Emetophobia?

[beatlelover22]

So, I was wondering, it seems many people on the forum have some time of emetophobia... anyone have an explanation for this or am I dead wrong by saying it's not uncommon?

Edited April 13, 2014 by Spoo
Edited by request! :)

[Snottygurl]

I can't explain it but I have it as well.

[EnbySneeze]

I don't have it. One of my good friends does though but she doesn't have a sneeze fetish. I think it relates to sickness. A lot of us have a quirk of people feeling weak and helpless from either a cold or the flu. There is no way to control puking and it always results in mess. It may be the embarrassment afterwards too kind of like how people are embarrassed after they have a messy sneezing fit. I don't know though I'm only guessing.

[FreeFluShots]

From what I've seen, it's quite common among people with this fetish. No idea why that is, because I actually have the OPPOSITE feeling about the subject (emetophilia), but I think I'm def. in the minority there.

[MyOwnPrivateSFC]

Can we please edit this to remove the "no v-warning" bit, as people are now discussing it?

(Needless to say, I have THAT phobia, too, though pretty minorly. )

[cally]

I have it. I am pretty sure the 2 are unrelated. When I was growing up my dad was really sick for about 2 years but never bothered to see a doctor. (TL; DR he had acid reflux and had he gone to the doctor, 2 years of being sick day in and day out and looking emaciated could have been remedied) I was pretty traumatised by the entire thing and ever since I've been the most emetophobic person I know.

So of course I became a teacher.

My #1 rule in class was if you felt ill, you had carte blanche to leave, no questions asked. I was very lucky and had good kids and no one ever took advantage of it or ridiculed me for it.

[VoOs]

I used to have it pretty bad when I was a teenager, but I have since then gotten over it. Well, maybe not entirely, but now I can control it, and I'm even able to help and clean up after people if necessary.

Nowadays I also sort of like seeing it in movies (which used to terrify me when I was younger). As long as it's acted, it can be pretty attractive. It's become part of the whole vulnerability/loss of control thing for me.

Edited April 13, 2014 by VoOs

[NameTaken]

I used to have it pretty bad when I was a teenager, but I have since then gotten over it. Well, maybe not entirely, but now I can control it, and I'm even able to help and clean up after people if necessary.

Nowadays I also sort of like seeing it movies (which used to terrify me when I was younger). As long as it's acted, it can be pretty attractive. It's become part of the whole vulnerability/loss of control thing for me.

omg, ditto here! It was worse I think when I was a kid though, and there was a book literally called 'sick' with a horrifically graphic image on the front. So I wouldn't go into the classroom that had the book in it ( I was like 6) and the teachers would drag me in kicking and screaming while I'm having a friggin' panic attack. No wonder it took me so long to get over the phobia.....

But now, I'm the same as VoOs. I like reading about it in fics, too. I guess it depends IRL what it's like; sometimes I find it just ugh ughh gross. But I think most people would agree that it can be fairly disgusting, so I no longer think I have emetophobia, just a natural reaction to something already deemed nasty.

As a student, I guess I started to become even more used to it as it sort of became a part of life when myself or my friends drink too much....

But I can definitely say there's a huge number of emetophobes who have the fetish (or the other way rather). I'd really like to know if there's a direct link...

[squealofapproval]

I don't like... Yanno, looking at it... And this may sound weird but:

I kinda like the desperate look on someone's face before they do it. Though I don't specifically like the aftermath like sneezes its something they can't control.

[jano]

For me, Ive had more than one experience of 'the thing' as a kid, involving me, involving others, etc...... I would go into a panic attack just thinking of going to a public restroom haha. I havent gotten over it yet though. Its pretty bad haha

[beatlelover22]

Can we please edit this to remove the "no v-warning" bit, as people are now discussing it?

(Needless to say, I have THAT phobia, too, though pretty minorly. )

Oops, sure! Sorry about that! Erm... how do I edit it?

[beatlelover22]

I have it. I am pretty sure the 2 are unrelated. When I was growing up my dad was really sick for about 2 years but never bothered to see a doctor. (TL; DR he had acid reflux and had he gone to the doctor, 2 years of being sick day in and day out and looking emaciated could have been remedied) I was pretty traumatised by the entire thing and ever since I've been the most emetophobic person I know.

So of course I became a teacher.

My #1 rule in class was if you felt ill, you had carte blanche to leave, no questions asked. I was very lucky and had good kids and no one ever took advantage of it or ridiculed me for it.

That's a nice rule! I teach little kids taekwondo they've only done THE THING like once but it's traumatising enough. Before that, I used to do it myself (taekwondo that is!) and I remember I was fighting this guy and he was a year younger than me maybe? But he put up a pretty good fight and as soon as the match was over, he looked kind of pale and DID THE THING and I basically hid in the bathroom and almost started crying haha

[Jorm]

It does seem to be more common in the sneeze fetish community than elsewhere, though it's hard to say if that's actually true since I don't think anyone's done any actual research on the subject. I remember when this came up a few years ago someone shared a psychiatric case study of a man with a sneeze fetish who also had emetophobia. I was able to hunt it down just now and although it's only a single source, meaning it's pretty insignificant statistically, it does also appear to be the only academic paper ever published on sneezing as a fetish, which makes it slightly more statistically significant. It could of course be pure coincidence that the one case study of someone with a sneezing fetish happens to be of a person who also has emetophobia, but given how common it seems to be among members of the forum it seems suggestive of something more than just chance.

The article, published in the journal of Sexual and Marital Therapy in 1990, can be previewed (or viewed in full if you're willing to pay $40 for it) here.

My guess is that like the fetish itself, the phobia is a result of cross wiring in the brain. There's an area called the somatosensory homunculus that can be described as a sort of body map in the brain and is where sensory input is processed, with each part of our body having a specific region of the homunculus devoted to it. Body part and bodily function fetishes are most likely the result of "abnormal" nerve connections in the body map, so that for us for instance, the nose center of our body map has a nerve link to the genital center. (Foot fetishes are one of the most common fetishes because the foot bit of the body map is right next to the genital bit, so the nerves are close together already and can easily get tangled up.) Presumably there's something similar going on that causes having a sneezing fetish and having emetophobia to frequently occur together.

Sen Beret might know more about it, she's the one I first learned about the foot fetish thing from and she studies brain stuff. "Brain stuff" is the technical term for it, right Sen? xD

On a more personal level, I have some amount of emetophobia. It's not nearly as bad as I know it is for some people here, I can read about it without any problem, and I can deal with seeing it on film without actually freaking out (although I don't LIKE it), and even in real life, if it's from something I know isn't contagious, like drinking to much, I totally freak out. But if it really scares me if I don't know why someone is being sick and it might be contagious, and if I feel like I'm going to be sick it's all over, panic attacks galore.

Can we please edit this to remove the "no v-warning" bit, as people are now discussing it?

(Needless to say, I have THAT phobia, too, though pretty minorly. )

Oops, sure! Sorry about that! Erm... how do I edit it?

You'll have to ask a mod to edit the title, I believe only they and people in the writer's group have title editing privileges. Chances are someone on staff will see this soon enough and change it for you, but if you wanted you could always PM one of them and ask directly.

[Spoo]

Chances are someone on staff will see this soon enough and change it for you

And so I have seen and edited!

[beatlelover22]

The article, published in the journal of Sexual and Marital Therapy in 1990, can be previewed (or viewed in full if you're willing to pay $40 for it) here.

My guess is that like the fetish itself, the phobia is a result of cross wiring in the brain. There's an area called the somatosensory homunculus that can be described as a sort of body map in the brain and is where sensory input is processed, with each part of our body having a specific region of the homunculus devoted to it. Body part and bodily function fetishes are most likely the result of "abnormal" nerve connections in the body map, so that for us for instance, the nose center of our body map has a nerve link to the genital center. (Foot fetishes are one of the most common fetishes because the foot bit of the body map is right next to the genital bit, so the nerves are close together already and can easily get tangled up.) Presumably there's something similar going on that causes having a sneezing fetish and having emetophobia to frequently occur together.

I previewed the article and it was very interesting! I always find learning new things intriguing, especially when they involve the brain. Wow, I've never thought about this so in-depth before! Thanks for the information!

[beatlelover22]

Chances are someone on staff will see this soon enough and change it for you

And so I have seen and edited!

Thanks so much!!

[Bisc]

yepp...yepp this is me xD

i can deal in literature, but in film or irl, panic attack city i'm heading your way!

i can be super bad with it, in a way that almost cross wires with the fetish xD if someone even says they feel ill or if they start coughing a lot i'm like O.O high alert brain

my mum nearly did the thing the other week, and i couldnt eat for three days :'(

although that's not such a big deal for me xD since i have panic disorder xD

Edited April 13, 2014 by Animania

[beatlelover22]

yepp...yepp this is me xD

i can deal in literature, but in film or irl, panic attack city i'm heading your way!

i can be super bad with it, in a way that almost cross wires with the fetish xD if someone even says they feel ill or if they start coughing a lot i'm like O.O high alert brain

my mum nearly did the thing the other week, and i couldnt eat for three days :'(

although that's not such a big deal for me xD since i have panic disorder xD

Oh, that's awful!! I can imagine what a nightmare that was!

[Bisc]

Oh, that's awful!! I can imagine what a nightmare that was!

can i have a hug :3

[beatlelover22]

Oh, that's awful!! I can imagine what a nightmare that was!

can i have a hug :3

Yes! I'm totally with you on the subject of people acting sick I'm like, "Hey, hey, let's back up nice and slow." But actually when it's my friends, I'm sort of okay with it (as long as it's not you know what).

[Bisc]

Oh, that's awful!! I can imagine what a nightmare that was!

can i have a hug :3

Yes! I'm totally with you on the subject of people acting sick I'm like, "Hey, hey, let's back up nice and slow." But actually when it's my friends, I'm sort of okay with it (as long as it's not you know what).

yaaaay

hugs are great <3

ugh yeah, it squicks me out entirely, and it takes hours for the panic attacks to stop, even if im out of the situation, like, hoursss!!! D:

[beatlelover22]

Oh, that's awful!! I can imagine what a nightmare that was!

can i have a hug :3

Yes! I'm totally with you on the subject of people acting sick I'm like, "Hey, hey, let's back up nice and slow." But actually when it's my friends, I'm sort of okay with it (as long as it's not you know what).

yaaaay

hugs are great <3

ugh yeah, it squicks me out entirely, and it takes hours for the panic attacks to stop, even if im out of the situation, like, hoursss!!! D:

Yeah, I can't seem to calm myself down for hours either, when I have a panic attack. Sometimes it takes a shorter amount of time though, sometimes not. Regardless, not fun!

[count tiszula]

Once when this came up before I remember I concluded that the extreme reaction from us is because vomiting is to all intents and purposes an evil twin of a sneeze, so both give us extreme reactions in different directions.....

[beatlelover22]

Once when this came up before I remember I concluded that the extreme reaction from us is because vomiting is to all intents and purposes an evil twin of a sneeze, so both give us extreme reactions in different directions.....

Oh! That's an interesting way of thinking about it... An evil twin of a sneeze!

[Bluebird]

I'll admit, I do have the phobia pretty bad . I mean...it's hard to explain. I used to get very anxious and very afraid about it when I was younger. Thinking about it, thinking about doing it...it freaked me out so bad. It's still bad today, but not nearly as bad it was years ago. I just...ugh. Nothing appealing about it. It just scares me for no discernible reason. Perhaps it's because I used to do it a lot when I was younger and the memories of it are strong, or because (and really hoping I'm not jinxing anything here) I haven't done it more or less since elementary school, and thinking about doing it again after so long freaks me out? It goes hand-in-hand with my anxiety, so I guess it makes sense why I fear it so irrationally....