very powerful experience because it involves all our senses. We see it, hear it, feel it, smell it, and taste it. And it’s frightening because we cannot stop it. It is happening in our body but it’s out of our control.
Therapy for emetophobia involves the usual range of hypnotic techniques as described HERE. It is also important to reduce the client’s excessive attention to the physical sensations in their stomach, because people with emetophobia tend to assume that any sensation in their stomach means they’re going to be sick.
