Hey! Just wanted to let everyone know what I am doing and hopefully provide some sort of help to others who suffer from this horrible phobia. It is honestly the worst thing I have ever experienced in my life, but I'm little by little getting less scared. I just started the program about 5 days ago and already feel a little better. I have been working non stop on changing my thinking and how I react when I get anxious about vomiting and when I eat. I also downloaded the emetophobia eraser program which was a suggestion on this site as well. I think it is helpful so far in that it focuses on this particular phobia and helps you become more aware of why it is happening and what happens to your body and mind as you panic or get anxious about it. There are also some helpful tools and things you can do to train your mind to calm down or change your way of thinking about throwing up.
So along with these two programs I also have an appointment set up with a hypnotherapist this Friday. It is hard for me to leave my house so I was able to find a wonderful hypnotherapist over the internet who will actually do sessions with me over the phone. You know I have read people say hypnotherpay didn't work for them and I am sure over the phone sessions sound ridiculous, but to me it is wonderful and extremely convenient. I can be in the comfort of my own home and try something new that might help me in this area. And if it doesn't oh well, I tried something! The lady I will be working with is wonderful, the first session will be 2 hours, where she will talk to me for over an hour specifically about my problem and what I would like help on, then she will do the hypnosis. I am very excited to see if it will do anything. I have 4 appointments set up with her and I will let everyone know the results or I can provide anyone else with her information if they would like to check our her website. I read that hypnotherapy can be very helpful with phobias, especially when combined with CBT therpay. And the more sessions you do the higher the success rate.
I think what has made me feel even just a little better in the past few days is the fact that I am really driven to get over this and am trying to be as positive as much as I can. Being allowed to converse with others like me in this forum and writing in my journal a lot has helped me so much as well. I am no where near cured and I still get extremely panicky and anxious all day long, but it isn't as severe every minute throughout the day as it was a week ago. Knowing that I can get help and that I can get over this is real encouragement.
Jennifer
For Emetophobics
-
Guest
It seems as though you and I are getting almost as much help as we can handle =P. That is great you are seeing a private therapist as well, I was about 6 years ago, and I actually felt better just talking to someone for an hour about my anxiety. Just talking about it and having someone listen who won't judge you or think you're weird is a great feeling. But I just can't afford that right now, I wish I could, but the psychologist in town here that deals with these issues is over 200 dollars an hour! EEK! But if need be hopefully I will be able to do that sometime early next year. Good luck with everything, keep me updated on your progress and how you're doing.
Jennifer
Jennifer