Is Your Child an Emetophobe

have suffered from emetophobia for as long as I can remember. Emetophobia is the fear of vomit and vomiting. It is the fifth most common phobia in the world, but most people have never heard of emetophobia.

Emetophobia in children is a lot more common then you would think. Yes we hear about the child who is afraid of spider or afraid of flying, but no one ever talks about children being afraid to throw-up. In reviewing behaviors of my own journey with emetophobia I thought it was important to bring up some behaviors that I myself exhibited as a child that were taken for general anxiety or eccentric behavior, but really were the beginning signs of emetophobia.

When I was a child, if someone threw up, or ran to the bathroom to throw up in my classroom a panic attack began. I would tell the teacher that I too was sick in an effort to be sent home from school and thus avoid the germs. I was afraid that I would get sick by being in the same room the sick child was in, or that another child would also come down with the same stomach bug and get sick that day. If your child is being sent home from school because they are sick on a fairly regular basis talk to them and find out if someone else in the class had been sick.

I was also afraid of the door being closed in classrooms. I was worried that a child would become ill, and not be able to make it to the bathroom in time because the door was closed. I was afraid they would throw up then and there, thus causing a panic attack. If one of my brothers or sisters was ill I would not sleep in the same room as them. I was afraid they would get sick in the middle of the night. I was afraid by being in the same room as them I would throw up.

I was also afraid to drive in cars for long periods of time. I was afraid someone in the car would be carsick. My parents actually let me ride in the very back of our station-wagon. They did not know it was because I was afraid that if I was sitting next to one of my siblings that they might throw up on me. I hated being in cars because if someone did get sick I could not jump out of the car. There was absolutely no escape.

If my parents asked me to take care of a sick sibling, well forget about it. I would find an empty room, lock myself in it, and have a panic attack. I would cry for hours, feel like I couldn't breathe, and then once I started to calm down I would start to panic again that I was going to get sick myself. It is a vicious cycle.

I hope that learning some of the behaviors of a child with emetophobia might exhibit will help in determining whether or not your child suffers from emetophobia.