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Bwee the Fluffdragon 🩵@Bwee@meow.social
Emetophobia is a bigger part of my life than I'd like it to be, and it's time I explain the intricacies of it and what affects me.
Firstly, if you are unfamiliar with the word, emetophobia is the fear of someone else or yourself being physically ill out of the mouth. It's more common than you may think.
One thing that affects me are trigger words/phrases. Reading words specific to my phobia gives me intrusive thoughts and a large spike of anxiety. With effort and trying not to look at the words as I type them, this is a small list of trigger words that affect me:
throw up, vomit, puke, barf, spew.
I humbly request, if you are a mutual of mine, to please put a CW on any posts that use those words or describe getting sick in this way. They will make more lives better than just mine. Most emetophobes prefer to avoid that content.
Other random things that affect me, that doesn't matter online but just... fun facts, I guess:
The smell of garbage bags, seeing buckets, the smell of tissues, gagging sounds, feeling at all nauseated.
I am constantly on the lookout for where to run if I have to get sick, though it very rarely happens.
I have intrusive thoughts daily about this phobia. Usually I can stop myself thinking about it with effort, but the anxiety is still there.
I realize it's a very strange phobia. It is better for me than it used to be, at least. Experiencing something that triggers me no longer ruins my whole day; usually after about 10 - 15 minutes I'm okay if I can get my mind off it. But I still avoid my triggers as best I can, and if my mutuals would kindly help me, it'll make things a whole lot easier for me.
If you made it this far (I know it's a long post, sorry about that) I thank you sincerely for caring. You are so kind and I appreciate you taking the time to learn about this unfortunate aspect of being a Bwee, and for possibly editing how you write your posts. You are the best. ;-;
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