Bella Ramsey said they once suffered from an “intense” fear of vomiting that left them stuck in their house for months as a teen.
While appearing on the “Louis Theroux Podcast” earlier this week, the “Last of Us” star, now 21, revealed that battling emetophobia, the intense fear of vomiting or seeing others vomit, made them see “everything outside [as] a threat.”
“The concept of having a stomach bug or having norovirus is enough [to activate the phobia],” they explained. “It’s such an all-encompassing fear. It’s the unpredictability…”
The actor said their emetophobia got so intense around age 13 that they felt they “couldn’t leave my house,” adding that “the only safe place in the world was home, and even that wasn’t safe at times in terms of germs.”
The “Game of Thrones” alum, who uses they/them pronouns, said that the phobia caused them to hyperfixate on sickness and to “see germs.”
“You go out … it’s like you can see germs, you see like sickness, everywhere. Terrifying … it used to affect me on set as well.”
They continued, “Say, if I’ve been in contact with someone who has got norovirus, for the next like 2 weeks, it’s a thing of monitoring how I’m feeling. Like, what if I go out and go on the [London Underground] Tube and then the symptoms come and I start to feel unwell? Now I throw up on the Tube, and how bad is that?”
At one point, Ramsey said they felt so consumed by having emetophobia that they thought they “would rather die than throw up.”
Ramsey told Theroux that they sought help for their phobia by reading a book called “The Thrive Programme” written by Rob Kelly. They shared they don’t feel emetophobic anymore, but admitted they still have “a slightly stronger reaction to vomit than the average person” and are “more averse or afraid of it.”
Listen to Ramsey’s appearance on the “Louis Theroux Podcast” here.
If you or someone you know needs help, call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org for mental health support. Additionally, you can find local mental health and crisis resources at dontcallthepolice.com. Outside of the U.S., please visit the International Association for Suicide Prevention.
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