Why so many of us have emetophobia?

[SunFlower_10]

So I was scrolling through the forum recently and saw a post where someone mentioned they had emetophobia. I've been diagnosed with emetophobia and OCD, so that got me curious. I looked it up, and apparently it's pretty common with us sneeze fetishists. Any thoughts?

[Reader]

I would love to know! 

[MyOwnPrivateSFC]

I have no idea, but count me in as one of those who have it.

[ID2006]

I've been very curious about this as well. I do not have it but always put a warning since so many seem to

[mordaciousghost]

That's interesting. I have it when it comes to myself specifically (it was directly caysed by a traumatic illness I had for a few years) but despite that I actually enjoy reading about it and I'd always kind of connected that with the sneezing thing (fantasizing about people being sick, I guess). 

[solitaire-au]

Warning: description of vomiting situations (but not the act itself)
 

My personal opinion is it is related to vulnerability and intense feelings of fear and/or shame.

Most people aren’t embarrassed by their sneezing, or if they are, only if they sneeze a lot or someone draws a lot of attention to it.

Vomiting is a much greater loss of bodily control, is less common, and is not a natural bodily reflex. Plus we tend to make a lot more noise. I imagine most people would feel fear or shame if they vomited in public, especially because you can’t really hide or suppress it.

It’s only ever associated with illness, drunkenness, pregnancy, injury, extreme anxiety or in response to something triggering intense disgust or discomfort like someone else vomiting, or seeing internal organs (like from an injury or corpse.)

So if someone already feels fear or shame on sneezing in public, it’s likely they would fear vomiting in public even more.

I don’t feel uncomfortable sneezing in public unless it’s many times, but I wouldn’t say I have emetophobia. There have been a few times where I’ve felt mild anxiety about something, experienced some nausea as a result, and then felt a brief irrational fear of vomiting, but not enough to consider it a true phobia.

I had hyperemesis gravidarum with my pregnancies (like morning sickness but a much greater order of magnitude) almost throughout the entire duration both times and lost more weight than I gained. I wasn’t exactly fine about vomiting in public, but as my mum had it, I was prepared for the possibility it would happen to me. Honestly, I was so sick I barely left the house. I had bowls in every room, and sick bags in every pocket, bag, and my car.

It was a bit like that old nautical saying about seasickness: first, you’re afraid you’re going to die. Then you’re afraid you’re not going to die.

The hardest thing was the energy-sapping exhaustion and lack of sleep that accompanied it. I had to think of it as like enduring a parasitic infection of fixed duration to get through my pregnancies.

But the most aggravating thing was the lack of awareness and understanding which is crazy because one percent of pregnancies result in HG!

Telling someone with HG that “oh yeah, I had morning sickness really bad too,” is like someone with a receding hairline believing their hair loss is the comparable and saying so to someone who is completely bald. It’s not the same!!

[SleepingPhlox]

@solitaire-au That sounds awful, my goodness.

I'm not emetophobic myself and enjoy the caretaking aspect of that kind of thing in fiction, but I can understand why it's so common.  From an evolutionary standpoint, someone vomiting means something is very wrong, it could be a communicable illness which in the past could spell death, so stay far away from them for safety.  And that natural instinct manifests as a phobia for some people, much like the phobias for spiders and snakes?  I have no idea, honestly, just a thought.

[kiku]

*cautiously peeping around the corner*
Hi!

I was a bit anxious to take a look into this topic, because I’m really squeamish about anything connected to vomiting. Yeah, I know most of us agree that vomiting is something… unpleasant to deal with (to put it mildly).

I suppose I’m (lightly?) emetophobic.

Although, luckily, I don’t have to witness – or experience – it in real life often, I get really annoyed whenever I come across it in movies, TV shows, novels, etc.
I have the impression I get grossed out much more than anybody else I know. I can’t handle it at all feel like asking the writers / producers or whatever, “Was that really necessary?”

As for experiencing it myself, I’m glad to say it happens very rarely – only when I’ve got a stomach flu. In those cases, whenever I start feeling nauseous, I’m like, “Oh noooo, please, not that…” And I’m kind of horrified it might actually happen.
OK, I guess that’s normal to some degree… I’m not sure how to describe it, but there is definitely an element of fear in it for me.

As for possible causes, I agree with what’s been said above: It is your body’s way to show that something is wrong. It’s called “being sick” for a reason. (I think it’s interesting that in English the word “sick” does not only mean “ill” in general, but is also a synonym for vomiting / nausea.) I guess that’s closely connected with the fear of getting weak, helpless, out of control…

@solitaire-au Gosh, I’m sorry you had such a hard time during your pregnancies. ❤️