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Revision as of 18:08, 26 February 2008 by JFBurton (talk | contribs) (adding more detail and improvements)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)About Emetophobia
Emetophobia is an excessive or irrational fear of vomiting or of being around others who are vomiting. It is one of the specific phobias.
The fear of being sick is less known compared with other irrational fears, yet it is one of the most common phobias in the Western World. Victim's lives are dominated by irrational thoughts and actions. The fear of being sick is often linked to other phobias, such as flying.
A typical emetophobe will display some or all of the following tendencies:
- Often Female, below average weight.
- Rarely eats out and will avoid higher risk foods.
- Does not drink.
- Does not like pubs or clubs where people tend to consume large amounts of alcohol.
- Dislikes social events and crowded places.
- Eat little in public and sit near a door.
- Avoids flying and travelling by boat.
- Avoids public transport, preferring to travel by car and driving themselves.
- Avoids pregnancy fearing morning sickness.
- Avoids anyone who is or has recently been ill.
Causes of Emetophobia
Like all fears and phobias, emetophobia most commonly develops from a childhood experience that has never been outgrown. Often, an apparantly traumatic incident was witnessed at a young age, a person being sick close to them or on them, maybe they themselves being sick.
When a traumatic scene is witnessed as a young child (between the age of 4 to 8 years old) the subconscious mind works out the best way to prevent the incident repeating itself. The way this works in practice is that the subconscious attaches negative emotions or feelings to vomiting and in the future this teaches the person to steer away from these situations. Whilst the subconscious mind is doing this for protection, the conscious mind does not know why they are frightened.
The actual phobia manifests itself in different ways. Some sufferers experience it almost all the time, others just in response to direct stimulation. Some sufferers spend a number of years free from the phobia until a particular incident triggers it.
Treatment
When a child first experiences the initial incident, they are not fully developed intellectually. They react to that situation based on their life experiences to date. Regression Hypnotherapy will allow a person to remember that particular event and review it again. This will then allow them to interpret the event correctly and it will no longer be an issue for them.
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