What do you think?

[littlemama]

Hi. I am new here and Im not to sure if I am a emetophobic. I havent been sick(as I knock on wood) for about 15 years. I shake and my heart starts beating fast when I do feel liek I might get sick.. I have a 2 year old daughter and when she is sick I shake too. When my hubby is sick I will rinse my toothbrush off with boiling hot water, useso many chemicals in the house to kill germs I will not sleep in the same bed for nights, I wash everything... ANd trust me when hes sick oh my god does he ever get it bad. Which really doesnt help my fear out... I do find myself washing my hands lots. I hate going to public washrooms. I hate bringing my daughter to parks or any indoor thing liek that.. But still do, I cant keep her from having fun because Im scared of being sick. I take gravol every time I feel sick.. Im currently pregnant now and I was told my the doctor its ok to take gravol for morning sickness. I felt that maybe I might be takign it to much so she gave me a prescription for medication you can take while pregnant. SHe doesnt knwo I have this fear... I havent taken my medication because im scared that when I do get sick I want to take gravol instead cause i know its been workign for me...Ive been getting d* I think instead of v* with this pregnancy.. It seems that I feel really sick then have d* instead.. My daughter and hubby got sick one day last year and I just ended up getting d* ..... I hate the winter time cause thats when it seems liek everyone is sick... I am latey finding it hard to kiss hubby with out the though of well if hes sick ill get it too......I knwo Im not as bad as some of the stories I have read on here but I think I might have some degree of emetophobia.. What do you think???HELP ME!

[crystalmom]

littlemama....welcome. In my opinion, you are an emet with the rest of us. Some are very debilitated, some have been, some can live "normally" to most terms.


I KNOW I am an emet, and what you just described is me to a tee. I still do day to day things, and go about life as most ppl do....but bring me near v* or a sv...and watch out, cause here come the panic attacks! There was a time in my life where I was housebound, and rarely ate or slept b/c of this phobia, and luckily I got through it, but it is still there, and I dread being that way again, since, it could come back that bad!


I worry about flu season, I FREAK when my son gets a sv, or v*s for any reson. If someone close to me gets sick, I'm a mess for days, completely concentrated on whether or not I'm gonna be sick.


Check out the threads link and go to the treatments part, and under that is something that Sage wrote, and it gives a checklist type thing about emetophobia. I think you will find yourself in among our wonderful group here.


Congrats on your pregnancy! We have a few soon-to-be mamas around. When are you due?


Oh, and where in Canada are you? I'm in Alberta.


Take care.


Crystal


PS....my dr gave me diclectin when I was pg, didn't know you could take gravol!!

[littlemama]

Crystal thanks for your reply.. I am new at this and just realised there is such thing of this kinda a phobia. How old is your son?? My daughter is 2. SHe hasent been to sick yet. She has had times when she was sick but only threw up once each time.. This summer I was lucky enough to find out that she gets car sick..Which really doesnt bother me as much as the stomach flu because I knwo i cant catch it..I still shake though.. I will check out the links that you are talkign about, thanks. Im actually from Alberta too!! lol. I am due on May 13th so Im 13 weeks..


Another thing that makes me think I have this fear is I question if everythign is cooked.. I end up over cooking quit abit of food this way but still at least I know its cooked.. Every thing I bit into I look to see if I see pink..

[crystalmom]

littlemama...


I overcook things like chicken, pork, and hamburger all the time. The thougth of food poisoning scares me.


My son is 4 1/2, his b-day is in March. Car sickness wouldn't bother me as much either, since you can't catch it, but I would still have anxiety over the whole thing.


Yeah, I was surprised too at how many people are actually phobic of v*ing. I was so relieved, I thought I was the only person on the planet!


I'm in Sylvan Lake....where are you? There are so many people here who actually live close to one and other, but all the Canadians seem to be out east.


Anyhoo, I can't sleep (just cause I can't, not b/c of anxiety)...so I'm gonna go try some more...lol!


Crystal

[liriodendron]

You're describing a lot of things that people that don't have this
phobia do when other people are sick. A lot of people use boiling water
for their toothbrush and use a lot of cleaning chemicals. Any sensible
person will wash their hands frequently when people are sick in the
house. Nobody likes going to public bathrooms either although they
reportedly aren't as dirty as everyone tends to think. IMO, there's
people on this forum that have some serious problems because they
aren't eating for fear of V* and they aren't sleeping and they aren't
going to work or school. If it's strictly the V* that worries you, I'd
say it is. Otherwise, it just sounds like you're taking a lot of
precautions and doing things that most people do, including the
sleeping in other beds while their "other" is sick.



Why is your husband and child getting sick so much? Maybe you need to
have a talk with them about good hand washing and put them on some
vitamin C.

[kel12347]

Welcome to the site! It does sound like you have emet (I wish I could say otherwise). You'll find tons of help and support here. My advice to all newcomers - check out the Treatments forum and get into therapy!

[littlemama]

You're describing a lot of things that people that don't have this phobia do when other people are sick. A lot of people use boiling water for their toothbrush and use a lot of cleaning chemicals. Any sensible person will wash their hands frequently when people are sick in the house. Nobody likes going to public bathrooms either although they reportedly aren't as dirty as everyone tends to think. IMO, there's people on this forum that have some serious problems because they aren't eating for fear of V* and they aren't sleeping and they aren't going to work or school. If it's strictly the V* that worries you, I'd say it is. Otherwise, it just sounds like you're taking a lot of precautions and doing things that most people do, including the sleeping in other beds while their "other" is sick.

Why is your husband and child getting sick so much? Maybe you need to have a talk with them about good hand washing and put them on some vitamin C.

Thats why I came to this board to get peoples opinion. Im not to sure if how I feel is normal. I didnt explain every detail about how I feel on my first post there just acouple examples. Every day I worry about getting sick, winters are worse. This morning I opened my daughters door to her room, and her teddy bear ( cause the colours)looked like puke for a minute and I started shaking. Is that normal?? I understand that alot of poeple have this phobia and its stopping them from doing every day things.. Thats why Im not to sure if I have it cause thats not how it is inmy case.. Does that mean I am not a phobic cause I can go through everyday things???? Even though the thought of v* is in my head everywhere I go?? My husband and daughter dont get sick that much, they just had the flu last year. My daughter only has been sick that once and only v* once with that flu. Like I said above. ANd if your talking about the car sickness, vitamin C is not gonna help that. My husband does wash him hands and I am always washing my daughters hands aswell.

[littlemama]

Thank you kel12347


I did actually take alook atthe treatment forums, I went to the one that has the pictures and the videos. I could not look at videos and listen to it.. I did look at the pictures and had alittle bit of a problem with the pumpkin one but just kept going until I got to the 7th one I beleive, the one that the man is on the floor and yeah.. I couldnt look at that one!! But who can?? It just sounded like it looked to gross.

[liriodendron]

Thats why I came to this board to get peoples opinion. Im not to
sure if how I feel is normal. I didnt explain every detail about
how I feel on my first post there just acouple examples. Every
day I worry about getting sick, winters are worse. This morning I
opened my daughters door to her room, and her teddy bear ( cause the
colours)looked like puke for a minute and I started shaking. Is
that normal??

It's perfectly normal for an emetophobe.




(If you're principally afraid of the v*, and not just being sick in general with non-v* symptoms.)

ANd if your talking about the car sickness,
vitamin C is not gonna help that. My husband does wash him hands and I
am always washing my daughters hands aswell.

I'm sorry, I must have overlooked where it said that was from car/motion sickness.



Welcome to the world of emetophobia. Hopefully we can work together to
help improve things for all of us. It's not a fun phobia, but it could
be a lot worse.

[liriodendron]

I would also add (since you mentioned the teddy bear thing), that
everytime I am in a parking lot and open my car door and see a stain on
the ground, I assume it's a v* stain and I go park somewhere else where
there is no stain. Or the least amount of stains. So that's an example
of how the phobia effect me. It's not horrible and emephobe or not, I'd
just as soon prefer not to step in an icky-looking stain and track it
in my car or my shoes.



There should be a law preventing people from dumping coffee or soup out
their car windows when they are at a red light too because it looks
disgusting there and I always stop way back from that or purposely go
around that.


Edited by: liriodendron