Many of the visitors to this sight suffer from emetophobia (the fear of vomiting). Others suffer specifically from Norophobia (Fear and hatred of norovirus and any stomach bug. )

Here is my story.

Believe it or not, before I had children, I was not afraid of the stomach flu and never even thought about it. I didn't like to throw up but I never worried about it and it hardly ever happened. In fact, I wasn't' even a germ-a-phobe. I am quite sure that I didn't say "Wash your hands" to my husband the instant he walked in the door every single day. My happy-go-lucky lifestyle came to an end when my first son was 22 months old and got a bad case of rotavirus. My husband and I did not catch the rotavirus but my little boy was sick for a full week and had to go to the hospital to get an IV. It was terrifying, but I don't think just that experience alone would have done me in. One week later, when my son was recovering, a relative came to visit who had a stomach bug 3 days earlier. It never even occurred to me to worry that we might catch it. Alas, 2 days later my son and I were both sick with vomiting. My poor little boy had 2 terrible stomach bugs in the course of 2.5 weeks! My husband came down with the virus 2 days after we did. This time he was the one that was so sick that I had to call 911 to come get him. I couldn't even take him to the hospital because my son was still throwing up and I was sick too. So, I had 3 weeks of stomach flu at my house and 2 trips to the hospital. After that, I went a little nuts. I decided to research stomach bugs and see what I could do to minimize the number of times we had to go through that. I don't think there has been a day that has gone by since that I didn't think "I wonder if someone is going to get a stomach flu today?" 

Although, I don't like to vomit, what I am really afraid of is being too sick to take care of my children. I have a lot of will power and feel like I can summon the strength to get up and take care of my baby when I am sick with most things (sinus infections, sore throats, etc.). However, when my head is in the toilet, there is no way I can do anything else. My husband is frequently out of town and we have no family in the area. I don't feel like I have anyone to call to come help me if I was very ill. When it is a contagious illness like a stomach bug, I don't feel like I can expect a neighbor to come help out and put themselves at risk. I'm quite sure that if I lived next door to my mother, I'd never worry about anything at all. 

After a 5.5 year healthy streak, my family got a stomach bug in February 2012. It started with my 7 year old son who probably caught it at school. His illness was not too bad. He threw up 3 times directly in the toilet. I kept him quarantined from the other kids for 2 days and no one entered the bathroom he used. I even changed my clothes before I went to take care of my baby. Of course, I washed my hands a million times and cleaned. I really thought we were safe. Unfortunately, 1 week later, my 17 month old son Michael got sick. He had lots of vomiting and had diarrhea. He threw up all over me and  stuck his vomit covered fingers in my mouth so I knew there was no hope for me. Sure enough, 48 hours later, I was sick.  I was nauseated all day so I just drank water and gingerale and didn't eat anything after noon. I vomited 2 times that evening. Then I slept all night and felt fine the next day. My husband got sick 48 hours after me. Unfortunately, he had just eaten at Skyline Chile and had a big Graeters ice cream sundae for dessert. So, he had a lot of vomiting to do. Amazingly, my 4 year old daughter never got sick.

All was well for 2 more years until February 2014. This time my daughter started the ball rolling. She woke up on Saturday, Feb. 15 with a bad tummy ache. She laid in bed all day and had a low fever of 100.5 F. She would not eat anything but sipped water all day. The next day, her fever was gone. I tried to get her to drink a few sips of juice. I shouldn't have done that. She threw up a very small amount after that. She laid in bed all day Sunday. Monday, she got up and played but barely ate anything until Wednesday. Then she was fine. She never had any diarrhea. Since she had been quarantined to her room and only threw up once into a lined trash can, I thought surely no one else would catch it. I was wrong. I made a critical mistake. I left the new toothbrush that I'd used to brush Katie's teeth on Monday morning sitting on the bathroom counter. Michael (age 3.5) climbed up and brushed his teeth with it. Sure enough, Michael woke up that Thursday night/Friday morning (Feb. 21) and threw up 10 times in 5 hours. He threw up again almost 24 hours later on Saturday morning. He threw up again on Tuesday evening (Feb. 25). He also had diarrhea for 6 days. He didn't eat normally for about 1.5 weeks. Once little Michael was waking around the house with germs flying in every direction, there was no hope for the rest of us. Jon (age 9) came down with it on Wednesday evening (Feb. 26). He threw up and had diarrhea almost constantly for 1 hour. He was in terrible pain but the pain was gone as soon as his little body was empty. He was very brave. When he stopped throwing up, I gave him a Zofran and he was okay after that. He still didn't eat normally for about 5 days. Was it over? Nope, the following Tuesday (March 4), my husband got sick. He only threw up 1 time but had diarrhea every 30 minutes for about 24 hours. I had been praying to God to keep me healthy to take care of my children. I asked HIM that if I get sick, please let it be at a convenient time when no one else needed me. Amazingly, I never got sick. There were 3 days that I had a stomach ache and I didn't eat much those days. It could have just been from exhaustion after being up all night with sick kids so many times. It could have been from anxiety. I like to think that I had the virus but just didn't get very sick. It would be nice to think that our bodies can build up some good immunity to them. Even though I wore 1000 pairs of gloves and a face mask when Jon was projectile vomiting, I find it hard to believe that I didn't ingest any viruses. I slept with Michael in his twin bed for a week when he was sick. I did all of the clean up and did all of the taking care of sick people. This stomach bug took up 3 weeks of our lives! And then I wouldn't let any friends in the house for another 2 weeks after that. I was calm the entire time, though. I did not freak out. I did not panic. I did what needed to be done. 

The next stomach bug hit in February 2018. My son Michael woke up at 3am crying that his tummy hurt. Soon the vomiting started. The poor boy threw up about 20 times in 12 hours. Finally, I gave him a tiny bit of a dissolvable Zofran and he was finally able to sip an electrolyte drink and keep it down. Without that Zofran, I think I'd have taken him to the hospital for an IV. Amazingly, no one else caught this sickness. However, I kept him quarantined to his room, wore 1000 pairs of gloves and a face mask. Here is a video I made showing the essential protective gear that I used and how I handled the vomit in a way to keep it as contained as possible. Dr. Annie's Stomach Bug Survival Kit Essentials. 

To be completely honest, I think having these last 3 stomach bugs helped ease my fears because NO ONE had to go the the hospital. No one got THAT sick. I thought that every time a stomach bug came into MY house, someone would be near death. It has helped me to know that it is possible to have a stomach bug run through the house where no one is needs an IV.  Also, when I was sick in February 2012, the actual vomiting wasn't quite as bad as I expected. In fact, the hours that I spent struggling with intense nausea were MUCH WORSE than the actual vomiting. I felt so much better after I vomited that I wished I didn't wait so long. I should have vomited sooner.  I also learned a few tricks that I think make vomiting easier. 

My tips to make vomiting easier.

1. Take a deep breath before you vomit. One of the reasons that I think vomiting is so scary is because you can't breath while you vomit. Any activity in which you can't breath is pretty terrifying (choking, drowning, etc.) I found that if I took a really deep breath before I started and also tried to get a breath in between heaves, the vomiting was more bearable.

2. Try to extend each vomiting session by giving one last heave. Don't cut the vomiting session short. Get it all out and you might not have to vomit again. 

3. Get it over with. The hours I spent struggling with intense nausea were much worse than the actual vomiting. If you feel you are sick and that your body needs to vomit. Take a deep breath and go for it.  

My tips to help you stop worrying about the stomach flu.

1.Talk to your doctor about getting a prescription of an anti-vomiting medication such as phenergan or Zophran to keep at home and take in case of emergency. I feel like I can handle an illness where I vomit 2 or 3 times. But I do NOT want one of those illnesses where you vomit 20 times and can't stop vomiting.  Having one of these medications on hand might help you stop worrying because you know you would never have to get THAT sick. I think if all cases of viral gastroenteritis only resulted in vomiting a few times, most of us wouldn't have gone crazy. I just got myself a prescription of Zophran. I haven't tried it yet. I hope I never need to but it is nice to have. 

2. Have a plan of what you will do if you get sick. Keep Pedialyte , apple juice, or gingerale and saltine crackers at home. Have a rubberband in the bathroom to tie your hair back. Figure out who you would call if you get really sick and need help. If you are a young person living at home with your parents, you are the luckiest. You have someone to take care of you if you get sick. If you live alone, you are pretty lucky too. You can at least be sick in peace and just take care of yourself. If you are a husband and father, you are pretty lucky. Most likely your wife will take care of you and the children and let you rest. If you are a wife and mother, HOPEFULLY your husband will take care of the children and let you just take care of yourself for once. If you are a single mom or single dad with young children, you probably have it the hardest. You are the one who needs a friend or family member to call to come over if you get really sick and can't take care of the kids.

3. Remember that vomiting is part of life. Accept that it is going to happen once in a while and it won't be that bad. Once in a while your body needs to vomit to get rid of something bad. My 17 month old son recently ate some shampoo in the bath tub and vomited it right up. No big deal. Humans are actually lucky that we can vomit. Horses can't vomit. When they get an intestinal illness, they often die. In fact, one viewer who wrote to me told me that she developed of fear of NOT VOMITING. Her fascinating story is in the comments below. 

4. Keep it in perspective. Be glad you don't have cancer or some deadly illness like that brain eating amoeba. No matter what your situation, be thankful that it isn't worse. I got an e-mail from a woman who has Crohn's disease and esophogitis. When she gets a stomach bug, she vomits blood and has bloody diarrhea. Be very glad if that is not you. A friend of mine died of breast cancer in September 2012 leaving a 1.5 year old baby and a 5 year old with no mommy.  A friend's 5 year old son died by getting run over by a drunk driver while he rode is scooter on the neighborhood sidewalk in April 2014. Nothing is worse than your child dying. It is all heartbreaking. I am praying that the stomach flu is the worst thing to ever happen to my family. The next time one of my kids comes down with a stomach bug, I'm going to be thankful that they are alive to catch the stomach flu and that I am alive to take care of them....and alive to catch it from them. 

All occasions where you might come down with a stomach bug are NOT equally horrible.

Most of the time, we emetophobes treat every situation where me might come down with a stomach bug as equally horrible and we freak out equally. This is not the case, though. Think logically about it. There is not "good" time to come down with a stomach bug, but there are WORSE times. Here is a list of the WORST times to come down with the stomach flu. 

1. Your wedding day.

2. Your Disney World Vacation (or other once in a lifetime vacation).

3. When you have the lead in a show/play/musical and don't have an understudy.

4. On a long airplane ride

5. On a long car ride

6. When you are in labor with a baby.

There are probably some other WORST times that I have missed. If you would like to suggest some other worst times for me to include on my list, e-mail them to me. When you think about it this way, having a stomach bug run through your family over Christmas break (when you are home and not traveling) is NOT the worst time. Having your child get a stomach bug and miss 3 exams and 2 basketball games is NOT the worst time. Try to dial down the WORRY about catching a stomach bug to fit the occasion. For example, if a kid throws up in your child's class, don't panic as much about it as you would if it is within a week of your Disney World vacation. If you get sick and it is not your wedding day or the day of your big vacation and you are home and your washing machine is not broken, do not freak out as if you are on a transatlantic flight with a newborn to take care of. Try to save the major worry for major events. Canceling your travel plans for Christmas is not the worst thing. 

I have heard some TERRIBLE stomach flu stories. Kids sick on long 15 hour car rides, women sick with the stomach flu during labor, exhausted parents (up all night taking care of vomiting kids) who fall down the steps with their baby and breaking that babies leg, disabled veterans who nearly die from a stomach bug. If your situation is not as terrible as these, try to keep it in perspective and be thankful that your situation isn't worse. 

Know that you are not alone in your fear. If you would like to connect with a group of very supportive and understanding people who all feel the same way as you, please join the Stop the Stomach Flu facebook group. It is a SECRET group so you need to e-mail me and I'll send you an invitation. phd.annie at gmail.com. 

If you have ever suffered from emetophobia and feel you have made progress in overcoming it, please send me your story. My e-mail is phd.annie at gmail.com. Please remember that I am not a medical doctor and nothing I write is intended to be medical advice. I have viewer stories posted at the bottom of this page.

                                                                                                                                                               -Annie Pryor, Ph.D 

VIEWER STORIES

My tips to stop worrying in bed at night.

I learned a long time ago not to use your bed as a worry spot. I used to have severe anxiety and cluster headaches about 25 years ago and doing a lot of research taught me that if I started worrying over some thing to go to a place in my house that I don't normally sit and use that as my worry spot, take a sheet of paper and force myself to write down what I was worrying about and try to make myself think of nothing but what I was worrying about. Eventually, your mind will try to wander off to other topics because you are trying to make yourself worry. It's a paradox. It did help me stop worrying when I was in bed.

--Susan

I cured myself!

My children helped me overcome my fear.

I have no idea what caused my fear of vomiting, but I recall clearly when it happened. I was 11 years old, living with my dad and his second wife. They were at a party - and out of nowhere - I had a panicky fear that I was going to “throw up” and I was inconsolable. My older sis called my father home from a party. He sat next to me on my bed and slowly got me to relax all my muscles until I fell asleep. The next morning, his wife railed on me for ruining their night and cautioned me to “never do that again.” My fate was sealed and it continued to haunt me for years.

I moved back in with my mother who would check my forehead each night for a fever. If I were “normal” she would promise me I wouldn’t vomit and I could sleep easy. When I finally did throw up at the age of 17, it did very little to cure my phobia, but it became manageable.

It was only after my children were born that I truly got over the unrealistic fear. Why? Kids puke – and they puke often. My fears seemed unimportant while my sons were suffering and I would hold their heads while they vomited and simply got used to it. Much later on, my grandmother was recovering from angioplasty and when she became sick from the procedure, I held the tray while she vomited.

By then it became all too clear to me that sometimes your own pain and anxiety has to take a backseat to the needs of others.

I still hate vomiting, but I really don’t think about it…until I’m sick. Then I simply deal with it…minus the terror.

Mari

FEAR of NOT VOMITING!

I have suffered severe migraine headache since I was 23 years old. As I write this, I'm 58. That's 35 years... wow.

When I am in a migraine, I have frequent emesis. It's a terrible thing to have a hot poker slamming into your skull behind your eye with EVERY heart beat, AND vomiting. Just horrible. The whole business lasts 72 hours - sometimes longer.

About 10 years ago, I had surgery to cure chronic gastric reflux. I had tried all the meds, elevated the head of the bed (very annoying), changed my diet - did EVERYTHING to treat the reflux to no avail. I needed surgery.

The surgery was FANTASTIC. Although I awoke with my hospital roommate playing loud rap music and her mother in a veritable CLOUD of paint-dissolving perfume. I immediately was struck with a migraine. Perfumes should NEVER be worn in hospital. Ever. So here I was, imminently emmetic with an n.g. tube in place! I looked at my husband and said, "I have a headache. I'm going to vomit." He ran from the room.

I heard him in the hallway telling the nursing staff that I was going to start vomiting right after stomach surgery WITH an n.g. tube and they needed to get me out of that room ASAP. He was told they didn't have any rooms, I hear him say "I don't care if it's a broom closet, unless you want someone who JUST came out of stomach surgery and has an n.g. tube in her to start vomiting, you have to get her out NOW. Once it starts, you won't be able to stop it."

They found an empty room for me - it was a room where cancer patients take their chemo. Blissfully quiet, peaceful, dark, and NO SMELLS. They injected me with Immitrex and gave me what they could for the nausea. I consider it just about a miracle that I didn't vomit. I was extremely close. (The next time I had surgery, I took Immitrex prophylactically just before the surgery.)

After the surgery, I had NO reflux. It was amazing! But I had a new problem... I was now unable to empty my stomach. Sure enough, working in a facility with residential schizophrenic patients, I contracted a nasty g.i. bug. I learned to APPRECIATE the ability to vomit. I spent HOURS unproductively heaving - over and over and over. It was exhausting. I knew I could go to E.R. and get my stomach pumped but I really didn't want to do that. The brain controls vomiting - specifically the area postrema (on the medulla in the brain stem). Once you've engaged in that activity - the strong contractions of the diaphragm - you feel relief, even if you DIDN'T empty the stomach! I was so surprised to realize this.

So I would heave a few times over the toilet with NOTHING expelled, and feel that blissful relief from having vomited. BUT - as I wasn't emptying anything, this went on and on and on. The relief would last for about 20 minutes - sometimes a bit longer - and I was back at it. It was so terrible. So I developed a sort of phobia related to NOT vomiting! 

After that, I became a raving lunatic about food safety. I absolutely WILL NOT eat at a potluck - anywhere. I don't care how nice the people are! Working in psych with gravely mentally ill people, I was tackling the doorknobs with alcohol wipes... a LOT. And the computer keyboards and telephones and arm chairs and desk tops... and I bought big boxes of pens; every time a patient had to sign paperwork, I gave them the pen. They thought I was being nice!

I was very gratified when, a year or so later, a horrid g.i. virus swept through the facility. EVERYONE got sick... except for ME. 

Now I am able to productively vomit and I sure don't like it. But it sure beats NOT being able to empty that stomach!

--Alice

I Had Emetophobia Until Morning Sickness. 

For as long as I can remember, I have been deathly afraid of throwing up. I have a weak stomach and have a history of hyperventilating and fainting. I was also scared of doctor's offices, especially the waiting room, hospitals, excused from science classes (never dissected anything). The biggest joke in my family was that I would grow-up to become a doctor or nurse. I didn't even drink in college until my senior year because I was so scared of getting sick and hung over. My college roommate would have to check the bathrooms on party nights and weekend to make sure no one was getting sick before I would quickly race in and out. I could go on and on about this forever. I remembered I had also tried hypnosis during high school to get over my emetophobia (but it was unsuccessful).

I blame my phobia to being bused to school in nursery school. There was a little boy would would get sick into a brown paper Acme bag everyday on the ride home. Turns out, he had pneumonia but his parents kept sending him to school. Well, i refused to take the bus and my dad had to rearrange his schedule (salesman on the road) to chauffer me to/from preschool daily. 

Everyone would ask me, What are you goign to do when you have kids? Well turns out, it was morning sickness during pregnancy with my son in 2009 that cured me. I even blogged about tossing my cookies on Park Ave South on my way to work. 

http://babyi.baveo.com/2009/05/21/tossed-my-cookies-on-park-avenue/2110 

Lainie 

Making Progress

I'm 24 years old and have been a emetaphobe since I was 8.  I can remember two occasions at school in which a friend vomited (once in morning chapel and once in class), after that my fear started to grow.  However, my fear spun out of control in college, where I was at my worst and even contemplated that dying would be better than vomiting.  I saw a wonderful psychiatrist, who told me I wasn't only suffering from a phobia, but it was now an obsession.  Even though being able to tell someone (who wouldn't judge me or tell me I'm crazy) was good for me, the therapy never really helped.  I think it made it even worse.

College from stressful times (being in nursing school, of ALL majors I could chose).  I believe when I am stressed, I put all my energy into my phobia.  I remember not being able to drive more than 5 minutes in my own car with out having a panic attack.  I'd convince myself I didn't feel well and then would almost get in a car wreck thinking about the possibility of vomiting.  I'd pull over on the side of the road and have to call my Mom or Dad and have them calm me down.  I remember one night I saw a friend (who had been sick that past night) at another friend's birthday dinner.  She had stopped by just to say hi and bring her present (really?? And give us your germs?? I don't get some people).  I tried to leave before she could hug me, but to no avail.  I went straight home, removed all my clothes, showered for 30 minutes, and still panicked for the next week.  I was miserable, I knew my obsessions were ridiculous, and I knew this phobia was ruling my life.

Unfortunately, I still struggle with my fear.  However, over the years I have found ways to fight it that don't interfere with my daily life.  I will add that I have not vomited since I was 6 (before my fear even began!) so it's absolutely, downright silly to think I made myself crazy for SO many years for nothing!  I also believe I do talk myself out of vomiting quite well, as I was ill in August (food poisoning from Mexican food, I'm sure) and even though vomiting would have probably been the best bet to feeling better, I held it in and felt like crap for 3 days (which to me is success, go figure).  

-I have a high quality, expensive probiotic (VSL#3).  It comes in powder form and has one of the highest amounts of bacteria on the market.  Being $3 a packet, I don't take them everyday anymore, but I try to take one at least once a week.  If I come in contact with stomach flu, I take 3 per day.  My fiance (we live together) came down with the stomach flu last year.  I took 3 packets a day with lassi (an Indian fermented yogurt).  I didn't eat anything else for 2 days and did not come down with the bug.  I did NOT sanitize the house properly (now I know from your site) and I slept next to him.

-I try to eat lots of fermented foods, which are great for the gut.  This includes kefir, kombucha, and I've been eating kimchi lately, too.  G.T.'s kombucha can be found at Vons and is suppose to be a wonder food!  I recommend it.

-I have a plan of attack in place!  My current fear is myself vomiting, I actually have cured myself of the fear of others vomiting.  I did this working as a nurse!  I work in postpartum, and often my post-op c-section patients vomit.  I started working 2 years ago, and I was ALWAYS worrying I would have a patient vomit.  In fact, the first time it happened, I ran out of the room!!  How embarrassing!  The next time I stayed with my patient (she was alone), even though my heart was racing.  Now I can hold my patient's pink puke bucket with out having my vital signs change even a little, I am so proud of myself!  Anyway, my plan = I keep over the counter dramamine on my at ALL times.  I am NEVER with out it.  If I'm feeling weird/nauseous, I take one.  If an hour later I still don't feel well, I will either take one more or take something stronger at home (we currently have zofran and phenergan in our medicine cabinet).  I then go to sleep.  So far this has worked pretty good.  When I avoided vomiting from food poisoning, I took both dramamine and zofran and sucked on peppermints.  I wouldn't recommend this (obviously) for everyone, since vomiting is sometimes necessary, but for those like myself that will give themselves a heart attack if they vomit, this works pretty well.

-I strongly believe in getting enough exercise (both strength training and cardio) and sleep!  As well as lots of fruits and vegetables in the diet.

--Morganne