What is emetophobia and how can clinical hypnotherapy help?

Emetophobia is where the person fears vomiting, seeing others being sick and anything vomit-related. The phobia is often devastating because it can affect all aspects of the person's life, as they try to avoid either being sick themselves, or seeing others be sick. The range of symptoms and its effects are pervasive and can be complex. This article will provide a checklist to explore if you or someone you know has emetophobia. It will also explore the symptoms in more depth to help anyone affected understand the phobia a little more, and learn how clinical hypnotherapy can help alleviate symptoms.

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Signs and symptoms of emetophobia

If you can answer yes to most of the following questions, it's likely that you are affected by emetophobia.

During the last six months:

  • Have you experienced a fear of being sick or being seen being sick?
  • Have you experienced a fear of seeing/hearing others vomiting?
  • Have you taken significant steps to minimise the risk of your catching a sickness bug, which has interfered with your daily life?

Anxiety UK strongly advises that people seek further information and guidance from their GP who will be able to make a formal diagnosis.

I have a diagnosis. Perhaps you also already have a diagnosis and are curious about how clinical hypnotherapy can help recover from emetophobia. If so, this article can explain in more detail.


How does emetophobia affect people?

The symptoms vary between individuals but they place the person into a state of hypervigilance (being on red alert status). The person struggles to avoid overthinking or worrying about catching a bug (for example) that they think could lead to being sick.

Individuals with emetophobia experience anxiety and sometimes have a complex relationship with food. They might avoid certain foods due to a fear they might be difficult to swallow. Individuals may remember the foods they ate before an episode of being sick, so now avoid those foods. Avoiding eating at the table with family is common. There is a need to seek reassurance from family and friends that they won’t become unwell, or that the family member isn’t contagious.

The hyperawareness of people makes it very difficult to relax in company and may develop 'safety behaviours' such as using hand sanitiser or not touching surfaces that appear unclean. Symptoms can feel so uncomfortable and fear-provoking, that the person avoids going out with friends, going to school, or calling in sick, especially if the person suspects colleagues have been unwell.

Emetophobia can be isolating and often feels misunderstood by the sufferer. It can be so severe that the person becomes obsessed with knowing where the toilets are when they go out. Fear of or avoidance of public transport can occur, for fear of not being able to access a toilet if they become unwell.

This cycle of overthinking is tiring and can be difficult for family and friends to understand. This only makes the sense of embarrassment, guilt and shame worse and pushes the individual into more alone time.


What causes emetophobia?

Every case is different, but the individual may have seen or heard someone being sick that was unusual, sudden or upsetting. They may have been sick themselves in a public place, and have a sense of embarrassment or they felt out of control.

In response to the event, the deep mind (subconscious) has learned that vomit is a threat to the individual. The main job of the subconscious mind is to keep the person safe; hence the strong drive to keep the person away from vomit and any risk of coming into contact with it.

Sometimes the first association of the fear of vomit (though not always) is in childhood, and the person may have even forgotten the event. There may be other events the person does remember vividly and these events keep going around in the person’s mind where it magnifies.

This perpetual rumination and association of threat sets the body into the fight or flight response. The body then becomes, tense, the heart starts to beat faster, and the person may feel dizzy, shake or have panic episodes. All of these signs are the body’s way of gearing up to either fight a threat or run from one. The subsequent flood of adrenaline then maintains the anxiety symptoms, which perpetuates the phobia.


How does emetophobia last for so long?

It is in the repetition (continuously avoiding vomit or signs of people being unwell) that the phobia becomes stronger. Avoidance becomes an automatic response in the event of vomit. The brain responds to repetition by growing the pathways in the brain (Prof. Hamdy Abd El-Maksoud El-Gazzar, 2024).

This function of the brain is useful if we are learning new skills (such as playing sports). The neural pathways in the brain become stronger and more effective at triggering anxiety symptoms when this association of threat and vomiting is repeated. In other words, the reaction to vomit or being sick becomes stronger.


How can clinical hypnotherapy help someone experiencing emetophobia?

Hypnotherapy explores the events that created the initial association and, in the trance state, work is done to create new associations with the situations that were causing the phobia.

The treatment looks to the root cause of the phobia. Firstly, we look at the way the phobia is affecting the individual and their goals and aspirations of therapy.

What would your life look like without this phobia? This is a common question we ask.

The therapist then helps the individual challenge the limiting self-beliefs in a safe and effective way. There are no exposure techniques, and there is no expectation of making oneself sick. There is emphasis on replacing the limiting beliefs and ideas with more positive thoughts, at the deep level of the mind. New associations are also created with things that may have previously triggered the fears.

Most talking therapies can be time-consuming with this particular issue and often look at the logical reasons why vomit is not a threat. However, in hypnotherapy, we understand that the part of the mind that is holding onto this fear is not using logic. So, we bypass that part and go directly to the source of the fears… the subconscious mind.

Of course, there is some talking therapy involved to understand the individual’s personal experience. As well as the discussion, we use trance in therapy to access the deeper mind. The person is always in full control and is certainly not ‘out of it’ as seen on the TV. We work together to resolve and release the fears behind the phobia.

The length of treatment can be anywhere between two to six sessions, depending on how quickly the person responds. Everyone is different so one can never predict the length of sessions, but the treatment is usually quicker for children and teenagers. It’s always satisfying to see clients returning to work, enjoying a social life again and eating food they would never have considered before, free from the phobia.


Emetophobia can be a debilitating experience and can steal so much of a person's life. Avoidance behaviours and the isolation they can cause can really be life-changing. However, there is hope with clinical hypnotherapy. You can take back control.

In recent years, I have worked more and more with individuals with this issue and currently see someone every week with this issue. I have good success with this and other phobias and take great pleasure in seeing people get their life back again. One of my previous emetophobia clients recently reached out asking me how she can train in this profession to help others with emetophobia.

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The views expressed in this article are those of the author. All articles published on Hypnotherapy Directory are reviewed by our editorial team.

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Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, HU7 4WD
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Written by Suzannah Miller
BSc (Hons) Psych, CNLP, D. Hyp, (GQHP)
location_on Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, HU7 4WD
Suzannah Miller is a Clinical Hypnotherapist based in Hull for face to face appointments and works world wide with online clients. I assist people using solution focused, psychosocial techniques to improve their mental health, confidence and over...
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