What is Emetophabia? Well, the Emetophobia FAQ defines it as:
"an irrational or excessive fear of vomiting"
But nobody likes to vomit! Everyone is a bit scared of it. Do we all have emetophobia?
No!
Let me use a fear of spiders to explain what emetophobia is. Most people don't like spiders. If you saw one on the wall you might go into another room, call your spouse to dispose of it, hit it with a shoe, put it in a jor to take outside ... and while you were doing these things you might even be holding your breath or shaking! You're scared of spiders. But to a normal amount.
Now imagine that you were SO afraid of spiders that, having once found one in the spare room, you refuse to ever set foot in that room again. Imagine that you can't set foot off the garden path onto your grassy area in case a spider crawls onto your shoe and up your leg. Imagine that, upon seeing a spider, you scream and have a full panic attack, thinking you are having a heart attack and feeling like you're going to die. This is the level of fear present in emetophobia - only of course, in emetophobia, the fear is directed towards vomiting, not spiders.
Does it make more sense now? Do you have a better way of explaining it? Feel free to email me and offer your own definitions and explanations that I can add to the page.
