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Autism and phobia of being sick/anyone else being sick

Chelsie

Hi, my 10 year old daughter has just this week been diagnosed with autism. She has lots of fears and phobias but the main one is herself or anyone else being sick. A girl in class at school was sick this was back in may and she hasn’t been to school since then because of this. Her anxiety has since then became 10x worse, around 4 weeks ago my daughter was poorly during the night, she felt sick didn’t say that but I know her too well. Anyway since then she now won’t sleep upstairs and I’ve been sleeping on a mattress downstairs with her. I’m absolutely exhausted. Has anyone else had anything like this before? I’m at a loss with what I can do to make things better. She has therapy once a week already with someone from cyps, but my daughter won’t even mention the word sick or speak about it, she’s terrified. So it’s limited to what we can speak about other wise she will just shut down. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. 

  • in reply to ebee

    Thank you for the reply, it’s a relief to know I’m not alone in this. I’m also obsessed with checking dates for bread, eggs and milk. My family reassure me and try to get me to relax lol. I’m a walking paradox because my room is an absolute mess, but I also have ADHD which I believe causes heavy procrastination. I also have a paranoia around food poisoning, too 

  • in reply to Jay4472

    Hi Jay,


    My daughter experiences something very similar. We think for her it’s largely linked to health anxiety — she worries that if she feels sick, it must mean she’s actually unwell.

    This also affects things like food (e.g. concerns around best-before dates) and hand washing.

    She is improving though, and we’ve been recommended CBT, which we’re currently waiting to start.

  • Not sure if anyone else is reading this now - but I’m almost 22 years old and have feared being sick for as long as I can remember. A couple of months ago I was actually sick for the first time I can remember, and it caused me to panic. I think it was the result of extreme stress accumulated, but even now when I have a stomach ache I get nervous. I also think I have OCD, which would explain it from a hygiene perspective 

  • Hi Chelsie,
    I know it's been a while, but reading your post felt unreal. It describes our situation with our 10 year old daughter almost exactly. I really hope she was able to overcome the phobia. If so, could you share what helped? It's been really tough on all of us, and as parents, we feel so helpless.

  • Oh boy!

    10, you say?  I'm 57 and I am massively identifying with her. In fact, it was my body/ medical phobias which crescendoed into the crisis which led to my belated and recent diagnosis.

    Ok, so we're all different so I can't promise you that her problem is exactly like mine, but I can try to relate it to mine if it might give a clue or two..

    Firstly, I have - and she may- have massively amplified internal body sensations that are not like an NT's. She may be feeling things more violently or differently inside and be completely unable to interpret or describe them and be finding them disturbing. My own H___ beat freaks me out to a max, for instance. And my sense of pain swings between none when I should have some, to extreme when there should be none. Yet I can't describe pain to a doctor.

    Even the external cues to such things; pictures or the words to denote these bodily reactions may be too much to bare. It takes me a lot of courage to even type the names of some body parts.

    Or it may be that she's worried about what being sick will mean for her...doctors, illness etc. And she may have fears about that.

    As for the answer...I'd like to think that had anyone cottoned on when I was 10, there might have been some hope for me. They say occupational therapy can help; a gradual desensitization to the triggers. 

    I'd also love the answers anyone else can come up with on this, - at 57 I'm still searching- so thank you for posting.

    Meanwhile, just know you are a good mum doing your best. Give her as much reassurance as you can and listen for the clues she's struggling to give you.

    God bless you and your lovely lass.