Well I wouldn't say she is completely cured of the fear but she feels much better about it. I don't think that she lives her life in fear of it anymore. Ironically she got drunk for the first time this year at 25 years of age. Not that this is much of an accomplishment but considering her years of fear- it represents a huge leap in her confidence with dealing with vomiting.
Breanne, thank you for the encouragement. I will take you up on that - I may come rushing in and post all panicked one day if I ever have to confront a situation that I "don't feel ready" for!
Jhori82, I might try that meditation idea. Thank you!
Genejockey, did the vomiting episode make your wife's phobia go away completely? Or does it still make her afraid but now she just knows she can handle it?
You are on the right track, and your exposure therapy plan sounds excellent. I understand what you are saying in terms of being in an uncontrolled situation. If that were to happen, maybe you can try and incorporate that experience into your exposure therapy. You can also try to challenge your negative and anxious thoughts after the 'event' occurred.
In the meantime, keep on doing exactly what you're doing! You have a great plan, so stick to it!
Keep us posted on how you're doing, and if you do by chance happen to see someone vomit, come here and post, we are always here for you.
I am also on week five and I also had some confusion about planning exposure. I think that if something happens in your life in an uncontrolled fashion that is ok. It must help to plan exposures but obviously we can't plan the curve balls life throws at us (hey tv has obviously taught an old SA boy like me a few US expressions lol).
I went through most of my avoidance issues before I found this program. I basically just took things on the chin as they came along. I probably suffered needlessly by doing too many high anxiety things without using exposure stepping stones. But whether you call it exposure planning or just simply life, by doing the thing you fear you will eventually begin to loose your fear of it. I was skeptical at first. Driving was a big thing for me. Especially after my accident. But by just doing it day after day I began to loose my fear of it. I now find driving quite pleasant and relaxing.
My wife also suffered from emetophobia. She avoided vomiting for over 12 years until last year December when she got really ill and was forced to vomit. She felt such release afterwards when she realised that it might be unpleasant but it is not unbearable.
The only tip I can think of is through something I call Pavlov's meditation. Assuming you haven't tried meditating, I'll break it down: meditating is basically all about calming your mind and finding that calm/comfortable spot inside of you. You sit in an environment you can concentrate in, and focus your mind on what your feeling...then you "search" around until you've found a point where you feel at complete ease. Coming from a fellow Christian, consider this the same as praying. You're focusing entirely on one thing, not allowing anything else to enter your mind while in prayer.
Now when you find this point, (and it can be a task to find so it may not happen instantly), rub your pointer finger and thumb together. Do this each time you meditate and reach that point. The purpose, is to relate touching your finger and thumb as this calming feeling. Next time you face the unknown, rub the fingers together and voila, instant help at your fingertips.
I am just wondering if any of you have any tips for this type of situation!
The exposure work I am doing is for my vomiting phobia, which is my main (only?) problem as regards anxiety. I can do exposure work, certainly, and am in the middle of doing a lot of work with looking at pictures, after which I will move on to books, sounds, then videos without sound, then videos with sound. My goal is to be able to watch movies without knowing ahead of time whether or not they have a vomiting scene in them.
The problem is that vomiting is not always something that can be controlled. I just started Session 5 today, and it re-emphasized how a person shouldn't do any non-planned exposure therapy. I guess I want to ask: what happens when you are shoved into a situation that you would have put months in the future if it were up to you, like for me suddenly seeing someone vomit on the street or feeling nauseous oneself? How do you handle it?
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