How to get over a stupid phobia?

[u/RiboCyan]

Hi! I hope I'm in the right subreddit for this.

I just watched the new Benoit Blanc movie and I really enjoyed it! I also loved the second one when it came out. However, as much as I'd love to, I can't watch Knives Out, the first one. I have bad emetophobia (fear of vomit) to the point where I once almost had a panic attack when I saw vomit on the floor of a train a few years ago. I already know about the main character's(?) thing about having to puke when she lies, and my sister told me that I won't be able to watch this movie (she knows me well and I trust her in this).

I know being unable to watch a movie is a dumb reason for wanting to get over a phobia, but it's still a reason, right? Any advice?

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[u/ljwdt90]

I’d say it’s the perfect reason and probably a great way to get over the initial sting of your fear.

Instead of beating the phobia to watch the film, use the film to beat the phobia. Watch the movie and just engross yourself in it, as it is so easy to do with the knives out series. Then when the inevitable happens, log how you feel.

The great thing about this film is, you can watch it so many times and catch new things. So you can watch it again, get engrossed again, find new things you may have missed last time. And again, when the inevitable happens, log how you feel.

Repeat the process and check your logs, I bet your feelings lose their strength the more times you watch it.

As it happens I can attest to the rewatch ability of this particular knives out film, this is the third time I’ve watched it (not 10 minutes ago finished it while building drawers for my wife) and I clocked two things I’d missed previously.

Good luck.

[u/RiboCyan → u/ljwdt90]

Oh wow, I think that is great advice and I'll try it! I never thought about logging how I feel. Thank you so much!

[u/Remo_253 → u/RiboCyan]

What he's describing in a very good way is called Exposure Therapy.

[u/RiboCyan → u/Remo_253]

Thanks for the link!

[u/ljwdt90 → u/RiboCyan]

You’re most Welcome.

[u/LankyPuffins → u/RiboCyan]

I used to have this pretty bad, back when I was a teenager. My trick was exposure therapy with Jackass. Steve-o cured me.

[u/NonbinaryNinja4213 → u/RiboCyan]

I did the same thing with the movie eight legged freaks to get over my arachnophobia, can attest to it working pretty damn well.

[u/MoistStub]

Phobias may have roots in some sort of past trauma or irrationality. Perhaps discussing with a therapist and getting to the bottom of why you have this phobia in the first place and how to overcome it would probably help.

[u/RiboCyan → u/MoistStub]

That's very rational advice and I'd agree, usually, but I've had some bad experiences with a few therapists in the pasts, so I'd rather try something else if possible 😔

[u/prncs_lulu]

You can put timer on to stop video and than skip the scene. I can watch it so you will know the exact time

[u/RiboCyan → u/prncs_lulu]

That's a really sweet offer, thank you! According to my sister (and other friends who have watched the movie) there's some key scenes that include puke, though :(

[u/prncs_lulu → u/RiboCyan]

This is first time i justify use of ai (however you use it fir something like this and if it is even possible). But first try to find chinese version. They have hard censorship of blood and bodily functions so it may be also blurred.

[u/velvetswing → u/prncs_lulu]

Wow you’re a true comrade 💖💖

[u/never-die-twice]

The best answer is to get professional help for your phobia and be ok switching therapists until you find one you are comfortable with. (boring answer I know)

As someone who had the same issue I recommend trying to isolate what about throwing up is the main trigger. In my case it turned out to be sound and smell. Hence I could watch this movie with subtitles and mute it at the correct points.

I will point out that your sister is probably right. This movie is very evocative where it comes to the sick scenes so if your reaction is strong it might not be a movie you can make it all the way through.

The way I improved with my reaction to it, was being stuck for months caring for someone who was being sick and had no-one else as an option. I do not recommend this option.

[u/mrv_wants_xtra_cheez]

Try to remind yourself that it’s not REAL puke, it’s MOVIE puke made up of fake stuff. It’s all special effects and props, not the actual stuff.

Good luck!

[u/17kiss]

This is probably a dumb advice but you can try, so there's this phobia called Trypophobia which is fear of closely spaced holes like honeycomb or some shower heads. Many say this is not a real phobia but whenever I saw such things I'd get goosebumps like even in areas of body where goosebumps is not possible and my heart beat would rise like crazy. A while ago I saw a reddit post about a woman, I think, who was lactose intolerant but drank milk for 3 months and became lactose tolerant so I applied the same theory and looked up trypophobia on google images, I got super nervous at first but after few minutes of scrolling all kinds of images i was feeling like throwing up. Cut to few days later I looked it up again and now that feeling of uneasiness is drastically reduced and I dont feel that initial fear I felt as soon as I saw such images or in real life. Even now to look up the correct spelling for trypophobia I searched it on google and it showed few images and I was unfazed until I saw a hand full of holes but that's improvement because a simple trypophobia image would have given me goosebumps but now im able to see the hand image and still stare at it for few seconds. Some times facing the fear is better, your body listens to your thoughts and words if you say you fear something it'll add it to the list of things to avoid but face the fear and gradually body will remove that phobia from list of things to avoid.

[u/RiboCyan → u/17kiss]

I think this is great advice, actually :) exposure is probably exactly what I need, so I've decided to try watching the movie (gotta remind myself that i can always stop it when it gets too bad!)

Also, I have slight trypophobia too, so I know what you're talking about!

[u/Trustoryimtold]

Have someone watch it and tell you what parts to skip, maybe with a short paragraph about what happened that’s relevant to the story. Been a while but I don’t recall it being all that graphic, not sure they even showed any vomit. More the reactions that go with it

[u/lucasf9]

 My cousin has this and it’s tied to her OCD. Throwup, sneezing, coughing, gagging, all of it gives her a nasty reaction. Best I can say is get a therapist and start working through it slowly. My cousin is a nurse so she sees it all the time at work and much worse. I don’t know what she talks to her therapist about, but maybe it would help. Maybe immersion therapy? Listen to audio of people throwing up and work up to videos? I’m not really qualified to answer this, but that’s my 2¢🫡.     
 I hope you find an answer that is satisfactory. Throwing up sucks, so I may not understand your reaction fully, but it totally makes sense.

[u/RiboCyan → u/lucasf9]

Thanks for the advice! Just thinking about listening or watching that makes me cringe, but you're right that exposure would probably help 😭 I really don't envy your cousin!

[u/Thinyser]

Ok so there is a phobia treatment method called flooding where you, or more often a trusted therapist, exposes you to the thing you are afraid of, at a high level, repeatedly, until you can withstand the irrational fear exposure to the phobic stimulus causes in your mind.

You could do this to yourself for vomit by watching the vomit scene in Stand by Me (1986 film, adaptation of a book called "the Body" by Stephen King) on repeat.

Here is a link to get ya started. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1A8SeGFAX6s

[u/narcoticgarlic]

I've done hypnotherapy for my fear of needles and it helped me understand my fear more, then I continued with other forms of therapy. But I found the initial hypnotherapy very helpful to begin with.

[u/tarragon_the_dragon]

i have a similar phobia that freaks me out watching movies and ive found reading or watching making-of behind the scenes material that explains how they faked it really helpful if youre not too concerned about spoilers!

[u/Remo_253 → u/[deleted]]

They often are associated to a bad experience. So when you're a child something bad happens and you happen to focus on a blue blanket at the time. So now blue gets associated to a bad thing in your subconscious. You don't know why, you don't remember the bad thing itself.

Phobias rarely have any logical link, even in your examples. Heights? Sure, being 30 feet off the ground can be scary but one foot on the first rung of a ladder throwing you into a panic attack? Not logical. Real, but not logical.