The Fear of Being Sick and How to Overcome It
What causes the fear of being sick?
The fear of being sick, at it’s most basic, may be caused by a variety of deeper phobias.
It is often confused with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) due to the frequent belief that those suffering from OCD wash their hands repeatedly due to a fear of being sick or illness. Of course, this can certainly be true, obsessive cleansing is typically performed as a means of ritualistic compulsive behavior more than a actual fear of being sick.
The fear of being sick can also be caused by hypochondria, where the person truly fears the sickness itself, real or imagined.
However, what is frequently unknown, is that the fear of being sicks is often a slightly hidden form of emetophobia, which is a common phobia and is the fear of actually throwing up, or of being around vomit.
When this is the case, the fear of being sicks most appropriate treatment course is actually the treatment of the emetophobia itself.
It has been estimated that emetophobia is among the common fears and phobias, possibly as high as the top five, but despite it’s frequency, it’s often mistreated, even by professionals.
A phobia such as the fear of being sick is different from other rational fears a person may typically have and that are justified in that the phobic goes to great trouble and sacrifices many otherwise enjoyable activities not to be put in a circumstance that they imagine could cause sickness. The phobic may modify their behavior in many ways for the sake of the fear, including:
- Forgoing eating in public, even of in the presence family or friends
- Avoiding eating particular foods they deem “unsafe” for fear they may cause stomach upset or illness , such as spicy foods, poultry, sushi, or dairy.
- Being obsessive about contracting germs or illness, even when the risk is actually low.
- Repetitive thinking about coming in contact with germs throughout normal daily activities.
- Avoiding people that may harbor illness, such as children or health care employees.
Although vomiting is the greatest fear for many with an illness phobia, they’ve been shown to vomit dramatically LESS than the general public!
How do you treat the fear of being sick?
It used to be thought that the fear of being sick and emetophobia was a condition that didn’t respond positively to treatment, but fortunately, that is no longer believed to be the case by those we know with experience in the condition.
A variety of options are available for treating the fear of being sick, including high quality self help programs that can be had for a extremely low cost, as little as $100, which is almost always less expensive than a single visit to a reputable therapists.
Therapists who do not specialize in treating these particular fears sometimes wrongly advise inducing vomiting, in the hopes of desensitization from the fear. We DON’T recommend this approach. Although desensitization is a good method that can be used with good results with other types of phobias, we have seen little evidence to suggest this desensitization method works well with emetophobia, in fact, what we have found is that it can even worsen the fear for many making recovery more difficult!
Our treatment recommendations
The resource we suggest for the fear of being sick with underlying emetophobia is the Emetophobia Recovery System. It does NOT recommend forcing vomiting as a means of desensitization, but instead focuses on both traditional and breakthrough techniques for conquering the fear. It has been in use for a long time, and has a very good reputation, and even offers a 100% satisfaction guarantee. If you decide to order, we will be compensated, but we believe it’s truly the best program for emetophobia available and should be on the bookshelf of ANYONE suffering with emetophobia.
Although the fear of being sick up can be an extremely challenging phobia to endure, we’re fortunate to have high quality treatment options to use during the path of recovery. Your fear doesn’t have to be a condition you live with or accommodate, it can be successfully overcome. If you desire to end your fear of being sick, it is not too late to take back control and start in the road to recovery.
Continue Reading About The Emetophobia Recovery System
