The Relationship Between Emetophobia and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

It is a simple question of which came first, the OCD or the Emetophobia. I know looking at my own life, the first time I had a panic attack from Emetophobia I was nine years old. The first time I realized I had Obsessive Compulsive Disorder I was nineteen.

With this article I am going to examine whether it is possible to have Emetophobia or more commonly known as the fear of vomiting without having OCD.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is defined by wikipedia as, "a psychiatricdisorder most commonly characterized by a subject's obsessive, distressing, intrusive thoughts and related compulsions (tasks or "rituals") which attempt to neutralize the obsessions. Thus it is an anxiety disorder. It is listed by the World Health Organization as one of the top twenty most disabling illnesses in terms of lost income and diminished quality of life. "

According to the OCD Foundation, " In the United States, 1 in 50 adults have OCD, and twice that many have had it at some point in their lives."

Everyone seems to have a friend or neighbor with obsessive compulsive disorder. OCD is not something to be ashamed of. Celebrities have it, and have no qualms about talking about their bizarre ritualistic behaviors.

A recent interview Cameron Diaz has her discussing her bout with the disorder. Her OCD centers around a fear of doorknobs. She has no fear of letting the world know that, not only does she open doors with her elbows to avoid touching germ-infested knobs - doorknobs, that is - she also admits to scrubbing her Hollywood home scrupulously and washing her hands 'many times' each day.

Another famous celebrity wiyth OCD is Howie Mandel. We hear about Howie Mandel and his germ phobia and we just think it is a cute quirk. Now if he went on the record and said he was also afraid to vomit, that would seem a little odd, excentric and outside of the box.

Not that having Emetophobia is rare, but it is not something people talk about. If someone came up to you and said they were afraid of vomiting, you might think they just weren't right in the head.

Emetophobia is defined by Wikipedia as, "is the fear of vomiting, being around others who are vomiting, and/or the vomit itself."

People with emetophobia go to great lengths to avoid vomiting. Part of this is the development of rituals such as frequent hand washing. Does having these bizarre rituals sound familiar? Say maybe like someone who has OCD?

Emetophobes do in fact have OCD tendencies. Let's take a look at the two main components of OCD: obsessions and compulsions. People with emetophobia partake in obsessive thoughts about vomiting. These obsessive thoughts can even at times panic attacks. People with emetophobia also have a lot of compulsions, or rituals, based on the belief that if they do certain rituals such as handwashing every half hour they will not get sick.

Lets take a closer look at these obsessions. People with OCD constantly obsess about certain things. An emetophobe is constantly obsessing about vomiting. I would obsess about the health of everyone around me. I would look to see if my friends looked pale, obsess about how much they drank, because if they drank to much, well they would surely get sick. These obsession consumed me.

Now let's take a closer look at rituals. Many people with emetophobia have rituals that they do everyday. They fear that if they do not perform these rituals then they will get sick. I will take an example of this ritualistic behavior from my own life. At the height of my illness I would not eat certain foods, unless someone else ate them before me. My reasoning, everything was going to give me food poisoning. A lot of times when I thought I had food poisoning it was all in my head, therefore if someone else ate it, and never got sick I would not get sick. Believe me I could go on about all of the insane rituals I had.

In conclusion people with emetophobia do also suffer from OCD. Part of having emetophobia are the obsessive thoughts and behavior. There is no denying this. Emetophobia and OCD are not the same thing, but it is impossible to have emetophobia without exhibiting and OCD symptoms.