Davit,
Yeah I guess it does. I've heard of others with emetophobia who won't take any medication with nausea as a possible side effect, which would be pretty much all of them. It does scare me, but I'll take them anyway, like my Zoloft. Did you know that emetophobia is the 5th most common phobia? There's even a support group forum, but they don't have a treatment plan like this site.
It's normal though, to avoid the foods that cause heartburn. I tend to get indigestion a lot, especially if I eat too quickly, but I manage it by drinking more water. Sometimes it hurts, and my anxiety levels go through the roof, but mostly it's okay. That's interesting that having your spleen removed would have that effect.
Usually I only vomit once every 3 years or so. But in the past couple of years, it's been on 8 different occasions, which didn't help my anxiety at all. The worst was 5 days after I was discharged from hospital last year. I got a vomiting virus from my younger cousins and spent almost the entire night being sick. Just after we'd finished eating dinner, I started to feel nauseous and my stomach hurt so badly. Mum told me to go for my shower, and when I got out I started freaking out. She kept asking if I was okay and I just wanted to get out of there so I went into my bedroom. No sooner had I sat on my bed, the retching started and my whole floor was covered in pretty much my entire undigested stomach contents. Not nice. I went to sleep but woke up a few hours later and started again. Then my psychologist had the hide to get up me for losing weight saying that "even bulimics can vomit and not lose weight, you just haven't been trying hard enough." She also later said that I did have bulimia, which of course I do not.
I'm thinking that it might help. Obviously, no one would volunteer to vomit continuously for however long it takes for my fear level to decrease. It's not meant to be a pleasant experience, but it is something everyone has to do. That's why watching videos and listening to audios are the way to go. I'd love to someday be able to not worry about vomiting at all unless I'm in that situation. I'm sure people who are afraid of spiders or snakes don't spend every moment worrying there may be a spider around the corner.
There is someone in Brisbane who did his PhD in the treatment of emetophobia through Griffith University (my dream uni). I missed the trial of his online treatment program since I only heard about it after it'd finished, but he's since commercialised it (it costs over $200). He did say in an email however, he would be happy to bulk bill me if I see him in his practice about an hour and half's drive away. At the time, my agoraphobia was quite bad, but now I'm improving in that sense, I might be able to. There's also another program which is slightly cheaper (google "Emetophobia Recovery System"). I'm interested in a second opinion on that program, it sounds great, but what do you think?
Thank you.
Kaitie.