There are countless phobias that individuals can suffer from and one which can make a person's life an absolute misery is Emetophobia.
This is a phobia which is based around a person's fear of being sick, feeling sick, seeing someone else being sick or often just the sight of vomit.
Obviously, no one likes being sick or seeing someone who is sick but the majority of people are able to cope with this reasonably well.
A person who has Emetophobia on the other hand will react very badly to this and may even suffer from panic attacks as a result.
If you are worried that you might be Emetophobic, or that someone that you know could be here are the symptoms that are associated with this condition:

• Acute worry about being sick or feeling sick.
  This feeling is so intense that it can leave the person almost paralysed with fear over being sick.
  
• Living in fear of seeing or hearing another person being sick.
  This can also include a person's own children or other relatives and as a result a sufferer will feel as though they cannot look after a child if they become ill as they become very anxious.
  
• Some people will refuse to eat certain foods that they believe could be a trigger to feeling nauseous or being sick.
  Often this fear stems from eating the food in question and then being sick or feeling nauseous afterwards.
  
• A strong desire to control the making of any food that the sufferer eats.
  For example, a person with Emetophobia will not want others to handle food that they are going to eat.
  As a result they will avoid eating in restaurants or even in the houses of friends as they fear their food will be contaminated by something which will bring on vomiting or nausea.
  
• A compulsion to excessively clean any surfaces that food might come into contact with.
  Sometimes this can lead to an obsession with cleanliness in a sufferers house as they also believe that germs can spread to them from any surface.
  
• A great number of sufferers will avoid travelling via certain modes of transport.
  Often boats and cars are a worry and avoiding cars especially can be very difficult for a person.
  
• Attending social events can trigger panic attacks as the sufferer will worry that they might vomit during them.
  In particular events that involve food and / or alcohol are especially stressful as the sufferer will believe that the likelihood of them or someone else being sick is greatly increased.
  
• Panic attacks which begin when the sufferer starts to either feel sick or think that they might do.
  These can often come on totally out of the blue and can leave a sufferer unable to go about their day to day life.
  When these panic attacks are very strong a person is fearful about leaving their house and may refuse to go to work etc.
  When this happens it is very serious and the person needs to seek advice on their condition.
  
• In very severe cases Emetophobia can trigger eating disorders as the person with the condition does not want to eat much food in case they are sick.
  Over time this amount can get less and less and anorexia can take hold.
  

As these symptoms show Emetophobia is a very real and very hard to live with condition.
Anyone with these symptoms needs to seek advice on their condition and consider using one of the various types of treatment that can help to control and eliminate Emetophobia.