I’m finding I’m struggling with my emetophobia a lot at the moment, to the point where it keeps impacting my work and my ability to go to work.
I had an incident a few days ago where I felt so nauseous I had to leave work (tried to distract myself for 3+ hours and then kept feeling worse) flustered after a panic attack and stayed off work the following day. Now, I’ve woken up at 1am (aka the danger zone as well all know it) feeling so nauseous again. It feels impossible once I’ve gone off work to even step foot at work again because I’m constantly worrying whether something is due to hit me but it hasn’t hit me yet? Why have I woken up at 1am, clearly something doesn’t agree with my stomach if I’m feeling nauseous again? Etc etc.
it is also hard to convince my brain that even if it was anxiety causing my nausea the previous days, how do I know the nausea right now is definitely still anxiety and not the food that I ate last night and therefore it’s unsafe for me to go in and it’s best for me to stay at home.
This continuous mental battle is so exhausting and I guess I’m posting to hope that someone is able to relate with a similar battle/ has gone through said battle and how they overcame it. I have told a few colleagues at work who seem to be quite supportive regarding it, but I haven’t really told higher management about it. I just find it embarrassing and I feel as though they won’t take me seriously if I admit to it, with the fear that it’ll come across as not a “genuine problem”…