Can I treat myself?

The simple answer is yes. Although some may require the help of a trained CBT therapist to guide them in this process, it is possible to treat your Emetophobia yourself.

How?

Successful self help for Emetophobia relies on three important things:

Understanding: The first step is to understand what is causing your fear and how the actions you take to help your anxiety might actually be the very thing causing your problem.

Courage: Emetophobia is an anxiety disorder. Which means you probably wish your “anxiety” could just disappear. However, the only way to overcome anxiety is to have the courage to face your fears. This type of treatment uses something called Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) which in theory sounds scary, however most people realise how useful and effective it can be from day one.

Practice: Exposure is not about just facing your fears once. You have to do it over and over until you are confident. Just like a person who is afraid of public speaking. Facing their fear once doesn’t fully overcome their fear. They need to practice public speaking again and again until they are no longer anxious.