Emetophobia and Social Anxiety Disorder
Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2014 10:58 am
Hi,
I hope you don’t mind me posting this here as although this does affect work, this is only a small part of it. It is also going to take a bit of explaining so I’m sorry about that.
I’m a 30 year old female and I have Emetophobia, both for myself being ill and also with other people being ill. I’ve been like this for as long as I can remember but have only discovered that it is a real phobia and that it actually has a name earlier this year.
It includes all the usual things people with this phobia avoid – travel/staying away from home, social situations involving alcohol, children/family, illness in both people and animals, medications in case of side effects, visiting hospitals/doctors surgeries, sell by dates on food, not touching raw meat, refusing to eat certain food, being overly aware of cars parked at the side of the road and of pavements, not being able to watch TV if someone is sick (even if it’s the fake stuff) as well as numerous other things.
It also means that you are constantly scanning people to see if they look unwell and will panic if someone says they feel ill, which is getting tiring. The same thing can happen even if someone just coughs.
Oddly enough though, I’m not excessive with cleanliness (at least in my own space), don’t show OCD tendencies in relation to food preparation (although I do with checking taps and doors!) and you certainly wouldn’t associate me with being anorexic.
In reading about Emetophobia I also found out about Social Anxiety Disorder. I can quite easily agree with all of the things listed on the NHS website for this disorder except the drugs and alcohol thing because of my emetophobia!
Unfortunately, I think that these two things are working together at the moment. I work from home so don’t get out much, but am scared to go out and do things because of these issues (plus I couldn’t afford to do something like go out to a pub every week which is what people my age seem to want to do). There is definitely an increasing sense of isolation and it’s getting to the stage in my life where I don’t want to be on my own forever but don’t make new friends easily and don’t know how to overcome it.
I don’t know any of the doctor’s at my GP practice as the one GP I’ve seen recently (the first time seeing a doctor since 1997) has now left and I would feel uncomfortable discussing this face to face with someone I haven’t met before, especially as I don’t know if I would be taken seriously or not.
I feel I’m missing out on so much, but that I’ve done this to myself by being ruled by my phobia. Do you have any recommendations for how to overcome this, or where to go from here as I don’t think this can’t go on for much longer without it escalating further?
Sorry for the essay, and thank you for your help.
I hope you don’t mind me posting this here as although this does affect work, this is only a small part of it. It is also going to take a bit of explaining so I’m sorry about that.
I’m a 30 year old female and I have Emetophobia, both for myself being ill and also with other people being ill. I’ve been like this for as long as I can remember but have only discovered that it is a real phobia and that it actually has a name earlier this year.
It includes all the usual things people with this phobia avoid – travel/staying away from home, social situations involving alcohol, children/family, illness in both people and animals, medications in case of side effects, visiting hospitals/doctors surgeries, sell by dates on food, not touching raw meat, refusing to eat certain food, being overly aware of cars parked at the side of the road and of pavements, not being able to watch TV if someone is sick (even if it’s the fake stuff) as well as numerous other things.
It also means that you are constantly scanning people to see if they look unwell and will panic if someone says they feel ill, which is getting tiring. The same thing can happen even if someone just coughs.
Oddly enough though, I’m not excessive with cleanliness (at least in my own space), don’t show OCD tendencies in relation to food preparation (although I do with checking taps and doors!) and you certainly wouldn’t associate me with being anorexic.
In reading about Emetophobia I also found out about Social Anxiety Disorder. I can quite easily agree with all of the things listed on the NHS website for this disorder except the drugs and alcohol thing because of my emetophobia!
Unfortunately, I think that these two things are working together at the moment. I work from home so don’t get out much, but am scared to go out and do things because of these issues (plus I couldn’t afford to do something like go out to a pub every week which is what people my age seem to want to do). There is definitely an increasing sense of isolation and it’s getting to the stage in my life where I don’t want to be on my own forever but don’t make new friends easily and don’t know how to overcome it.
I don’t know any of the doctor’s at my GP practice as the one GP I’ve seen recently (the first time seeing a doctor since 1997) has now left and I would feel uncomfortable discussing this face to face with someone I haven’t met before, especially as I don’t know if I would be taken seriously or not.
I feel I’m missing out on so much, but that I’ve done this to myself by being ruled by my phobia. Do you have any recommendations for how to overcome this, or where to go from here as I don’t think this can’t go on for much longer without it escalating further?
Sorry for the essay, and thank you for your help.