Mum-of-two Lily shares how severe phobia has impacted her family life

A YOUNG mother has opened up about her struggle with a severe vomiting phobia and how it has affected her and her child.

- by MAXINE DENTON [e-mail] @CornwallLive

Lily Lynch, 24, from Penzance, was diagnosed with emetophobia when she was only seven.

"As a young child people didn’t understand it, so it affected me at school", she said.

"I wasn’t able to eat, so people thought I was maybe autistic because I had ‘safe foods.

"I've had times where I've been housebound, usually around the time norovirus is going around. I was scared of picking up a bug at school, so I didn’t go at times, and I’ve had problems with jobs because I haven't been able to go to work if one of my colleagues got sick.

"It also affects my eating because I usually eat beige food when I’m at my worst."

Many people didn’t understand her phobia, she said, and so she had often been judged harshly by others.