Kaneria CBT - Emetophobia and Anxiety Specialist

Kaneria CBT - Emetophobia and Anxiety Specialist Let's overcome your anxiety together | Anxiety and Emetophobia Specialist | https://linktr.ee/kaneria.cbt If you often feel like this, I am here to help.

My name is David and I believe no one should be stuck feeling anxious, scared, or worried. I am a BABCP accredited Cognitive Behavioural Therapist (CBT) who specialises in treating emetophobia and anxiety disorders.

01/01/2026

Acceptance works better than battling anxious thoughts about vomiting.

The simple answer is yes, sometimes.As children (and as adults) we learn about the world from others. We learn what is s...
31/12/2025

The simple answer is yes, sometimes.

As children (and as adults) we learn about the world from others. We learn what is safe and what is not by both experience and by listening to others. For example, when your parents told you not to touch fire as it will hurt, most of you did not need to touch the flames to see this for yourself. You just trusted the adult who told you. These messages do not need to be as explicit as this. For example, if you see someone acting afraid of something, you can learn that it is scary even if the person you just saw acting afraid did not tell you anything. For example, if you see your parent scream and run out of a room in response to a dog, you can learn that dogs are dangerous.

The same is true for the fear of vomiting. If you, as a child saw others react with fear, you could learn the message of there “must be something to be afraid of because they are afraid of it”. This also means your children can learn this fear if there is no one around to tell them overwise. Going back to the dog example, if you saw your mum run out of the room, but your dad stayed calm and explained to you that dogs are actually safe, but your mum is irrationally scared of them, then the child might not learn to be afraid.

So, it is better to explain Emetophobia to your child, because if you don’t, they might pick up on your fear without you even realising.

This is a complicated question.In the past, researchers used to believe that exposure therapy works because you learn yo...
30/12/2025

This is a complicated question.

In the past, researchers used to believe that exposure therapy works because you learn you tolerate and “get used to the feeling of anxiety”. So, they strongly recommended against benzodiazepines or any medications that reduce your anxiety during exposure therapy. This made sense based on how they used to view exposure therapy. How can you get used to anxiety, if you are taking medication to feel less anxious?

However, newer research shows that exposure therapy works by helping you learn something. That being that your fears are less likely to occur than you think they are. For example, if you avoid going to the hospital because you are convinced you will catch a vomiting bug, then exposure therapy works by you going there and seeing what happens. If you go to the hospital 5 times and you don’t catch anything, you learn that you were wrong and that hospitals are safe. And your anxiety comes down, not because “you got used” to being in a hospital and tolerating anxiety, but because you learnt you didn’t need to be anxious in the first place (because your fears are less likely than you thought). So, under this new idea, medication is fine to take when doing exposure. Because you can still learn this same lesson.

Now here is the key point, anti-anxiety medication can prevent you learning these important lessons from exposure therapy. For example. if you draw the conclusion of “I was only safe/only coped because I was on the medication” then you will still be afraid of the hospital. So, taking medication is not bad, but you have to make sure you don’t use taking the medication as the reason you did well during your exposure therapy.

29/12/2025

Learn about how emetophobia tries to trick you into digging your own hole.

Imagine that there is a machine running a programme in your brain called the “stay alive machine”. The only job this mac...
24/12/2025

Imagine that there is a machine running a programme in your brain called the “stay alive machine”. The only job this machine has is to stop you from dying. This machine evaluates everything all the time to monitor and detect threats.
This type of machine doesn't like to take chances. It would rather be wrong and say something is a threat that is safe, than be wrong about something being safe that was actually dangerous. So, the “stay alive machine” that over-reacted survived, and over the generations it got fine-tuned to be very effective at its’ job. And that job is to think about all the worst possibilities and helping people to avoid danger, just in case. The problem is that your “stay alive machine” is wrongly learnt that vomiting is a threat. And it doesn’t like taking chances. That is why exposure therapy feels so hard. Our brains are programmed to not want to drop our safety behaviours and face our fears. This is why it feels so hard to overcome Emetophobia.

However. the “stay alive machine” is still a good thing. You should be happy it is there. This machine is designed with no “off switch” on purpose. Imagine if our ancestors could turn off this machine to avoid feeling uncomfortable. Most likely they would have done so. But then they would risk going somewhere dangerous and dying. Look at young children, animals or people who lack capacity to recognise dangers. They move towards something dangerous without their “stay alive machine” recognising the danger. If it was not for others keeping them safe, they might end up really hurting themselves. So, this machine is designed with no off switch.

Even though the “stay alive machine” is a good thing, see it like an employee working for you. It is doing its job, but it is overreacting and it is not always right. You are the boss. This means you decide on if you listen to it or not. It is the machines job to spot potential dangers; it is our job to listen to this machine or overrule it when it is wrong. And it is wrong about vomiting.

One of the main factors in emetophobia is how “likely” you believe your fears are to actually come true (i.e. the chance...
23/12/2025

One of the main factors in emetophobia is how “likely” you believe your fears are to actually come true (i.e. the chance of vomiting).

Your perception of your "risk" of vomiting can change from situation to situation and can fluctuate based on mood, life circumstances and many other factors (such as if we are using any safety behaviours).

As this risk is based on perception, it means we have the potential to overestimate how likely bad things are to occur based on how we are feeling in any given moment. If we overestimate how likely something bad is to occur, then we can feel more worried about it than we really need to be.

As this perception changes, it also means that it is possible to go through periods of time where you feel “safe” from vomiting. Times where you don’t feel at risk of vomiting is high. During these periods you feel less anxious, but not because you are any less afraid of vomiting, but because in that moment you don’t think it is likely to happen. The minute something happens to increase your perception of danger, your anxiety floods back in.

Offer ends in 9 days.I still have a few spaces left for new clients for my special offer for Emetophobia treatment at £3...
22/12/2025

Offer ends in 9 days.

I still have a few spaces left for new clients for my special offer for Emetophobia treatment at £35 per session. This price is fixed for the whole course of therapy (approx. 12-20 sessions based on your need).

To secure this offer, book in your free no obligation consultation to ask questions and see if I am the right therapist for you.

To book and for more information check out my website using the QR code in the image or this link -> https://www.kaneria-cbt.com/free-consultation

Already or considering becoming a Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner (PWP). Check out the “PWP corner”. It has loads o...
09/12/2025

Already or considering becoming a Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner (PWP). Check out the “PWP corner”. It has loads of free information on all things PWP such as guides on how to deliver BA, CR and worry management. New content on Exposure and Habituation just added. More content coming soon. Please feel free to suggest topics.

https://www.kaneria-cbt.com/pwp-corner

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https://linktr.ee/kaneria.cbt

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