THIS Trending Actor Detailed How They Overcame Their Sickness Phobia Whilst Dealing With Fear and Fame

            

Acting is a draining, grueling industry. While it’s very rewarding and fulfilling, between long set hours, travel, and expenses, it takes a lot. It’s an even harder industry to work in when you have a severe sickness phobia. 

BAFTA nominated and trending actress Bella Ramsey. And they suffered all of that while they had to work on various projects. Known for The Last of Us and Game of Thrones, Ramsey has what is known as emetophobia, which is the fear of vomiting. 

Emetophobia Free is a programme based in the UK that’s helped over 23,000 people conquer the phobia. And the programme is what helped the young actor finally conquer their debilitating phobia. Ramsey got to sit down for a Podcast Interview with Rob Kelly, a founder and psychotherapist of the programme and discussed the parts of their life on set many don’t know about. They explained in the interview that the phobia affected their life on set… every single day. 

 Vogue

“It was still on my mind everyday and I would be very conscious of what food I could eat on set, worried about if there was a bug going around or who looked ill and who didn’t,” Ramsey explained. “And if I had to eat set food like a prop that was food, I’d be stressed about that and wanted to be sure they heated it properly,” They added. With emetophobia, many sufferers struggle with food and eating behavior. Not just based off of how well meat is cooked, but what food is deemed “safe” and “not safe” in order to prevent being sick. Many even have eating disorders such as ARFID. And Ramsey struggled on set with something as simple as food. 

Ramsey detailed that while they struggled as an actor with emetophobia, their career was actually a distraction. They detailed to Rob Kelly that when they immersed themselves in their various characters, it helped them focus on how their characters themselves didn’t have the fear, so they didn’t either in those moments. They recalled that during shoots, the moments between when the cameras were on and rolling was when their emetophobia was nonexistent, because it was nonexistent in their characters’ lives. “The characters that I played didn’t have that, and I was so focused on this one thing I was doing… and all of my emetophobia stuff on set I just sort of had to deal with, because I didn’t have a choice.”

Emetophobia is more common than one might think. However it’s more common, according to statistics, in women than in men. Two percent of men globally struggle with it, while seven percent of women globally struggle with it. Many in response to hearing about the phobia say “well no one likes throwing up” or “throwing up makes you feel better,” yet for emetophobia sufferers like Bella Ramsey, it goes far beyond just dislike. A phobia is an extreme fear, not a small one. And while one can control being away from spiders or snakes, emetophobia, according to Rob Kelly, is the worst phobia to have because of lack of control vomiting has on a person. The phobia took over Ramsey’s life so much that they detailed how they had hit rock bottom and couldn’t even leave the safety of their own home. 

(The Showbiz Cheat Sheet)

“There was a point at which I couldn’t leave my house, like my family home I couldn’t, I couldn’t go outside because in my, in everything, there’s times where it felt like even the air around me was like a threat. I was just living in this world of just a threat everywhere, and the threat of being sick like it’s, that was what the threat was.” Ramsey detailed. “It’s not like the fear of dying or fear of, I don’t know, the normal fears people have. It was like a fear of, like a pathological fear that I would get sick, feel sick, see vomit on the street or something. It was so terrifying, that I couldn’t leave my house for awhile."

But luckily, The Last of Us star overcame that hard period of their life. Bella Ramsey had tried to use self help books and manuals to overcome their phobia, and it wasn’t until 2023 during their huge spike in fame when they took the step in completing the Thrive Programme to help themselves. Handling a surge of fame from a series while meanwhile overcoming a phobia is something that deserves to be sincerely applauded for. For emetophobia sufferers, Ramsey gave words of hope based off of their own experience. “Don’t feel like your life is over because it’s really not.” They said on the podcast. “There are so many people who have gone through it who are proof that you can get over it and it seems like impossible, if I had been talking to myself back when I was like, 14 and couldn’t leave my house, I’d be like yeah no way, like that’s definitely not a thing but it is. But yeah, I’d say you have a lot more power over your mind than you think you do.”

Bella Ramsey & Pedro Pascal at The Last of Us S2 Premiere (The US Sun)

To deal with emetophobia so young is difficult, there’s no doubt about it. While many can’t comprehend what having the fear is like, some thinking it’s silly and ridiculous, many recognize that having that intensity of a fear would be a big interference in day to day life and what comes with it. With that being noted… working in the acting industry and being exposed to fame is even more difficult. Emetophobia makes it difficult for one to do daily tasks and function, and with acting requiring a dedication that’s more intense than many jobs, it’s almost unimaginable the pain and mental drain Ramsey had to go through. If emetophobia makes normalcy hard… the difficulty it would make with fame is much more painful. And even before Bella Ramsey had overcome their intense vomiting phobia, they had become successful, even with the trauma. Even when they had their phobia and was struggling with not just daily tasks but ones that come with acting, they still made headlines and planted themselves firmly in the world of TV. While their achievements deserve to be recognized, what they got through day to day deserves to be recognized just as much, if not more. 

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