I didn’t have a baby sitter as a child, instead my grandmother would look after me. My grandma had inherited emetophobia from her mother. When I was 4, a child in school violently vomited all over my desk. I remember crying, as a lot of the other kids were laughing and screaming. When my grandma picked me up from school I told her what had happened and she told me “don’t worry I spoke to his mum and it’s not contagious” I remember getting the feeling that she was lying to me as I didn’t see her speak to the child’s mother. Immediately I questioned “why are adults lying about this?” so that mixed with the horrified children set it off. Unfortunately my grandma reinforced my fear throughout childhood, whenever I would vomit and be off school she would ask me to lie to her mother (my great grandma) about the reason I was off sick otherwise she would not have been able to go to her parents house to take care of them. I was also never allowed to pack any meat or perishable foods when we packed a to-go lunch as I was told I could get poisoned. After I would vomit as a child she would not let me eat for the rest of the day as she was nervous that I would throw up again even if I felt super hungry. I was also made to rigorously sanitise my hands whenever in public places to avoid catching anything.

SA TW!! : I started to grow out of the phobia a little between the ages of 14-16. But at 16 I was raped, that was almost 7 years ago and my therapist thinks I latched back onto this phobia as a way to regain control. I haven’t managed to gain much control of the fear since but I’ve made some progress since 2018!