Stand up to your Emetophobia:
Step 1 - Part 2
Great choice.
You can do this!
Aims:
So, we know that avoiding these cues only makes your phobia worse in the long term. So we need to overcome this.
We do this by testing out these two ideas:
1) You think these cues will lead you to gag, feel nauseous, which will then lead you to vomit.
2) You think that you will become panicked, out of control or unable to cope.
If you find out these things are not true, then there is no reason to avoid these cues in the future.
How do we test out these ideas?
We can test these ideas out by facing cues about vomiting in a controlled manner to see what happens. We can start this really small and work our way up.
We will start by looking at words linked to vomiting and then move onto sightly harder categories once you feel ready.
Instructions:
When you face your fears it is important that you don’t use any distractions or safety behaviours.
Safety behaviours:
Safety behaviours are any action you may be tempted to use to prevent your fear from happening or to reduce your anxiety. They act like a safety net to prevent your fear. While they seem harmless or even helpful, these behaviours actually feed your Emetophobia.
Let’s demonstrate this using an analogy I like to call “barking at the postman”.
“Barking at the postman”
We all know that most dogs bark at the postman. Lets imagine a dog who is scared of the postman. When the postman comes close to the house, the dog perceives a threat. The dog thinks that the postman is going to break in or is a danger in some way.
So the dog barks!
And the postman walks away.
The dog congratulates himself on getting rid of the threat. He learnt that barking keeps the postman away. Good boy!
However, we all know the postman would have walked away on his own. Each time the dog sees the postman he still sees him as a threat and barks. He thinks his barking is working.
Now imagine you could speak with dogs and you ask him to take a “risk” and not bark at the postman for the week.
The dog watches the postman coming and does not bark. To his surprise the postman posts his letter and walks away… He thinks “maybe I got lucky, I am sure he will break in next time”. The day next comes, and the next day after that. The dog doesn’t bark and the postman still hasn’t broken in. Soon the dog realises he was wrong and that the postman was not trying to break in.
Key message:
When we use our safety behaviours we never get to see what would have happened if we did nothing. We are barking at the postman even when he was going to walk away anyway. So, we need to test out our predictions by facing our fear without trying to prevent it.
Remember we are testing out these two ideas:
1) You think these cues will lead you to gag, feel nauseous, which will then lead you to vomit.
2) You think that you will become panicked, out of control or unable to cope.
If you face these cues whilst using a safety behaviour, even if your fear doesn’t come true, you will convince yourself it was only because of the action you took. It would make facing these cues pointless.
Lets start:
Below, there will be 12 words that describe vomiting. Shown one at a time.
Read the word and just keep looking at it and rereading it. Do this until you start to feel bored or have learnt something about the two beliefs we are testing.
Depending on how severe your Emetophobia is, you might find this easy or difficult. If you find it easy, give it a try and quickly move on.
If your Emetophobia is severe, then you might find your anxiety increases. This is normal and shows that this is the correct thing to work on. You may even notice feeling nauseous or gag.
Remember not to use any safety behaviours. Only then will you know if these beliefs are true or not.
Keep looking at the word until you feel bored. Then move onto the next word and continue.
Well done!
Learning:
What have you learnt from doing that?
Remember you are testing out these two ideas:
1) You think these cues will lead you to gag, feel nauseous, which will then lead you to vomit.
2) You think that you will become panicked, out of control or unable to cope.
You may have noticed you felt nauseous or even that you gagged originally. But did it lead to vomiting? Most likely not.
Did you feel anxious? Probably. But, what happened the longer you did the task? It should have got easier once you realised that reading these words doesn’t lead to vomiting.
Keep repeating this exercise until it doesn’t bother you any more.
Now what?
It’s not good enough to just change our thinking. We need to change our actions in the future based on what we have learnt.
Based on what you have learnt, how are you going to react to words linked to vomiting in the future? Are you going to avoid them, or are you able to face them calmy?
The next step: Cartoons
So, now we know words are fine to watch and don’t lead to vomiting. What about other cues. Let’s start with cartoons. Follow the same steps as before.
Watch each one until bored and don’t use any safety behaviours.
Another big well done!
Learning:
What have you learnt from doing that?
Remember you are testing out these two ideas:
1) You think these cues will lead you to gag, feel nauseous, which will then lead you to vomit.
2) You think that you will become panicked, out of control or unable to cope.
Keep repeating this exercise until it doesn’t bother you any more.
Based on what you have learnt, how are you going to react to cartoons of vomiting in the future? Are you going to avoid them, or are you able to face them calmy?
The next step: photographs of people before vomiting
So, now you know cartoons are fine to watch, lets move onto real photographs. Starting with photos of people before they vomit. These images will show people feeling nauseous and even over a toilet bowl but will not show any vomit.
Again, watch each one until bored and don’t use any safety behaviours.
Look at how well you are doing!
Learning:
What have you learnt from doing that?
Remember you are testing out these two ideas:
1) You think these cues will lead you to gag, feel nauseous, which will then lead you to vomit.
2) You think that you will become panicked, out of control or unable to cope.
Keep repeating this exercise until it doesn’t bother you any more.
Based on what you have learnt, how are you going to react to photos in the future? Are you going to avoid them, or are you able to face them calmy?
The next step: photographs of people vomiting
So now lets move onto photographs of people vomiting.
Again, watch each one until bored and don’t use any safety behaviours.
You are smashing it!
Learning:
What have you learnt from doing that?
Remember you are testing out these two ideas:
1) You think these cues will lead you to gag, feel nauseous, which will then lead you to vomit.
2) You think that you will become panicked, out of control or unable to cope.
Keep repeating this exercise until it doesn’t bother you any more.
Based on what you have learnt, how are you going to react to photos in the future? Are you going to avoid them, or are you able to face them calmy?
The next step: sounds of people vomiting
So now lets move onto sounds. These might not be pleasant to listen too. Even people without Emetophobia wouldn’t see this as a nice thing to do. But it is important to be able to hear sounds and face them calmy.
Again, watch each one until bored and don’t use any safety behaviours.
With each step, you are moving closer to recovery!
Learning:
What have you learnt from doing that?
Remember you are testing out these two ideas:
1) You think these cues will lead you to gag, feel nauseous, which will then lead you to vomit.
2) You think that you will become panicked, out of control or unable to cope.
Keep repeating this exercise until it doesn’t bother you any more.
Based on what you have learnt, how are you going to react when you hear someone vomiting in the future? Are you going to avoid them, or are you able to face them calmy?
The next step: videos of people vomiting
So now let’s move onto videos. Again, these might not be pleasant to watch. But it’s important to be able to see vomiting and face it calmy.
Again, watch each one until bored and don’t use any safety behaviours.
Woman retching and briefly throwing up off camera:
Woman vomiting. Vomit not seen:
Man vomiting a few times (graphic):
Scene from the comedy film bridesmaids. Contains scenes of food poisoning, diarrhoea and vomiting from multiple cast members:
You did great!
Learning:
What have you learnt from doing that?
Remember you are testing out these two ideas:
1) You think these cues will lead you to gag, feel nauseous or vomit.
2) You think that you will become panicked, out of control or unable to cope.
Keep repeating this exercise until it doesn’t bother you any more.
Based on what you have learnt, how are you going to react when you see someone vomiting in the future? Are you going to avoid them, or are you able to face them calmy?
The next step: reassurance seeking
Okay we are finished with cues around vomiting. Hopefully, this has helped your Emetophobia. However, there is still work to do. Let’s start talking about reassurance seeking.
Ready for the next step?
Coming very soon!
“I need more than self-help!”
If you feel you need to speak to a therapist to help you overcome your emetophobia. Look no further. Send me an email or book your first session today!
I am an emetophobia specialist and author of: