- Help, I might be sick!
11 Mar 2010 It’s all boys, boys , boys – or so it seems. It isn’t of course, but there do seem to be rather more boys than girls just now. But there was one rather glorious experience this week.
The psychiatrist had referred a boy who was very frightened of being sick. I have met other people with this phobia: proper name Emetaphobia. One of the oddest things is that some people seem to attract vomiting people. So one nineteen year old had had people throwing up in the bar near to her, and on a plane, but then was on a morning train to the local shopping mall when someone was sick next to her. That is not reasonable!! I worked with her and she said things were significantly improved. And I worked with a small girl who had been sick in the dining room twice in a row and was then afraid to go in, and then afraid to eat lunch, and then breakfast and finally to eat at all, just in case. We sorted that out, but I was less successful with the boy last term who carried a carrier bag with him at all times just in case. We got to the point where he could put the bag in a pocket or leave it outside a room but I am not sure he felt comfortable without it.
The boy this week came to a first appointment very loudly, crying that he was sure he was going to be sick and needed to go home Right Now. I treated him very like my son, and gave him a bag and suggested he could vomit in there if he needed to. He wasn’t impressed [my son probably wasn’t thrilled either]but he wasn’t sick either. And that might have been the issue. He is frightened of being sick, but has not been sick for years and years.
I gave him an appointment for the following day and one for two days after that. And he was lovely. He is a bright boy and interested in a range of ideas, and knowledgeable. We tried a couple of techniques to help him cope with the feeling of being sick, but essentially spent a lot of time trying to establish that feeling sick is, for him, a habit, and has to be treated as a bad idea, rather than as a real possibility.
By the end of appointment three, the boy was saying he was excited about going back to school and seeing his friends. We agreed that he was less likely to feel sick when he is busy or has other things to think about, and also agreed ways in which he could calm himself down if emetaphobia threatens to overcome him again. It was lovely to see the boy he can be.
I know he intends to go back, but it might be harder than he expects. We have another appointment next week just to check!
The psychiatrist had referred a boy who was very frightened of being sick. I have met other people with this phobia: proper name Emetaphobia. One of the oddest things is that some people seem to attract vomiting people. So one nineteen year old had had people throwing up in the bar near to her, and on a plane, but then was on a morning train to the local shopping mall when someone was sick next to her. That is not reasonable!! I worked with her and she said things were significantly improved. And I worked with a small girl who had been sick in the dining room twice in a row and was then afraid to go in, and then afraid to eat lunch, and then breakfast and finally to eat at all, just in case. We sorted that out, but I was less successful with the boy last term who carried a carrier bag with him at all times just in case. We got to the point where he could put the bag in a pocket or leave it outside a room but I am not sure he felt comfortable without it.
The boy this week came to a first appointment very loudly, crying that he was sure he was going to be sick and needed to go home Right Now. I treated him very like my son, and gave him a bag and suggested he could vomit in there if he needed to. He wasn’t impressed [my son probably wasn’t thrilled either]but he wasn’t sick either. And that might have been the issue. He is frightened of being sick, but has not been sick for years and years.
I gave him an appointment for the following day and one for two days after that. And he was lovely. He is a bright boy and interested in a range of ideas, and knowledgeable. We tried a couple of techniques to help him cope with the feeling of being sick, but essentially spent a lot of time trying to establish that feeling sick is, for him, a habit, and has to be treated as a bad idea, rather than as a real possibility.
By the end of appointment three, the boy was saying he was excited about going back to school and seeing his friends. We agreed that he was less likely to feel sick when he is busy or has other things to think about, and also agreed ways in which he could calm himself down if emetaphobia threatens to overcome him again. It was lovely to see the boy he can be.
I know he intends to go back, but it might be harder than he expects. We have another appointment next week just to check!