Hi there,
I'm Hannah and today I want to talk about emetophobia.
Emetophobia is a very intense fear,
A phobic fear of having to be sick.
And if you're struggling with emetophobia or you do know someone who is,
You know that it can really impact your life massively.
It can impact what you eat,
If you eat,
Where you go,
What you do.
And I know that nowadays there are more approaches in therapy,
There's exposure therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy and nowadays emetophobia is more studied and we know much more about how the brain reacts to it.
But when I was a teenager and I was suffering from emetophobia it was not known at all.
Later then when I studied neuroscience and the brain I understood so much more about it and I'm really glad to see that there's much more help out there nowadays.
But today I don't want to share the neuroscience part of it,
Today I just want to share my personal things that I took with me and the things that really helped me that I figured out by myself in my teenage years and it made me overcome that phobia without the treatment available.
So one thing that was really important to me and that really changed everything was when I started to open up about it.
I shared in my school class,
I had previously changed schools and I shared with everyone it was the bravest thing I ever had to do.
But it really changed everything because people were so supportive,
Everyone was so kind.
Everyone was so kind and once they understood that I wanted to participate in social activities but they scared me so much and it was really difficult.
They welcomed me with open arms,
They didn't pressure me,
They just invited me and whenever I managed to be there they were happy.
And that gave me courage to be there and to overcome my own thoughts.
So wherever you are right now,
Whatever stage you are,
Or if you're living with someone who has emetophobia,
Don't shy away from talking about it.
It's so important to just share whenever you feel phobic,
Whenever you feel scared and just if you're the other person who is around someone who has emetophobia,
Just acknowledge the fear.
Just say okay,
It's here,
I get it,
It's there.
That's all that helps.
It's just being there and just understanding there's fear here right now and it's phobic,
It's extreme and that's okay.
The second thing I want to share is do little things that make you feel safe.
The thing with emetophobia is that you take your stimulus with yourself,
Your phobic stimulus.
It's your body,
It's your stomach,
It's things that you do daily like eating food.
And there's so many things that make you feel unsafe when you have emetophobia and sometimes just lying in your bed feels insanely unsafe because you're with your body all the time.
So create little habits,
Small moments that make you feel safe.
For me that was photography.
I developed skills in photography,
I portrayed my journey in photography and those moments were moments of expressing myself freely and they made me feel safe.
I did a time schedule where I put that into my schedule at least three to four times a week and it was good because it made me feel safe.
Another thing is don't beat yourself up about the phobia because something that defines a phobia is that you're not about the phobia because something that defines a phobia is that you do know it's irrational.
You do know it's irrational but yet your body goes into panic mode.
And I know there are people saying oh I also don't like it,
I'm also scared of it but they're not phobic.
They don't understand what that means.
They're going to say fear but they don't understand panic regarding to that subject and it's okay to be super scared of something that doesn't make sense.
It's okay to be phobic in an irrational way because it's your body protecting you.
So don't beat yourself up.
Be kind to yourself.
Understand that your body in the moment you go into panic is trying to protect you.
It's uncomfortable but you can pass it.
One more thing is to work yourself out of it in small steps.
Don't try and do the things you're most scared of.
For me it was going to school but then also traveling,
Being on a bus,
On a plane.
You know you don't have to do an eight-hour flight from one moment to the next.
You can also just be on a bus for 10 minutes for now and just try and get comfortable with that.
Set yourself small goals and show your body that you are safe in those moments.
Learn techniques of how you can come out of a panic attack like the 5-4-3-2-1 technique where you focus on your senses.
You count five things that you can see,
Four things that you can hear,
Three things that you can touch,
Two things that you can smell and one thing that you can taste.
Then go to those places and I know it will be so scary.
You have to teach your nervous system that the places you go into or the things you do are not threatening and that's so hard.
But if you open up and people just accept the fear and that you might take a few times to do one thing to then be not scared anymore or to be less scared to teach your nervous system,
They will support you so much and you will be held and you know you'll be safe.
Over time you'll probably notice where it originates from and what the whole thing behind it is and I think it's very personal from person to person.
But I just want to tell you today that you can overcome it.
After I overcame a fear I moved to different countries,
I traveled the world,
I lived in Thailand and I ate street food for one year,
Not caring if I would get sick or not.
Because I knew I could manage and this is the last thing that I want to tell you in this little talk is you can experience positive emotions alongside the fear.
You can be scared to death to eat a certain type of food and yet you can still enjoy the taste.
You can have a panic attack on a plane and yet be excited and looking forward to your holidays.
You can feel anxious and scared about meeting friends or going to the cinema or being in a line of a supermarket and yet still be content and be within yourself.
Because the truth and what emetophobia and studying neuroscience taught me is that all emotions exist next to each other and experiencing happiness is the sum of it.
So no matter how phobic you are know you can move past that and you can find joy in small things,
In your daily routine and don't give up,
Just don't give up.
There's so much more to live for,
I promise.
If you enjoyed that talk please do leave me a review,
Leave me a comment.
I love to hear about your journey and I'm so glad you made it here today.
I'm Hannah,
I'm a neuroscientist,
I'm a therapeutic photographer and I work with the felt sense and art therapy approaches to move the nervous system back to a state of safety.
I hope you have a great rest of your day.
