# Anxiety and phobias



## abrose25 (Oct 27, 2004)

While reading through a lot of the posts on this BB, I found that many of us deal with anxiety issues as well as other phobias, like emetaphobia (fear of vomiting) along with dealing with IBS D or C. I was just curious as to how many of us deal with one or both of those problems? Unfortunately, I do believe I am a sufferer of both. I was diagnosed by a psychiatrist as having a general anxiety disorder with agoraphobia. I also feel like I am a "closet" emetaphobic. I have lived with the fear of vomiting for nearly 16 years. That's the first time I've even admitted to having this fear because it is so embarassing. Anyways, just curious as to how many deal with these things along with IBS-D? Does anyone think they could all be related somehow??


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## NancyCat (Jul 16, 1999)

I have an abnormal fear of D. Don't know if theres a medical term for it, I think there is one for fear of defecation though. Anyway I am feeling alot less phobic since taking paxil a few weeks ago. My IBS issues havent really changed but I am alot less "crazed" by what happens or not. Hope this helps


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## sue660 (Dec 8, 2001)

Hi Ambrose25,I have suffered from emetophobia for at least 30 years and I never told a living soul until I found a website that supports people with this phobia. I felt stupid about it too and felt I was the only one, but apparently it is quite a common phobia.I have other phobias too and I know from personal experience that the anxiety that comes from these phobias can definately make the symptoms of IBS much worse.Nancy Cat, I used to have a fear of getting diarrhea, but since I had a colonoscopy, that fear has been lessened significantly. I think my reasons for fearing diarrhea was that it might lead to vomiting, so it was kind of related to my emetophobia.


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## NancyCat (Jul 16, 1999)

Soos-My fear of D is because I had it for 3 years after I had my son 17 yrs ago. I fear that I will be like that again, crazy as it sounds, its like its a form of post traumatic stress for me. Taking paxil has really helped me calm down about this issue.


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## Arch-Angel (Aug 13, 2004)

I have Arachnophobia. i'm unusually scared of spiders. very very severe. (oddly scorpions don't bother me much. or do any other arachnid, just spiders.)


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## kare_bear88 (May 12, 2003)

People with specific phobias are actually in the majority. I suffer from dental phobia, so I'm currently looking for a good sedation dentist.


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## Andie (Nov 15, 2004)

I don't know if I fear vomiting, but I DO NOT throw up! I have only vomitted twice in my adult life and I am in my 40s. I just hate it!Now the anxiety of having a D attack in public is very real and sometimes I think it actually brings the D on.


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## sue660 (Dec 8, 2001)

Hi Andie,I think the fact that I have not vomitted in so long has in part caused the fear. I haven't vomitted for about 37 years. I've had time to build it up in my mind to be an experience where I would rather face death than throw up.Yep, anxiety about D will certainly make things worse as cleaning out the system is part of the fright, fight, flight response. Apparently our minds are very finely tuned with the bowel for some reason.


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## alyssmarie (Nov 8, 2004)

OH MY GOD- I am a bad, BAD, *HORRIBLE* sufferer of emetophobia. Lurking on emetophobia forums here and there for the past few years (you'll never believe how COMMON a fear of vomiting is!) I've noticed a large, large majority of emetophobia sufferers have IBS, or complain of IBS-like symptoms and respond to stress with their stomach. Me, it's like I live my emotions through my stomach. I feel everything there- joy, pain (makes my stomach HURT badly!) anticipation (tensing the muscles). I didn't even realize it but now that I have, at any point in the day, I'll remember to pay attention to my stomach, and sure enough, whether I'm in the store, driving, or doing whatever, I'm tensing those muscles in my abdomen. SO i just remind myself to relax them. But anyway, not to get off-subject. I go to mayo. Yes, MAYO of all DAMN hospitals and I told my doctor about my fear of vomit, and he looked at me like I was absolutely bonkers. Would a colonoscopy freak you out, too? I had one scheduled, and my doctor gave me that god-awful go-litely stuff. I made him swear it wouldn't make me vomit. (i haven't puked in 11 years). He said, if it's been that long, it =probably= won't, but no guarantees for anything. Oh, man. Talk about trauma. Even after staying away from food TWO DAYS prior, I couldn't even finish off 2 glasses of that stuff. On my third, I was dry-heaving. It wasn't the volume, or even the taste, but it seriously didn't sit right with me. It was a beautiful fall day- the amount of panic I was going through just wasn't worth it, I determined. So I threw it in the trash and said f*ck it, to be blunt. I went back and demanded a different prep. now I've got one in december coming up- this time with Phosphosoda. I'm so, so scared of vomiting, it's unbelievable.


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## sue660 (Dec 8, 2001)

AlyssmarieI have had a colonoscopy and I didn't really care what they did to me as long as I didn't have to throw up at any stage.With the stuff you drink beforehand, I didn't find it that bad. Someone on here suggested drinking it through a straw which helped me immensely. I also mixed it with apple cordial and it all went down easy. How much of the stuff did you have to drink?I had to have 250ml of something similar to fleet and then had a litre of colonlitely and then another 250ml of that first stuff I took. I guess it doesn't agree with everyone so maybe the other stuff might be better for you.Yep, I feel everything through my stomach and it seems that some if not most IBS sufferers have some kind of anxiety problem. You may not believe this, but coping with that stuff has alot to do with a way of thinking. I have seen my brother go through hell with bowel cancer and I figured drinking that stuff was nothing compared to what he's been through.I'm not trying to play down your fear, I know exactly where you're coming from. Please email me if you want to talk more.Sooz


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