The Fear I Never Named: Emetophobia Recovery Stories

Inside this volume

Fifty first-person accounts describe emetophobia, the fear of vomiting. For some it began with a wedding dinner, a car ride at seven, a stomach illness at boarding school or a bug sweeping through university halls; others cannot remember a time before it. The writers include a bartender working nights in Lisbon, a nurse and a junior doctor, a London cab driver, a police officer of thirty years, a pharmacist who carried anti-sickness tablets everywhere, a chef, a college midfielder and a 76-year-old who put off a hip operation. Parents write about a frightened eleven-year-old, and partners about secret lists of excuses. They come from Atlanta to Nairobi and Cork to Kuala Lumpur. Writers describe a fear ladder of gradual exposure, one long day of treatment, worksheets at a kitchen table, hypnotherapy, a group of eight strangers, a tablet that took the edge off, being questioned about an eating disorder, and online forums that helped and then kept one woman stuck. Daily life shows up in skipped lunches, family cruises, pregnancies wanted and feared, a hospital bedside and a restaurant meal after seven years. Not everyone is free of it: one man settled for a fear a third of its old size, and one woman saw it return after ten good years.

Who it's for

For people who have quietly organised their lives around a fear of being sick, and for the parents, partners and health workers trying to understand what that fear looks like from the inside.

Format · Instant download · PDF & EPUB · Fifty first-person accounts · PDF: 283 pages

A collection of personal testimony, offered as companion reading — not medical advice.

• 50 single-author testimonies from real people
• A short, plain-language introduction to the topic
• Editor's note, contents page, and curated resource list
• Professional interior typesetting and an original cover

Every purchase includes a print-quality PDF (best for desktop, tablet, and printing) and a reflowable EPUB (best for Kindle, Apple Books, Kobo, and phones). Files are DRM-free. You can download both instantly from the order-confirmation screen, and we email them to your inbox as well, so your books are always within reach.