About This Site
This is a site to help sufferers of emetophobia and/or their therapists to gradually desensitize to the stimuli. This site is safe. There are no surprises, and every word, drawing, cartoon or picture is behind a link with a clear explanation of what you will see. This desensitization system sets up a "hierarchy of fears" that begins with a picture of simply the first letter in the word of what it is you fear. There are 42 levels....they include drawings, cartoons, people looking unwell and finally graphic pictures. WARNING: DO NOT look through all the levels without following the process outlined below. It may result in retraumatization, and a worsening of phobic syptoms.
How Desensitization Works
The fear response is usually measured in terms of an 11-point scale (0-10) known as the SUD scale ("Subjective Units of Distress") On this scale 0 = no fear whatsoever and 10 = so much fear you feel terrified, horrified, may dissociate from reality and instantly "run away" (if you can). If you cannot run from the stimulus you may fight someone with surprising violence. If it is your own self you fear, at level 10 you will experience a horrible panic attack. (However it is good to know that you will not die, have a heart attack, go crazy or become ill.) The SUD scale is "subjective" which means that only the victim can decide what constitutes what number on the scale. It is this author's opinion that desensitization is not effective at levels higher than 5. This means that if you look at a picture, and it evokes more panic than 5 on a scale of 0-10, then it won't help you to look at it. It will only be distressing, and make you worse.
If you are not using this site with the help of a qualified therapist (which is recommended), then be sure that you look at the pictures at each level until your anxiety level is at 0 or 1. This means you have to look at it until you are BORED! DO NOT proceed to the next level until you are bored, and have NO ANXIETY. There is ABSOLUTELY NO POINT in scanning through all the levels "to see if you can do it". You can probably do it, but it will NOT help you. In fact, it will probably make your phobia worse. The idea of desensitization is to GRADUALLY expose yourself to the stimulus. The key word is "GRADUAL", not "expose".
It is recommended that you keep a journal or log of your desensitization experience. Write numbers on the left column indicating which viewing of the picture it is. Then make another column for SUDs 0-10. You may wish to make two columns, one for anxiety and one for feelings of disgust or nausea. Remember that nausea/disgust is linked to anxiety, so when one score goes down the other will too. This is often a helpful insight.
Good luck!
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