I often lament that while many mental illnesses and phobias are depicted on television, in movies, and social media, emetophobia is not. At least, not at this writing at the end of 2025. I keep waiting for someone on Grey’s Anatomy or the latest Netflix mini series to have emetophobia, so that more people might become aware of it.
Unfortunately, however, pop culture has a funny way of exaggerating things for shock value, and vomiting is no exception. From slapstick comedies to horror movies, it’s often portrayed as grotesque, loud, and over-the-top. For someone with emetophobia, these depictions can reinforce the belief that vomiting is catastrophic, or that it happens to adults all the time, and often in public which is not the case. Unless you’ve been around drunk people, you don’t actually see people vomiting in public at all. If you have, it was a very rare event indeed. Adults almost always have enough time to “hold it in” until they get to a washroom or at least a receptacle of some kind.
In real life, vomiting rarely looks like the chaotic scenes in movies. But when you see it dramatized on screen, your brain interprets it as a threat. This makes even fictional scenes triggering. Interestingly, now that I’m recovered from emetophobia I don’t remember all the scenes of vomiting in movies. When I was afraid of seeing others vomit, I could remember every last time I saw it on screen.
Some of the more memorable vomiting scenes on screen are in the movie Bridesmaids (although the diarrhea scenes are the really funny ones), the one in Pitch Perfect and the one in Bring It On. There are also very graphic scenes in both The Sandlot and Stand by Me. Back in the 80s there was a Monty Python film called “The Meaning of Life” which had a ridiculous vomit scene in it. In the film “The Green Mile” the main character opens his mouth and whole bunch of grey flies kind of swarm out. Some people look upon this scene as “vomiting” and I recently read an article where the writer described it as the worst vomiting scene ever, whereas others don’t even see it as a vomiting scene.
People with emetophobia may avoid entire genres of movies, skip TV shows, or even panic when an unexpected scene pops up – quickly changing the channel, closing their eyes or plugging their ears. On Instagram, X and Facebook there are people with accounts who preview movies and tell you whether there are scenes of vomit in them so you can avoid them. This avoidance reinforces the idea that you can’t cope with vomiting.
Some therapists want to begin exposure therapy with their clients in emetophobia treatment by showing them videos from YouTube or movie scenes with vomiting. This is far too far up the hierarchy ladder of emetophobia resources, however. One should begin with easy things like words and drawings, moving on to pictures and so forth before ever looking at video.
If you’re ready to start using exposure to tackle these triggers, you can sign up for my group exposure and response prevention classes for people with emetophobia. The next set of 11 classes begins in January. More info can be found at http://www.emetophobiahelp.org/classes.