Navigating the Sickening Vomit-fest of Emetophobia aka the Fear of Vomit
Hello stomach-sensitive souls!
Today, we’re going to dive into a topic that might leave some of you feeling a little queasy – emetophobia, a.k.a. the fear of vomit or the fear of being sick.
Grab a bucket (just kidding) and let’s embark on this quirky rollercoaster of emotions together!
Emetophobia: The Good, the Bad, and the Gag-Worthy
Imagine this: you’re at a fancy dinner party, devouring that exquisite three-course meal that you’ve been salivating over all day. But suddenly, your stomach starts doing the Cha-Cha Slide, and your palms start sweating like they’re in a hot sauce challenge.
Emetophobia doesn’t care if you’re in the middle of a Michelin-starred feast or on a tranquil beach – it’ll strike when and where it pleases, leaving you feeling like a sailor on a stormy sea.
The Struggle is Real, Folks
Emetophobia isn’t just a casual dislike for stomach acrobatics – it’s a full-blown, heart-racing, anxiety-inducing terror.
The mere thought of someone getting sick (or worse, you getting sick) can send you spiralling into panic mode faster than you can say “pepto bismol.” Suddenly, you’re armed with hand sanitisers, disinfectant wipes, and a knack for avoiding all things germ-related.
It’s Not All Gags and Gargles
Sure, emetophobia might sound like a gag-worthy adventure (pun intended), but for those who live with it, it’s no laughing matter. It can lead to a bunch of other fears like a fear of public places, crowded spaces, or a fear of certain foods. It can even contribute to a fear of pregnancy as the horrors of morning sickness and the never-ending vomit-fest that it might become.
I’ve blogged and podcasted about how emetophobia affects pregnancy over here:
READ or LISTEN HERE: Fear Free Childbirth: Emetophobia and Pregnancy
And let’s not forget the curious dance you do around people who have just recovered from a bout of the stomach flu – you’re practically a contortionist, dodging hugs and air kisses like a pro.
But here’s where things get surprising. Your fear might be around YOU being sick, but it could just be of OTHERS being sick. That was how it showed up for me.
How I Developed my Fear of Vomit
I developed this phobia as a result of my baby being sick on a long and hellish car journey.
My partner was working away when my youngest was around 9 months, so one weekend we went to visit him. It was a really long drive and we were stuck in really bad January traffic. It was raining really badly and I was stuck in roadworks on the M25 in the UK (affectionately called the Road to Hell by Chris Rea in his famous song).
My baby used to do this thing where she would sometimes bring up her milk about half an hour after feeding. It was often a chunder-fest and I hated it! I was conscious of this as I was driving soon after we had stopped for a feed. Then she started being sick! it just kept coming out! going all over my seats and the back of my passenger seat. Her car seat was covered and so was she.
I was so worried that she would start choking. But I was stuck in the front seat driving and couldn’t do anything about it. And, because we were in roadworks I couldn’t pull over. I just had to sit there listening to her vomit all over the back of the car. It was horrid!
Looking back I was clearly traumatised by it. It had all the hall-marks of a traumatic event; specifically me feeling trapped by it, and the emotional intensity of it.
From then on, I would be super stressed on any journey longer than half an hour as I would anticipate the inevitable. When baby #2 turned up this continued and it was a total nightmare to deal with. But I didn’t realise at first that was was going on was a fear of vomit as I’d never had that before.
How I Cured my Fear of Vomit
My situation with my kids being sick in the car came to head once when I was heading away on holiday with my kids and my French aunt. My kids were 10 month old and 5 years at the time, so well into the vomiting age.
We had a long drive ahead of us and I was in a bit of a hot mess wondering how I was going to deal with the inevitable vomit-fest that was incoming.
The 5-hour drive turned into a 7+ hour one because I wanted to stop every hour or so to “let the kids have fresh air” so that they wouldn’t be sick, not that it helped!
Crunch Time! Time to Heal my Fear of Being Sick
For the return journey my aunt – who is a very wise lady – told me that their vomiting was in response to my FEAR of them vomiting.
I was gobsmacked. This made NO SENSE to me!
How could my anxiety around this make them sick??
She insisted that I worked on clearing this before getting in the car and starting our return journey home. I argued with her on this because it just made no sense. But eventually I relented.
So that’s what I did.
I found a quiet spot and used Head Trash Clearance to clear my fear of vomit and my kids being sick in the car. It took me about 20 minutes.
The Result of my Self-healing
Then we set off on our long 7-hour drive home. Well, this drive was like NO OTHER!
Both kids feel asleep at the start of the journey and DID NOT WAKE UP. At all.
We didn’t even want to stop the car for a pee in case they woke up. So we ended up not having a break on what actually turned out being a 5-hour drive (once you don’t stop every hour!).
Ever since that day, my kids were never sick in the car. Them being sick was all down to me!
My mind was blown for sure!
Conquering the Emetophobia Eruption
Now, onto the good news – emetophobia doesn’t have to be the villain in your life’s sitcom. There are ways to tackle this fear head-on and show it who’s boss:
1. Educate Yourself
Knowledge is power, and the more you understand the science behind stomach-related escapades, the less intimidating they become. Plus, you’ll have an arsenal of fun facts to share at parties. Trust me, everyone loves a good “Did you know that stomach acid can dissolve metal?” story.
2. Therapy, anyone?
Some people say that Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) can be a game-changer. It helps you rewire your thoughts and reactions towards vomit-related triggers.
I used Head Trash Clearance, which works MUCH quicker. Soon, you’ll be handling a baby’s spit-up like a seasoned pro.
3. Laugh in the Face of Fear
Humor can be your trusty sidekick on this journey. Embrace the absurdity of it all. Give your fear a ridiculous name like “Sir Gag-A-Lot” and imagine it in a clown costume. Suddenly, it’s harder to take it seriously.
4. Slow Exposure
Like dipping your toes into a chilly pool, gradually expose yourself to your fear triggers. Start small – maybe watch a movie scene where someone feels queasy and work your way up.
It’s like conquering levels in a gross-out video game, but with less nausea. I’m not a fan of this personally because this sounds like hard bloody work. And unpleasant. Best tackle your fears head on and just clear them.
How to Cure Your Emetophobia using Head Trash Clearance
If you’ve got a copy of my book Clear Your Head Trash, then this is going to be super easy for you. Just head over to the page where all the mantras are and fill in the blanks using the language that resonates for you.
By this I mean, you might not refer to vomit as ‘”vomit” but “being sick” so be sure to use those words instead. You might call it “chundering” or “chucking up”. Just make sure to use the words that are the ones that rattle inside your head and are meaningful to you.
You might actually want to do several clearances. Being sick is one thing, but how does it make you FEEL? What is about being sick that you hate? The smell? The loss of control? The humiliation?
This is something that you need to answer. The answer to the question “What is about being sick that I hate?” will tell you all you need to know. Then you just insert that into the Head Trash Clearance Mantras and voila!
And if all that sounds like too much, then just buy my Fear of Vomit Fear Clearance MP3. You can find that here.
Emetophobia: The Final Flush
Remember, emetophobia might be a formidable opponent, but it’s not invincible.
With a dash of knowledge, a sprinkle of therapy, a pinch of humour, and a heaping scoop of exposure, you can tame the tummy-monster and regain control over your life. So, let’s raise a ginger ale to facing our fears, one funny bone at a time!
Podcast Timestamps
[00:00:44] Emetophobia: Common fear of vomit explained.
[00:05:32] Traumatic memories can shape your anxieties.
[00:07:58] Long, rainy drive on busy M25, baby vomited.
[00:12:32] Long UK drive becomes chaotic due to anxiety.
[00:16:03] Overcome fear of vomit/sickness with knowledge.
[00:18:42] CBT, exposure therapy, support, self-care, laughter
[00:20:57] Choose the language that resonates with you for clearing fear.
[00:25:08] Embrace and overcome fear of vomit.
Episode Transcript
Alexia Leachman [00:00:06]:
You’re listening to the Head Trash Show with me, Alexia Leachman, author of Clear Your Head Trash and developer of Head Trash clearance. A potent healing tool, Head Trash is the home of healing, where you can access self healing tools and resources to help you to improve your mental fitness and emotional well being and accelerate your spiritual growth. This podcast is where I like to share insights, stories and interviews to inspire you on your healing journey. And now for today’s show. Hello, and welcome back to the Head Trash Show. My name is Alexa Leachman. Thank you so much for joining me today. Now, on today’s show, I want to dive into what is probably the most common fear on the planet.
Alexia Leachman [00:00:44]:
Well, it sometimes is, let me put it that way. And it appears frequently in lists, top three lists of the most common fears that people suffer from. No, not the fear of public speaking, because that also features usually in the top three, but the fear of being sick, the fear of vomit. Now, this is an unusual one because it’s quite surprising. Not many people think that this is the most common fear, or at least one of the top ones, but it is, and it’s called emetophobia. Now, this is a fear that is quite debilitating and really gets in the way a lot, particularly for those that want to travel and are worried about being sick or feeling nauseous when they’re traveling. But it also really affects a lot of women who are contemplating starting a family where the thought of morning sickness is enough to make them not want to get pregnant because of their fear of being sick. So this is actually a really important episode that I want to dive into today, because if I can help you to get over this fear, this could really unlock new freedoms for you, the freedom to travel, but also the freedom to start a family without the stress of the fear looming over your head.
Alexia Leachman [00:02:01]:
Right then, are you ready to dive into the topic of emetophobia? So for you stomach sensitive souls, are you going to be able to take this? Because I want to dive into this topic that might leave you feeling a little bit queasy. Emetophobia is the name, the proper name for the fear of vomit or the fear of being sick. So you might want to grab a bucket for this episode as we dive into the ins and outs of the fear of being sick. Now, I know it sounds like I’m joking or not taking this seriously, but this is a very serious phobia. And in fact, in some lists of phobias, in terms of what are the most common or the most prevalent phobias, emetophobia often appears in the top three. And this is surprising. I know that when I found out about this, I was amazed that a fear of being sick or a fear of vomit was so prominent and so common. Now, this can be hugely challenging for many people, but it’s particularly difficult for those who are maybe contemplating pregnancy because of course we’ve all heard of morning sickness.
Alexia Leachman [00:03:08]:
So imagine what the thought of pregnancy will be like when also you’re wrestling with this fear of being sick. And this can become even worse when there are those people that also suffer from emetophobia, the fear of pregnancy or giving birth. Because not only are they facing the fear of being pregnant, what, being pregnant, the whole experience, but also they’ve got a fear of vomit going on, on top. So when you start compounding these fears and phobias together, life can get very, very overwhelming and difficult for some. So let’s rewind, let’s go back to the beginning and let’s just get clear on what is the fear of vomit? What is a emetophobia? It’s not just somebody that doesn’t like throwing up because I dare say many of us are that we don’t like throwing up. Who does? Right? Who likes experiencing that vomit coming through your throat and the aftertaste? Nobody likes that. But really the fear of vomit takes this much, much further. It really is a deep seated fear that can elicit anxiety and panic just at the thought of being sick or around others who might.
Alexia Leachman [00:04:19]:
And so this means, as I’ve already mentioned, that this fear can really extend to situations where illness is a possibility or there is the possibility of being sick, as I’ve mentioned pregnancy already. So nobody wants to be ill, nobody wants to be unwell or be sick in terms of having an illness. But when there’s a possibility of vomiting taking place, then this really does accelerate the panic and the anxiety that people might be feeling around that. So where does it come from? How does one develop a emetophobia? Well, the roots of it can often be traced back to a personal experience that you’ve had around vomiting or people vomiting. It’s not always your own personal experience of it and often you might think, well, I’ve not really had a trauma around that. But remember, a trauma isn’t always this hugely scary event that takes place. It can often be just an unpleasant experience, but you just can’t shake it, you always remember it. And so what usually happens with these situations is you have an emotional trace that is stuck within your system.
Alexia Leachman [00:05:32]:
So you might always be able to remember that time that you were sick and then so and so was watching and it was at school, it was really embarrassing or whatever was going on and that’s a memory that you will never forget. So that is likely to be a trauma for you if it’s one of these experiences that you can always recall in Technicolor Glory and you can remember all the details and it’s a story that maybe you like to tell that it’s because it is so clear in your mind and it’s so marked in your experience that maybe it’s not a dinner party story, but it’s certainly one that you’re able to recall easily. Because the details are so clear, because the emotional intensity has meant that you’re still carrying the memories very clearly within you. So some of these memories could be maybe when you were a child and you had a really bad stomach bug or you were present and witnessing somebody else who was really, really ill. So I know people, for example, who, when they were kids, their parents were very, very ill and were always being sick for whatever reason. And so just seeing a mother or a father being ill like that could be enough to create this fear within you. And particularly when it comes to witnessing your mother or your father being ill, then that’s going to be tied in to some other aspects that are really going to make that a more anxious situation for you, because these are your caregivers. And so if you’re seeing them in distress, you’re seeing them being ill like that, then as a child, there’s going to be a part of you that’s going to be worrying about your own safety and who’s going to look after you.
Alexia Leachman [00:07:12]:
So this is really going to make that situation a lot more likely to be a traumatic one for you. Now, I just want to share how I came to have my own fear of vomit. And I didn’t realize that I had this fear until my aunt highlighted it to me. And so it’s not always something that you will pick up in childhood, because this was something that I picked up as a result of being a mother. And so it was my children being sick that created that trauma within me. So for me, this came about when I was on a car journey. So my other half at the time, he was working away and it was when my youngest was around nine months old. And so there was one weekend in January, we went to visit him and it was a really long drive.
Alexia Leachman [00:07:58]:
Well, it was for me, it was like a four hour drive and it was January weather, which in the UK was lashing rain, really bad rain, and obviously early nights as well. So it was getting dark at around 04:00 and I was hitting what is known as the road to hell in the UK, which is the M 25. It’s the periphery road that goes all around London and it’s always really caught, it’s got always roadworks and it’s always got really bad traffic on and I was hitting it on a Friday evening. So the worst time ever to hit the M 25 was when I was hitting it and it was really bad rain and there were roadworks. So I was driving through a part of the M 25 where I had a speed limit imposed of 50 miles an hour and I was just stuck bumper to bumper, nowhere to go. Just had to just work, just sit tight and go through this roadwork section, which seemed to be going on for miles and miles. And in the middle of all that, my baby, my nine month old, started to be sick. Now, one of the things that she did at the time was soon after a feed, she would sometimes bring up her feed.
Alexia Leachman [00:09:06]:
And so I hit the roadworks just as she was now bringing up her feed, but I was stuck in the front seat as a driver on my own, and she was in the back, in her car seat. And so her being sick in the back, where I couldn’t come and help her, I couldn’t support her, I couldn’t wipe her clean. I was sitting in the front and all I could hear, because I couldn’t look round all the time because I had to keep an eye on the road, all I could hear was my baby being sick in the back and my head, it was like, oh, my God, she’s choking. Oh, my God, this is a nightmare. It’s going all over the car seats. It’s going on the back of the passenger seat and the front. And I had fabric car seats. So I was just imagining just a nightmare unfolding in the back of the car.
Alexia Leachman [00:09:51]:
But worse is, what if she was choking? I couldn’t do anything about it. What was I going to do? Stop the car in the middle of a motorway in the rain and the dark, putting us both in danger? So I was trapped in that situation and I couldn’t do anything about it. I just had to kind of take it. And when there’s a situation where you feel trapped or you have no control, this is really something that can really embed a trauma, because it’s this feeling that you can’t change your situation, you can’t get out of it, that really helps to embed a trauma. So my situation had trauma written all over it, really looking back. And so I was stuck in the car and I had to sit there, and then the whole car stank of vomit. And I had to wait until I reached a moment where I could actually get off the motorway and deal with the situation. For about half an hour or so, I was stuck with this situation.
Alexia Leachman [00:10:41]:
I mean, obviously she was okay and everything was fine, but this was an event that this was the beginning of my own fear of vomit. But again, I didn’t realize that I had this fear on the back of that experience. But it did teach me that every car journey we head after that, I would be super, super stressed. And so any journey longer than half an hour, which was usually the lag between feeding and her bringing it up, I’d get really, really stressed about it. And then baby number two came along and it continued, because I’d just think, oh, my God, I’ve got two to deal with. Because I remember when I was a kid, I would always be sick in the car on long journeys. And that happened up until I was maybe seven or eight, I don’t know. And so I was just imagining that for the next eight years of my life, every car journey, we couldn’t go more than an hour away from home because of I was going to have to starve the children before getting in the car so that they couldn’t be sick.
Alexia Leachman [00:11:31]:
These ridiculous situations to help me not have to confront vomit. And if we did have a long journey, then we’d have to stop all the time, like, every hour or so, just to and again in my head, it’s like, well, give them some fresh air, make sure they kind of in my head, I think I was resetting the timer. If we stop the car now, then we’ve got another half hour before they’re likely to be sick. And I don’t know where this logic came from, because it’s just ridiculous, right? But this is what phobias look like. We do things that to other people, just look completely ridiculous. And you look a little bit crazy because you’re going to all these lengths to avoid a situation, to try and manage a situation, try and control a situation that may be not controllable. And it’s almost a little bit obsessive, really. My situation with my kids came to a little bit of a head once when I was going on holiday with both the kids and my French aunt who’d come over from France, and we were driving from Birmingham in the UK to West Wales.
Alexia Leachman [00:12:32]:
So for those of you that aren’t from the UK, that’s quite a long drive in UK terms, because obviously in the UK we’re not used to big long drives because the island is quite small, especially compared to the US, right? So this drive in the UK is probably like a five, six hour drive, but for us on this occasion, turned into a seven plus hour drive, because I had to stop all the time just so the kids could have their fresh air and not be sick. So I was entirely responsible for this drive being really, really long and not that great. And so when it came to the return journey, my aunt, who is actually a very wise lady, she said to me that all of this vomiting was the kids responding to my fear of them vomiting. And I was like, Are you crazy? Like, what have I got to do with this? I’m just trying to manage this situation. This is just something that the universe has given me. It’s not my fault, how can it be my fault? And she was quite stern with me about it and said, no, this is your stuff. You are creating the anxiety, you are creating this. And they’re responding to you.
Alexia Leachman [00:13:42]:
I’m not getting in that car until you heal this, because this is ridiculous. So it took me a while to just sit with that and go, okay, thanks for that. Let me just think about that. And I thought, well, what have I got to lose? It’ll take me, what, 1015 minutes to clear this using head trash clearance, so I might as well if it works, then if it is me and it works, then brilliant. Then why would I not want to do this? So that’s what I did. I relented eventually and took on her recommendation, and I found a quiet spot, and I used head trash clearance to clear my fear of vomit and my fear of my kids being sick in the car. So this took me about 20 minutes. And what happened as a result of that was quite mind boggling, really.
Alexia Leachman [00:14:33]:
We then set off on our seven hour drive home, and this journey was like no other journey I’d done with my kids, because, for a start, both of them just fell asleep immediately as we left where we were leaving, and then they did not wake up at all throughout the whole journey. And so the journey, as it transpired, wasn’t a seven plus hour journey. It was more like a five, four to five hour journey. But we were so like, oh, my God, they’re sleeping. They’re sleeping. Let’s not stop the car. We can’t stop the car because they’ll wake up. So we better just let’s just keep going.
Alexia Leachman [00:15:09]:
And we ended up doing the whole journey without stopping. Both of us were so desperate for a pee by the time we got there. Desperate for a drink, desperate for food, for lunch, anything. We were just ready to stop the car. But they slept the whole way. And I’d never, ever experienced that. I mean, for two kids to be doing that for over 5 hours, it was just completely unheard of. And since then, they hadn’t been they’ve not really been sick in the car.
Alexia Leachman [00:15:37]:
She told me, didn’t she? My aunt? She told me. That was absolutely my fear of vomit. And when I think back to that experience, I head on the M 25. It absolutely was a trauma, and that was the root trauma of my own fear of vomit. And of course, my fear wasn’t about me being sick. That’s I think, where the confusion in my own head would have come from. It was around other people being sick. So I never really if somebody had said to me, have you got a fear of vomit? I would have gone, no, of course not.
Alexia Leachman [00:16:03]:
I’m fine if I have to be sick. It’s not a problem. But I wasn’t fine if my kids had to be sick. So you see, if you do have a fear of vomit or a fear of being sick, this doesn’t have to be something that you have to keep with you all the time it is something you can get rid of. Now of course, we’re all different. So let me just share with you some of the other things that you can do to help you to conquer this fear of emetophobia. I hope I’m saying it right now. I think the first thing that is useful to do is really to just become knowledgeable about it, understand what’s going on, maybe take some time to understand the science behind some of the stomach related escapades that are going on because the more you understand something, the less intimidating they become.
Alexia Leachman [00:16:51]:
Again. If you’re pregnant and you’re facing morning sickness, then understand the physiological reasons behind morning sickness. Because once you understand, you can then particularly in the context of pregnancy, sometimes it is part of a healthy pregnancy. And when you understand how morning sickness can feature as part of a healthy pregnancy, you might be able to reframe that fear for yourself. Now, I have done a podcast for those that are suffering from morning sickness. I did a podcast on my fear free childbirth podcast sharing what some of the reasons could be why there’s morning sickness occurring. And so I’ll be putting a link in the show notes for this episode so you can go and dig in to that other episode I did, because the advice that I shared, or my guest, my guest Sharan shared during that episode around how you can conquer morning sickness and therefore not vomit, not be sick during your pregnancy. After that podcast episode I had lots of emails from women saying oh, I did that, I tried that and it totally worked.
Alexia Leachman [00:17:51]:
So I will be putting a link in the show notes for this episode. Now, the other thing that I think is also worth considering is getting help, getting professional help. So speak to a health professional who can help you with anxiety disorders and help you to find ways of managing the phobia or indeed getting rid of it. I’m more about getting rid of stuff. I’m not really interested in managing a phobia when for me it’s so easy to get rid of a phobia. But I do realize that some people prefer to manage anxieties and phobias. They’re not ready necessarily to eliminate anxiety and phobia. So if managing your phobia, managing your anxiety is more down your street, then absolutely seek the help of a mental health professional that can do that for you, help you, give you some tailored strategies around managing the phobia.
Alexia Leachman [00:18:42]:
Apparently CBT can help, exposure therapy can help to reduce the intensity of the fear. And of course, if you do want to find somebody that works with head trash clearance, myself included and those that I train or indeed fearless birthing, if you want to work with somebody on your pregnancy journey and getting rid of your birth fears, then you can eliminate that phobia with head trash clearance. The other thing I’ll say if you’re pregnant is just to make sure that those people around you, your support team, know about your fear so they can support you if anything happens and that there’s vomiting going on, they’re prepared and they can help to shield you from it or whatever is going on. They can be there for you. If people know what you’re experiencing, they can much better support you. Now, you can also look at self care, you look at mindfulness techniques or any other practices that you can help that maybe you use as part of managing your own anxiety. Maybe you can use some of those things to help you to manage your emetophobia as well. Now, the other thing which I think is really worth doing, which might not be for everyone, but it’s about laughing at your fear.
Alexia Leachman [00:19:50]:
Because if we can bring humor to our mental health challenges, to our emotional health challenges, that can really help us to heal and reframe what we’re feeling in a way that maybe feels less threatening, less negative. So perhaps humor could be a really good one for you. You could maybe embrace the absurdity of this fear and give your fear a ridiculous name like Sir Gagalot, for example, and then imagine it in a clown costume and suddenly your fear is a lot harder to take seriously. And you’ve already started that process of cutting those emotional cords to this fear that you’re holding onto, and it becomes much more easy to release it. And of course, the final thing you can do is just clear this fear yourself, just as I did. So I use Head Trash clearance to clear this fear, and I share how you can use this in both of my books, clear Your Head Trash and Fearless Birthing. And so everything, all the instructions are in the book. You just take what I’ve shared and you decide what it is that you want to clear.
Alexia Leachman [00:20:57]:
So what do I mean when I say you have to decide what it is that you want to clear? Well, it’s really about the language because we need to be using the language that resonates for you when you’re clearing a fear like this. So when you think about this, do you use the word vomit or do you use the word being sick or do you use them interchangeably? So you need to get clear on this, or is there another word that you use? I know in the UK I grew up and there was a word that we used all the time called chundering. So chundering. It might be that you think about vomiting as chundering, in which case, use that, use vomit, use being sick, use chucking up, I don’t know, whatever you want to use. It’s got to be the language that you use in your head that is part of your own lexicon. So decide what that is and maybe do a mishmash of all of those terms because maybe you use a lot of those terms. So just use a mishmash of them and then just make sure that that’s what you insert into the Head Trash clearance mantras. So it could be that you have one clearance that’s all about the act of being sick or vomiting or chundering or chucking up or whatever that is for you.
Alexia Leachman [00:22:07]:
But then there could be some other clearances that you might want to consider, because it could be that while you’re vomiting and while you’re being sick, what you don’t like about that situation, maybe it’s the taste and the smell, maybe it’s how you look. Maybe you think you look like a real idiot vomiting at the side of the road or whatever’s going on in your hair and looking all red and tearful. And so maybe it’s about how you look. Maybe it’s because you don’t like the loss of control that’s going on around that experience and how you don’t know when it’s going to stop. Why are you doing this? What’s going on? I don’t have the answers. So not being in control could also be a good clearance to do as well. Maybe you don’t like the idea that you’re being humiliated or you’re humiliating yourself or making yourself look silly. So again, humiliation or looking silly or whatever that thing is that you’re worried about, those would be also very useful to consider in terms of clearances.
Alexia Leachman [00:23:04]:
And so if you’re not sure, a good question to ask yourself is this what is it about being sick that I hate? Or what is it about being sick that makes me uncomfortable? And the answer to that question is probably the clearance that you need to do. So just think about that as much as you can. Obviously, when you have a fear of something, it can be hard to think about something. But if you start off with the fear of being sick clearance and then ask that question of yourself and see what comes up, and if all of that sounds like way too much effort, then I have got you covered because I have created a fear clearance track for this phobia. So if you want to head over to the shop where you can find the fear clearance track for a fear of being sick or a fear of vomiting, and then all you have to do is just listen to me doing all of that stuff, and then you just clear it by listening so much easier all around. So I just want to wrap up here around this phobia, this fear. If you have got this fear, then look at it as a gift. This is an opportunity for you to heal something within yourself.
Alexia Leachman [00:24:09]:
This is an opportunity for you to let go of this fear. Even though it might be a formidable opponent, it’s not entirely invincible. You can get rid of it with a little bit of knowledge, maybe some therapy or some professional support, little bit of humor, maybe some exposure therapy, maybe doing a clearance, but you can wrestle back control over this fear for yourself so that you are not the one that’s being controlled by it. Because with the right tools and the right support, you can absolutely embrace life and not be shied into a corner by a fear of vomit or a fear of being sick. Now, I just want to say something quickly about this Fear clearance track that I recorded, and it’s this. And I have to say I had a lot of fun recording this track. For those of you familiar with the Head Trash clearance method, you’ll know that and I’ve talked about this a lot. So if you’re regular listeners of the podcast, you’ll know this.
Alexia Leachman [00:25:08]:
But the mantras that we say to get rid of our head trash are you say you hate certain things about the fear or the conflict and then you say you love certain things about it. And so obviously, when it comes to vomit, I had to then really get into loving various aspects of vomit and various scenarios around vomit. And I have to say, I did have a lot of fun doing that. So if you have got a fear of vomit, then I do apologize for really pushing the boat out with this and really digging the knife in deep and putting salt on the wound, however you want to describe it. But at the end of the day, when you do that as part of your clearances, it makes the clearance a lot more potent. So for those of you that are doing the clearance yourself, using my book, then make sure that you really dig in deep to the various aspects of vomit and sickness that you really, really hate the smell and the bits in your throat. I’m not going to go in too much now because you could be eating your food or something, but it’s just to give you some tips, really. And if you can hear, by the way, any noise in the background, my dog has just found something and he’s chewing it.
Alexia Leachman [00:26:18]:
So I do apologize for that. But yeah, really get into the thing that you’re clearing and make it sound as controversial or hardcore as possible when you’re doing it, because it does make your clearances a lot more potent. And that is exactly what I did while I was recording the Fear clearance track for you. So if you end up opting for that, just be warned. But it means it’s probably going to make it super, super potent. Anyway, that’s it for now and I’m going to leave you until next time. Bye for now. You’ve just been listening to me, Alexia, here on the Head Trash show.
Alexia Leachman [00:26:56]:
If you’d like to join me on your self healing journey, then let me invite you to join my Clearance Club. This is my self healing community and membership, where I provide you with everything you need to clear your. Head trash and heal your wounds. And every month we come together for support on the group call. To find out more, head over to Clearyourheadtrash.com club. Until next time. Bye for now.
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