Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you Should Know from how Stuff Works
Speaker 1: dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark,
Speaker 1: There's Charles b Chuck Bryant, there's Jerry over there. This
Speaker 1: is Stuff you Should Know, very special surprisingly sad edition.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I think so. Yeah, of course it's sad.
Speaker 1: It's really gross. It is gross. I'm gonna have a
Speaker 1: hard time getting through this one, so we should give
Speaker 1: everybody fair warning. We are talking about a metaphobia, which
Speaker 1: is a specific phobia, a fear of throwing up. And
Speaker 1: we'll get way more into um all of that and
Speaker 1: what it means, but we're talking about vomiting. It's basically
Speaker 1: tied for first as the subject of this episode. So
Speaker 1: we're gonna be talking about vomiting a lot. And I
Speaker 1: found from researching this reading and I imagine hearing about
Speaker 1: vomiting for a good thirty minute forty minute stretch, it
Speaker 1: can make one queasy. So just fair warning. I don't
Speaker 1: think it's actually going to make you queasy, but it's
Speaker 1: possible if it starts to happen, just plow through it.
Speaker 1: To just say, Josh and Chuck would want me to
Speaker 1: plow through it, and your queaziness will magically go away.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, all right. Uh So, like you said, it
Speaker 1: is a specific phobia and it is actually listed in
Speaker 1: the d s M. Now, I'm not sure how long
Speaker 1: it's been in there, but it is, well a meta phobia, isn't. Well,
Speaker 1: I thought the specific phobia vomiting. Now, I guess I
Speaker 1: think specific phobias are. I don't. I don't know if
Speaker 1: it's if it's a specifically listed chuck. So when this
Speaker 1: says it is a specific phobia a current according to
Speaker 1: the d s M, what does that mean? I think
Speaker 1: it means that it falls under the umbrella of a
Speaker 1: specific phobia. Okay, you see what I mean. Not really,
Speaker 1: but that's okay. Um. This means, well, you're afraid you
Speaker 1: might vomit. You're afraid someone else might vomit around you. Um,
Speaker 1: you're afraid what people will think of you if you
Speaker 1: do vomit. Yeah. It's just uh, and it's not this
Speaker 1: article where'd you get this stuff? Anyway? Was just sort
Speaker 1: of cobbled. It was cobbled together from some pretty good sources,
Speaker 1: including Psychology Today, the American Association of Anxiety Disorders UM,
Speaker 1: the National Institutes of Health Library, the BBC Vice and
Speaker 1: I want to give a shout out to the listener
Speaker 1: who wrote in to share her a metaphobia story. I
Speaker 1: had never heard of it before, and she had a
Speaker 1: very harrowing experience and overcame it just through sheer grit
Speaker 1: and willpower, um, and came through the other side of
Speaker 1: this very serious phobia. Yeah, which you know, we'll to
Speaker 1: the how to do that later. But um, these articles
Speaker 1: and make great pains to point out that it is. Uh.
Speaker 1: I think all people think it's gross and are very
Speaker 1: much repulsed and turned off by the sound or the
Speaker 1: smell or the look or anything that deals with somebody
Speaker 1: getting sick like this. Um. But this is different than that.
Speaker 1: This is a debilitating fear that can overtake your life. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that would specifically be a metaphobia. There's actually it seems
Speaker 1: like a spectrum where you can also suffer from what's
Speaker 1: called fear of vomiting, which is much less um overwhelming,
Speaker 1: but still you're preoccupied with the idea of vomiting. With
Speaker 1: the metaphobia, your life does not resemble what your life
Speaker 1: would be if you if you weren't afraid. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: a it's a real impairment to your life in a
Speaker 1: lot of different ways, which will go over It seems
Speaker 1: like there's not a lot of study about it. I
Speaker 1: mean I ran across a few studies, but even in
Speaker 1: the studies I found, they specifically say not a lot
Speaker 1: of studies about us. So a lot of the guests
Speaker 1: is about the prevalence are guesses. But um, one thing
Speaker 1: I saw was that UM in the general population eight
Speaker 1: point eight percent. I think that's actually fear of vomiting.
Speaker 1: I think a metaphobia is more like less than one
Speaker 1: percent of the population has actual a metaphobia, but that
Speaker 1: it tends to be UM about four to one ratio
Speaker 1: of women to men. Women suffer from it. They have
Speaker 1: a tendency to suffer from it more. Yeah, and I
Speaker 1: certainly do not have it. But um, like I said,
Speaker 1: like almost everyone in the world probably it is a
Speaker 1: trigger for most folks. Yeah, nobody wants to throw up.
Speaker 1: But if you have a metaphobia, just seeing the title
Speaker 1: of this come through your podcast feed could have set
Speaker 1: off an anxiety attack. And like I feel very guilty
Speaker 1: about that. There nothing we could do because even if
Speaker 1: we warned everybody in the episode before this that this
Speaker 1: was coming that would set off a panic attack. Just
Speaker 1: the mere mention of the word vomit can can set
Speaker 1: the the anxiety disorder into UM full gear. Yeah. This
Speaker 1: one article you sent. One of the clinicians they interviewed UM,
Speaker 1: who treats anxiety disorder, said it is, in her practice,
Speaker 1: the most common fear among children that they see. Yeah. Uh,
Speaker 1: And that's typically how it starts. So it's a chronic disease,
Speaker 1: meaning that if you don't treat this, it's going to
Speaker 1: persist basically every day of your life, and it tends
Speaker 1: to get worse over time. UM. And it usually starts
Speaker 1: with a traumatic experience of vomiting, most frequently of all
Speaker 1: in childhood, So it's it's more common I think, among kids,
Speaker 1: but it can survive into adulthood and it can start
Speaker 1: in adults. But what seems to happen is you have
Speaker 1: a traumatic experience from vomiting, and just like with any
Speaker 1: other true attic experience, whether it's surviving UM, a violent
Speaker 1: crime or being in war, UM, vomiting can have that
Speaker 1: same effect on the brain apparently, and you developed something
Speaker 1: pretty closely akin to PTSD at the thought of vomiting,
Speaker 1: and it overwhelmed the life as a result. I had
Speaker 1: a traumatic experience with this when I was a kid. Um.
Speaker 1: I might have told the story before for another reason,
Speaker 1: but um, I was on the bus going to elementary
Speaker 1: school and there was a scary kid. Remember an elementary school.
Speaker 1: They were just the scary kids. I remember my scary
Speaker 1: kids first and last name. Yeah, right, And they're scary
Speaker 1: for various reasons, whether they were bullies or I mean,
Speaker 1: you could probably diagnose something that was wrong as an adult,
Speaker 1: but as a kid, they were just scary kids. And
Speaker 1: I'm not talking about like I mean, I'm talking about
Speaker 1: like sociopathic behavior, not something that you know, like some
Speaker 1: They weren't, yeah, exactly. They had like real issues that
Speaker 1: were affecting other people around exactly. So this one kid,
Speaker 1: I remember his name was Tony something, but he on
Speaker 1: the way to school one day would or many days,
Speaker 1: he would make himself throw up outside of the uh
Speaker 1: with his face out of the window, and it would,
Speaker 1: you know, the school bus was going down the road
Speaker 1: and it would fly down and land on the windows
Speaker 1: all the way down and other windows, and he would
Speaker 1: make himself vomit, and it just it's scared the crap
Speaker 1: out of me. Man, and it wasn't like I was
Speaker 1: scared scared, scared scared of this dude. Yeah, well that's
Speaker 1: really bizarre, yeah behavior, especially if he was doing it
Speaker 1: to like intimidate, to freak other people out. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: I think I might remember a story because it's you
Speaker 1: know how sometimes a certain event can tie something else
Speaker 1: in your brain. You know. My dad was my elementary
Speaker 1: school principal. I don't know why I was riding the
Speaker 1: bus because he usually just went to work with him.
Speaker 1: He wanted to normalize things maybe, but um, I ran
Speaker 1: to my dad's office right when I got to school crying.
Speaker 1: He wasn't in there, and the secretary, Dot Jones let
Speaker 1: me in the office, and Dot let me stay in
Speaker 1: his office because I was sad. And he had one
Speaker 1: of those big um cabinet stereos record so the stereo
Speaker 1: was already on. But the song that was on, weirdly
Speaker 1: was the BGS How Deep Is Your Love? And to
Speaker 1: this day I hear that song and it makes me
Speaker 1: want to cry. Yeah, it's just a trigger from that
Speaker 1: day with that guy, you know what, and that weird
Speaker 1: that's a sad story because that's a good song. I know,
Speaker 1: it makes me want to weep. It makes me want
Speaker 1: to thinking about Tony making himself throw up, And I
Speaker 1: always wonder what happened that guy. He's in Jim Rose's
Speaker 1: side show right now. Maybe is that still around. I
Speaker 1: don't know, Puky Tony, but yeah that was him, Yukiitonian,
Speaker 1: hippie robber and like a little jug band together. But anyway,
Speaker 1: that's a long way of saying that that was not enough.
Speaker 1: Even the traumatize me to the point where I have
Speaker 1: a metaphobia. No, but I mean it could have been.
Speaker 1: It just it seems to be like and it's not
Speaker 1: even necessarily like a type of person or um. It's
Speaker 1: it's the brain can just the synapsies can fuse in
Speaker 1: a certain way, and all of a sudden you have
Speaker 1: this phobia. And the problem is this is it starts
Speaker 1: from a traumatic experience. So let's say that that had
Speaker 1: had this impact on your chuck, right, what would have
Speaker 1: come next if you were on the road to a
Speaker 1: metaphobia would have been to um, start to fear throwing up,
Speaker 1: seeing somebody throw up, probably is how it would have started.
Speaker 1: And then that would have spread to throwing up yourself,
Speaker 1: and then you would have become hyper vigilant. You would
Speaker 1: you would want to protect yourself from seeing somebody throw
Speaker 1: up or from throwing up. Well, how do you do that?
Speaker 1: To prevent yourself from throwing up? You're gonna monitor every
Speaker 1: single weird feeling you have to say it would mind
Speaker 1: about to throw up, I need to like tamp this down,
Speaker 1: or I can't eat that food it might make me
Speaker 1: throw up. Or I can't read in the car, it
Speaker 1: might make me car sick and I'll throw up, Or
Speaker 1: that person looks kind of sick. I'm going to avoid them,
Speaker 1: and then let's just take it a little further and
Speaker 1: avoid everybody altogether, because anybody could really throw up at
Speaker 1: any given time. And you start to become preoccupied with this,
Speaker 1: and you adjust your life and alter it, and then
Speaker 1: you're constantly worried about throwing up. And once that happens,
Speaker 1: it's the phobia is complete. Your life has changed, you're
Speaker 1: constantly worried about it. And then the cherry on top
Speaker 1: of the whole thing is that when you finally are
Speaker 1: confronted with the word vomit actually seeing somebody something like that,
Speaker 1: you enter a panic attack, an actual panic attack, and um,
Speaker 1: the only way to overcome that is to get away,
Speaker 1: to run, to get out of there, to um, I'm
Speaker 1: not sure all the ways you can handle a panic attack,
Speaker 1: but then it calms down and your anxiety returns to
Speaker 1: normal levels, which is to say hi for the average person. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So in my case an elementary school, how that could
Speaker 1: have gone was, um, I had another ride to school.
Speaker 1: But if I hadn't, I might have stopped taking the
Speaker 1: school bus and started skipping class and not going to
Speaker 1: school at all because I was afraid to get on
Speaker 1: the school bus because of puky tony and gone weeks
Speaker 1: in a row. And then my parents get a call saying,
Speaker 1: Chuck hasn't been in school for weeks, what's going on?
Speaker 1: And that's exactly what's going on. Like it can get
Speaker 1: that severe, and it all boils down to the at
Speaker 1: least in most cases, the anticipation of this more so
Speaker 1: than the actual act in every case, because the the
Speaker 1: people that are struck with this, by all accounts, are
Speaker 1: less vomitous than the general population, so much so because
Speaker 1: they've tried to avoid it, so much so that this
Speaker 1: one article said that most of these people can even
Speaker 1: name like the three or four times in their life
Speaker 1: they have ever puked and what they ate that day,
Speaker 1: and what they had on television and what they wore,
Speaker 1: because it stands out that singularly to them. And then
Speaker 1: so that's horribly ironic that the people who are the
Speaker 1: most worried about throwing up are the people who are actually,
Speaker 1: statistically speaking, at least likely to throw up. Right. Um,
Speaker 1: But there's an even greater irony to the whole thing,
Speaker 1: and we'll talk about that after this break. How about
Speaker 1: that it's a chuck where you're on the irony train
Speaker 1: and I want to keep going. Okay, Yes, the the
Speaker 1: irony of paying attention and being hyper vigilant about vomiting,
Speaker 1: especially when you are, um, worried that you're going to vomit,
Speaker 1: because again, there there's a number of things that you're
Speaker 1: you're worried about. You're going to be worried that you
Speaker 1: won't be able to find a bathroom in time to
Speaker 1: go throw up. You're worried about throwing up in front
Speaker 1: of other people, um, and embarrassing yourself for being teased
Speaker 1: for throwing up. Um. You're worried about just the experience
Speaker 1: of throwing up, this horrible experience. But once you start
Speaker 1: to get a metaphobia, you you lose perspective completely, Like
Speaker 1: it becomes like I've seen multiple they call them a metaphobes,
Speaker 1: people with a metaphobia. I have seen multiple people say
Speaker 1: you would prefer to die than to throw up. That's
Speaker 1: how much they fear throwing up, and the rest of
Speaker 1: us it's like, God, that would suck to throw up,
Speaker 1: but I know I'll be fine on the other end
Speaker 1: of it, not to a person with a metaphobia. So
Speaker 1: the irony of all this is the more you start
Speaker 1: to focus on this and you start to uh think
Speaker 1: about every gurgle in your stomach or every weird twist
Speaker 1: or turn um, it actually produces more anxiety. And here's
Speaker 1: the ironic part. Anxiety can actually make you queasy when
Speaker 1: you're thinking about throwing up, that's right, So it makes
Speaker 1: the whole thing worse and it becomes this vicious cycle. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and they recommend trying to tell yourself, like, I might
Speaker 1: feel queasy, but I'm not going to throw up. My
Speaker 1: anxiety might be making me feel nauseous, but I am
Speaker 1: not going to throw up. Yeah, Because there's a confusion
Speaker 1: of queasiness equals nausea equals throwing up and that's just
Speaker 1: not the case. Like, you can make yourself sick with anxiety,
Speaker 1: but you can't make yourself throw up from being anxious,
Speaker 1: so the whole thing is just wasted. Worry. Yeah, some
Speaker 1: of the other things you might do because of the spear.
Speaker 1: You might not shake hands with anyone ever again you Well,
Speaker 1: I think a lot of people avoid looking at television
Speaker 1: puke scenes. Yeah, you cannot watch. You really can't watch
Speaker 1: those at all. You can't watch Stand by Me or
Speaker 1: The Meaning of Life. Those are so funny looking though,
Speaker 1: but still probably not. Uh. You might throw away food
Speaker 1: in your fridge that uh is not even past this
Speaker 1: expiration date. You might have a trigger there. Um. You
Speaker 1: might overcook your food on purpose, and then before you
Speaker 1: eat it, you will lift the bread a bunch of
Speaker 1: times called checking behavior. Sure. Um, you might not eat
Speaker 1: on vacation as readily because you only trust your trusted
Speaker 1: food sources. You might go into a place and like
Speaker 1: you know, when some people go into a music venue,
Speaker 1: like they check for the exits, like you're checking for
Speaker 1: the bathrooms. You you may not even make it to
Speaker 1: the music venue. You A lot of them. A lot
Speaker 1: of people with the metaphobia end up being agoraphobic and
Speaker 1: just don't leave their house really developing it's it's often
Speaker 1: confused for agaphobia by by UM counselors. Yeah, shrinks, I've
Speaker 1: got another one, all right. Apparently a lot of people
Speaker 1: who have a metaphobia walk around with a plastic bag
Speaker 1: on them at all times, something to throw up into,
Speaker 1: an emergency throw up bag. They walk around with this
Speaker 1: because they're so afraid of throwing up that they never
Speaker 1: need to use because they probably don't ever throw up,
Speaker 1: I know. And some of them will actually carry a
Speaker 1: change of clothes around with them as well, for the
Speaker 1: same reason. If they throw up on themselves, they can
Speaker 1: change their clothes. Yeah, And of course, air travel, drinking
Speaker 1: alcohol um, any of those things are, or car travel
Speaker 1: even like any kind of travel is probably avoided. Definitely
Speaker 1: don't booze it up or Yeah, they probably don't drink
Speaker 1: at all, and subsist on things like pasta and bananas
Speaker 1: and very very safe um digestively speaking foods, although banana
Speaker 1: could gag you. Yeah, you know, God, that would be
Speaker 1: a nightmare if you had a metaphobia. I wonder if
Speaker 1: they mash them up and eat it like like mashed
Speaker 1: up with a fork. Maybe maybe you could see it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I could see cutting your food up into you know,
Speaker 1: the tiniest pieces, because you feel if you're choking. And
Speaker 1: that's one of the fears too. I don't think we
Speaker 1: mentioned like they're not just afraid of the vomiting, but
Speaker 1: they sometimes can fear choking on vomit and dying and
Speaker 1: affixiating and or going to the hospital or starting to
Speaker 1: vomit and the vomiting never ending. That's another fear of
Speaker 1: a metaphobia. One other thing that I saw people do,
Speaker 1: um is prevent getting pregnant because of a fear of
Speaker 1: mourning sickness. Um. So yeah, so your life is is
Speaker 1: altered and curtailed because you're afraid of vomiting. Everywhere you
Speaker 1: look there's some potential trigger out there. So it just
Speaker 1: be easier to stay home and eat your pasta and
Speaker 1: not watch movies basically, and it just lie there and
Speaker 1: monitor your stomach for signs that you're about to throw up.
Speaker 1: That's what they do. That's what you do when you
Speaker 1: have a metaphobia. That's your life. It's no way to live. So,
Speaker 1: like this is not all just academic and stuff. We're
Speaker 1: grasping at shows and pulling together from different cases like
Speaker 1: this is. There's actually a case study we found, UM
Speaker 1: that was of an eight year old girl who had
Speaker 1: a terrible experience throwing up and really kind of encapsulates
Speaker 1: the experience of a metaphobia. She had full blown to metaphobia.
Speaker 1: She had appendicitis and had been throwing up before the
Speaker 1: doctors figured out she had a pendicitis and had her
Speaker 1: appendix removed. And that experience throwing up was um while
Speaker 1: it triggered a metaphobia in her. She when she came
Speaker 1: to and Um was recovering from her surgery, about ten
Speaker 1: days later, she started getting really worried she was going
Speaker 1: to start throwing up like that again. Yeah. It was
Speaker 1: a really sad case and uh pretty much covered everything
Speaker 1: we've said and and even then some to the point
Speaker 1: where her father traveled for business and she didn't want
Speaker 1: him to travel anymore. Her father to travel anymore for
Speaker 1: fear that he would uh get some sickness and then
Speaker 1: bring it back to the house. Uh, I mean that's
Speaker 1: pretty extensive, you know. Yeah, Like she didn't want to
Speaker 1: eat herself. She she didn't want to eat any outside food.
Speaker 1: She had her safe food, but she also didn't want
Speaker 1: her parents to eat any outside food either because she
Speaker 1: didn't want them throwing up. She stopped um playing with
Speaker 1: other kids because she was worried about throwing up in
Speaker 1: front of him and being teased. That was her big thing.
Speaker 1: Um And as as one of the clinicians who we
Speaker 1: came across in this research said, it's not the vomiting
Speaker 1: that's really the problem, Like that's the focus, that's the obsession,
Speaker 1: But the real problem is the worry, the constant worry.
Speaker 1: It's the worry that's altering your life, and it altered
Speaker 1: this little girl's life, you know, very sad. So let's
Speaker 1: let's take another break and then we'll come back and
Speaker 1: put a silver lining on this thing and talk about treatment.
Speaker 1: All right, So we've talked a lot on the show
Speaker 1: over the years about CBT cognitive behavioral therapy or exposure
Speaker 1: and response prevention e r P, basically exposure therapy, and
Speaker 1: this is definitely probably the way to go when it
Speaker 1: comes to a metaphobia. So depending on who you go see,
Speaker 1: you might undergo various kinds of treatments, ranging from starting
Speaker 1: out by literally saying the words vomit out loud or
Speaker 1: throw up or puke or just all the words um,
Speaker 1: because that's literally the first step sometimes into getting over
Speaker 1: this is just being able to speak the word yeah.
Speaker 1: And you may have to start out by writing it
Speaker 1: down first before you can say it out loud for real.
Speaker 1: And so once you move past that, um. The the
Speaker 1: therapies range from um, they're kind of all over the board,
Speaker 1: from looking at fake vomit that your therapist has made
Speaker 1: in a toilet. Yeah, now you're starting to move into
Speaker 1: exposure therapy, right, Yeah, I mean this is all of
Speaker 1: this stuff, uh E r P and CBT, but um,
Speaker 1: you know, they'll make up some fake vomit, put it
Speaker 1: in the toilet, make you go look at it. They themselves,
Speaker 1: the therapists might make the noises in front of you,
Speaker 1: just out of nowhere. Well I imagine they probably prep
Speaker 1: them or maybe not. Uh may may go in the
Speaker 1: bathroom and jump up and say I gotta go get sick.
Speaker 1: And all of this is just exposing this patient over
Speaker 1: and over to the point where they can handle hearing
Speaker 1: the sound, seeing the thing, saying the word. Hearing the
Speaker 1: smell is another one too. One of the recommendations for
Speaker 1: exposure therapy is you make your own throw up, like
Speaker 1: in the toilet, a little bit of um, cold soup
Speaker 1: something like that, maybe mixed in some oatmeal with it,
Speaker 1: and then pour a little vinegar in there to like
Speaker 1: make it pungent, and sit around and think about that
Speaker 1: being vomit. Maybe try to make the sound of throwing
Speaker 1: up yourself, um, try to make yourself gag and and
Speaker 1: all this is to show you, when you have a
Speaker 1: metaphobia that this is, first of all, it's manageable. That's
Speaker 1: the first part. Is what you're trying to do is
Speaker 1: get to this point without having a panic attack. But
Speaker 1: then also um that if you gag, it doesn't mean
Speaker 1: you're automatically going to throw up. And if you do
Speaker 1: throw up, it doesn't mean you're never going to stop
Speaker 1: throwing up, or that everyone's going to ridicule you for
Speaker 1: throwing up. And and that's you know, the point of
Speaker 1: any cognitive behavioral therapy is just kind of change your
Speaker 1: perspective and give you a more realistic view of the
Speaker 1: thing you're worried about. Um. There's also a website called
Speaker 1: rate my Vomit. Have you heard of it? Yeah? I
Speaker 1: wouldn't get to mention that, But go ahead, you have
Speaker 1: heard of it before, No, no, no, I read about it,
Speaker 1: but I just it just sounds like, I mean, that's
Speaker 1: like classic internet stuff, right, Somebody's like, oh, let's put
Speaker 1: pictures of throw up on there, and you guys tell
Speaker 1: me how gross it is. Well, it's actually used by
Speaker 1: people with a metaphobia too, as exposure therapy at home
Speaker 1: to just go look at this stuff and see it.
Speaker 1: There's also videos of people throwing up. There's a lot
Speaker 1: of stuff the internet like unintentionally is this great place
Speaker 1: for people with a metaphobia to go get over their fears?
Speaker 1: And I'm sure, like if you have a fear of snakes,
Speaker 1: it's good for that too, But so is like a
Speaker 1: time life book. You're not gonna find a time life
Speaker 1: book that's nothing but pictures of vomit. You're gonna find
Speaker 1: it on the internet, Yes you will. That's not in
Speaker 1: the Old West series. And then I found this other
Speaker 1: um to other type of therapy Chuck called eye movement
Speaker 1: desensitization and reprocessing e m d R, and it's used
Speaker 1: for post traumatic stress disorder. And it's the most bizarre
Speaker 1: treatment I've ever heard of in my life. But apparently
Speaker 1: it really really works. Are you ready for this? So
Speaker 1: say I was your therapist and you were you have PTSD, uh,
Speaker 1: and it's been used to treat a metaphobia a couple
Speaker 1: of times. But you're talking about the thing that gave
Speaker 1: you PTSD. You're focusing on the worst aspect of this
Speaker 1: traumatic experience, and you're talking about it out loud. But
Speaker 1: while you're doing it, I'm moving my finger back and
Speaker 1: forth and up and down and maybe in a slow circle,
Speaker 1: and I've instructed you to follow my finger wherever I
Speaker 1: move it while you're recounting this horrible traumatic experience. Supposedly
Speaker 1: just doing this over multiple sessions, but sometimes just in
Speaker 1: one long session, PTSD can be treated. And the way
Speaker 1: that this they think this happens, if it actually does work,
Speaker 1: it just sounds like such, just like totally made up
Speaker 1: that in fifty years are going to be like they
Speaker 1: actually thought this worked. But if it does work, they
Speaker 1: think that it works because it it taxes your working
Speaker 1: memory to follow the finger, and your recall then is
Speaker 1: not aided fully by your working memory, So the vividness
Speaker 1: of this horrible memory isn't as as robust as it
Speaker 1: would be if your full working memory. Was was working
Speaker 1: on it, and so it when it when you reprocess it,
Speaker 1: when you file it away again, this memory it's lost
Speaker 1: its luster, it's lost a lot of its um bite
Speaker 1: because you've gotten it out there and reprocessed it in
Speaker 1: a way that's not nearly as traumatic because you're working
Speaker 1: memory was being used in part to follow your therapist finger.
Speaker 1: Supposedly it works, Yeah, and that nuts it's pretty neat. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think so too. I wonder if it really does work.
Speaker 1: You should try it. Anybody, anyone who has ever undergone
Speaker 1: eye movement, desensitization and reprocessing. I would love to hear
Speaker 1: your story if it actually helped you or not. And
Speaker 1: if you have a metaphobia, godspeed, We hope you get
Speaker 1: well soon. And to take this on or any phobia
Speaker 1: really has so much courage and grit that just taking
Speaker 1: a first step towards treatment, My hat is off to
Speaker 1: you for life. Yes, and chances argued probably didn't even
Speaker 1: listen to this episode. Yeah, but if you have a
Speaker 1: different phobia, yeah, you know, any phobia. Uh And since
Speaker 1: I said phobia a couple of times, that means it's
Speaker 1: time for listener mail. I'm gonna call this our second
Speaker 1: p s A in as many weeks. If this releases
Speaker 1: the same week, okay, but this one's about dogs. It's
Speaker 1: very sad. Hey, guys, take a while to write this
Speaker 1: because it's been very difficult to talk about your animal lovers.
Speaker 1: Oh so, probably a good majority of your listeners are,
Speaker 1: and I thought sharing our tragic story would help prevent
Speaker 1: others from experiencing the same thing. We lost our our
Speaker 1: dog River about two months ago because I left the
Speaker 1: bag up chips out. We were at work while she
Speaker 1: got her head stuck in the bag, and we came
Speaker 1: home to find our dogs stiff and lifeless from suffocation.
Speaker 1: We've always been careful about plastic bags and stuff like
Speaker 1: that and kept them stored away for recycling, but never
Speaker 1: occurred to us said a chips bag on the counter
Speaker 1: would something would need to be concerned about. No one
Speaker 1: ever would ever think about that. Everyone we've also told
Speaker 1: said it was something they never thought about either. So
Speaker 1: now we keep all of our bag foods in the
Speaker 1: cupboard and cut the bottoms off of anything that goes
Speaker 1: into the recycling and waist pins. It's a good idea too.
Speaker 1: I started doing that since these guys wrote it in. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we were and still are extremely heartbroken. I hope no
Speaker 1: one else will have to go through experience. Um, it
Speaker 1: was the worst and if I can help save just
Speaker 1: one other dog's life, it's been worthwhile. So thanks for
Speaker 1: being you guys. Thanks for being you guys. There's a comment,
Speaker 1: there's not, but I think that's how I'm supposed to
Speaker 1: read it. I hope you make it into your next
Speaker 1: Seattle show. That's Jackie W from Seattle. Jackie, thank you
Speaker 1: for writing in. I'm so sorry about River. Um, but
Speaker 1: I hope you guys are doing okay. Yeah, that sounds
Speaker 1: like a guest list. Yeah, I agreed action to me. Yeah,
Speaker 1: right back in and uh we'll guest Yeah, we're coming
Speaker 1: in January. So yes, so just right back in. We'll
Speaker 1: throw you on there. And she sent a picture of River,
Speaker 1: beautiful dog, very very sad, River look very sweet. Um,
Speaker 1: if you have a p s A that happened to
Speaker 1: you that you think we should share to warn everybody
Speaker 1: else about, we want to do that. UM. You can
Speaker 1: tweet to us at s Y s K podcast. I
Speaker 1: met Josh ump Clark. You can also check out my website.
Speaker 1: Are you see is clark dot com Chuck's on Facebook
Speaker 1: at Charles W. Chuck Bryant, and there's the official Stuff
Speaker 1: you Should Know Facebook. Two. You can send all of
Speaker 1: us and Jerry an email to Stuff Podcast at how
Speaker 1: stuff Works dot com and has always joined us at
Speaker 1: our home on the web, Stuff you Should Know dot com.
Speaker 1: For more on this and thousands of other topics, is
Speaker 1: that how Stuff Works dot com