Do you suffer from emetophobia? If you do, you may or may not realize that the term emetophobia even exists or that your fear of vomiting is an actual condition shared by millions of people around the world. So, if this is your first time putting a name to your phobia, now you can rest easy you’re not “weird”.

Now, whether you knew the fear of vomiting was an actual condition or not, what you might be wondering now, especially if you’re a parent or soon-to-be parent, is if your child will inherit this fear. The answer is “maybe”. Why maybe? Well, it all depends on how you obtained your fear of vomiting. For exmaple, are there any known cases in your family history? If so, statistically you could pass on the fear to your child, or at least the predisposition to obtaining the same fear as you. But, if your fear was due to some trauma you experienced that is unique to you, then perhaps the chances are higher than you won’t pass it on.

There are psychological issues that certainly can be passed from parent to child but they may manifest themselves in different form. For example, you may have emetophobia but your child may develop another type of phobia completely unrelated. Or, they may not inherit any phobia-related genes.

However, it’s important to mention that emetophobia itself is not genetic. It’s more often a learned behavior as mentioned above. Keep in mind as well that if you suffer terribly from emetophobia, such as have panic attacks or what not, then try to keep your reactions away from your child if possible otherwise they’ll think that’s how one should act when it comes to vomiting.