Does emetophobia run in families?
At least 50 percent of the personality is inherited. It is well established that phobias cluster in families. Perhaps the tendency to develop a phobia is what is actually inherited, and the emetophobic individual happens to attach this tendency to vomiting. The environmental cause of emetophobia is even more striking. Many emetophobics claim the lack of support from their parents during childhood vomiting episodes precipitated their phobia. It would not be surprising to find that an emetophobic parent is unable to be supportive of a vomiting child, and thus helps the child become emetophobic as well. On the other hand, most emetophobics will tell you that their brothers and sisters and parents and children are not emetophobic.
