emetophobia and pregnancy

[la mamita]

emetophobia= fear of throwing up

has anyone else struggled with this?

i'm pregnant, almost 6 weeks, and starting to feel nauseous. i have had one full term pregnancy with mild nausea, one 9 week m/c with about 3-4 weeks of nausea and hunger, and one chemical pregnancy with like a day of nausea. this pregnancy is the first cycle after my 9 week m/c, and the m/c was conceived a week after getting over a 6 week bout with stomach parasites (lots of nausea). so essentially i feel like i have felt sick to my stomach since early june and i am SICK OF IT.

i used to suffer from pretty bad panic attacks, anxiety and agoraphobia due to my emetophobia, and have done rounds of therapy and some meds (celexa) which have helped relieve things. the panic attacks have not been bothering me recently, just a much more real sense of dread because i feel nauseous all the time now.

recently things have been a little better, except right now i am starting to feel out of control again--i want this pregnancy, i want this baby, but i would do anything to make these feelings go away and i am TERRIFIED that i will feel sick enough to throw up. this is my "rainbow baby" and i should be enjoying it, not regretting being pregnant. as you can tell, pregnancy hormones may have me a little dramatic....

therapy is not an option (no therapists trained in this kind of thing here in peru, plus i can't afford it), anxiety meds aren't either (i tried starting celexa again a few months ago and it made me nauseous...), my mom is sending me some vit b6, unisom and milk thistle in a few days to help alleviate the nausea, i am counting down the hours until that package arrives!

i don't want to read any of the DDC threads, because so many of them discuss throwing up in great detail and i feel like there is some kind of competition to discuss who has the worst morning sickness. gross. and i'm kind of apprehensive at the idea of having another kid around, because it totally multiplies the number of germs i will be exposed with and the number of times i will have to take care of kids sick with the stomach flu.

i swear i am much more normal than i sound.

[babymango]

Im so sorry you are going through this. My friend was in the same situation. She had has emetophobia since she was a little kid, combined with some elements of eating disorders. She has been pregnant 3 times so far, each of those pregnancies were major challenges. Between the fear of gaining weight and of throwing up, she ended up losing a lot of weight in T1 and early T2. She wasn't able to take any medication because swallowing a pill made her gag, so no B6 or Unisom for her, no Celexa either. In her third pregancy, she found a therapist trained in eating disorders that was able to help her. She also found a nice support network from a website for people emetophobia (I don't know which one, I'll ask her for you. It might have been in french though)
Im sorry I dont have anything more positive or constructive for you, but i didnt want to read and not respond...

[Redheadnurse]

Emetophobia

I have it, too! Ironically, I'm a nurse so I do have to deal with vomiting sometimes--but I absolutely cannot deal with it in myself and i NEVER throw up when I'm sick, even when I'm horribly nauseous. I had terrible nausea in the first and early second trimesters. I used B-6, SeaBands and ultimately Zofran to help control the nausea. The Zofran worked well but gave me terrible stomach cramps, so I couldn't use it every day. I had some really bad days, but eventually the nausea went away and I felt so much better. I just had to do a lot of self-talk and remind myself that I would get through it and that there was a big reward at the end. But there were definitely days when I regretted being pregnant.
Something I didn't try was benadryl. I think benadryl is class B for pregnancy, which means it's pretty safe--safer than the anti-anxiety meds like ativan or klonopin. It works for post-op nausea and also has some anti-anxiety effects (mostly b/c it's sedating), so maybe it would work for morning sickness?

I'm now full-term and freaking out about labor...a lot of the stories that I read talk about women getting sick during transition. I hope that doesn't happen to me.

[yentroc]

(((hugs)))

I went through this with pregnancy as well. It's so hard. I must say once the nausea passed I was able to enjoy my pregnancies more.

And I'm happy to say that even with what I'd consider severe nausea (with my second pg especially), I didn't get nauseous during delivery.

Good luck, hang in there.

[Strong Mama]

REdheadnurse, you wont puke during transition. I never did. I am a trained not to vomit emet too. I never throw up, unless I let myself(rare!!!!!!!!!!!).
Dont worry. I am worried about my birth too, but for other reasons. Since I am having twins, I am worried about c section. Not the surgery itself, but the drugs they are going to give me for pain, I get sick off narcotics.

I took benadryl during my pregnancy, didnt really work alone, but with zofran together it worked well. I am 6 months and the nausea is gone for the most part. I do have it sometimes, but not often.

[loonar]

I'm not sure I would call it a full-on phobia, but I had a very strong fear of vomiting going into this pregnancy. And I did end up getting very sick. Zofran helped tremendously. Another thing that helped those times I realized I was not going to be able to avoid it was drinking a bunch of water right before throwing up. It made the experience a lot less horrifying, to the point where my fear has actually lessened for the first time in my life.

[la mamita]

thank you everyone. i read through these replies but had to take a day or two to digest everything and be able to come back to the discussion.

i just today found out that my mom did not send me that package of vitamin b6/unisom/milk thistle as planned, and she might not end up doing it at all. (long story) when i found out that she didn't send the package, i completely broke down. if i had access to an abortion, i would be seriously considering it because i don't know how i will get through the next 6 weeks. i do have another friend in the US who can send me the stuff in a package, but it was just a huge disappointment, i'd been counting down the days and holding onto that as my saving thought.

i am not throwing up, but the thought of having to fight off that feeling constantly for such a long period of time, after having felt sick already for so long...ahh!! i am currently taking dramamine, which is the only thing the pharmacy here offers for pregnancy nausea. i need to travel to the city nearby to see if i can get my hands on some Benadryl too.

redheadnurse: i didn't get sick during transition. i felt nauseous for about 5 seconds but that was it.

i need to find a way to make myself be stronger mentally and just get through each day. i think finding something to ease these symptoms will help my mental health a lot....

[yentroc]

Yes I agree if you can find something to ease your symptoms a little, your anxiety will decrease.

Hopefully it will pass soon. Do you know anyone that has a newborn? Maybe being around a baby will help to focus your mind on your new baby?

When I was having anxiety this past pregnancy, I started an anxiety workbook that focused on Mindfulness Meditation. It helped tremendously. My anxiety wasn't only due to the emetophobia, but it may help you as well.

Hugs, this is hard, but it WILL pass...

[Learning_Mum]

Originally Posted by Strong Mama

REdheadnurse, you wont puke during transition. I never did. I am a trained not to vomit emet too. I never throw up, unless I let myself(rare!!!!!!!!!!!).
Dont worry. I am worried about my birth too, but for other reasons. Since I am having twins, I am worried about c section. Not the surgery itself, but the drugs they are going to give me for pain, I get sick off narcotics.

I took benadryl during my pregnancy, didnt really work alone, but with zofran together it worked well. I am 6 months and the nausea is gone for the most part. I do have it sometimes, but not often.

Just wanted to say that if you tell them they can give you something before the surgery that will stop you feeling sick. I had it with my c-sections and never felt nauseous at all afterwards.

[Hethir09]

OH, MY GOSH!!!!!!! I have that,too! I've never heard of it being an actual 'phobia' but I have that! Sorry I don't have much in the way of advice, I'm just excited that I'm not weird!! :-)

Originally Posted by la mamita

emetophobia= fear of throwing up

has anyone else struggled with this?

i'm pregnant, almost 6 weeks, and starting to feel nauseous. i have had one full term pregnancy with mild nausea, one 9 week m/c with about 3-4 weeks of nausea and hunger, and one chemical pregnancy with like a day of nausea. this pregnancy is the first cycle after my 9 week m/c, and the m/c was conceived a week after getting over a 6 week bout with stomach parasites (lots of nausea). so essentially i feel like i have felt sick to my stomach since early june and i am SICK OF IT.

i used to suffer from pretty bad panic attacks, anxiety and agoraphobia due to my emetophobia, and have done rounds of therapy and some meds (celexa) which have helped relieve things. the panic attacks have not been bothering me recently, just a much more real sense of dread because i feel nauseous all the time now.

recently things have been a little better, except right now i am starting to feel out of control again--i want this pregnancy, i want this baby, but i would do anything to make these feelings go away and i am TERRIFIED that i will feel sick enough to throw up. this is my "rainbow baby" and i should be enjoying it, not regretting being pregnant. as you can tell, pregnancy hormones may have me a little dramatic....

therapy is not an option (no therapists trained in this kind of thing here in peru, plus i can't afford it), anxiety meds aren't either (i tried starting celexa again a few months ago and it made me nauseous...), my mom is sending me some vit b6, unisom and milk thistle in a few days to help alleviate the nausea, i am counting down the hours until that package arrives!

i don't want to read any of the DDC threads, because so many of them discuss throwing up in great detail and i feel like there is some kind of competition to discuss who has the worst morning sickness. gross. and i'm kind of apprehensive at the idea of having another kid around, because it totally multiplies the number of germs i will be exposed with and the number of times i will have to take care of kids sick with the stomach flu.

i swear i am much more normal than i sound.

[la mamita]

haha, no it is a real phobia! and it's quite common, but sadly- according to one psychiatrist i went to- very difficult to treat. how are you doing with it?