If you are an emetophobe, you probably tried hard to avoid watching (or even listening to) the footage of Falcon Heene, the boy who didn't get into that helium balloon, tossing his cookies during his family's interview on Good Morning America.

Even for those of us who don't have an irrational fear of vomiting or of witnessing others doing it, the scene was pretty wrenching. But for an emetophobe (emesis = vomiting, phobe = fear), just the thought of watching anyone vomit is terrifying.

Though it's thought to be among the more common phobias, emetophobia has been little studied, so we don't know much about what causes it or how to fix it. One study showed that it tends to take hold early, around age 9, and to last a long time (a mean duration of 22 years).

Emetophobes -- or, as some apparently call themselves, emets -- may avoid going out much for fear they'll puke in public or see someone else do so. They may become picky eaters, avoiding anything they think might make them sick.

According to Washington psychotherapist Jerilyn Ross, who has treated a number of people with fear of vomiting, some women even put off getting pregnant because they so dread the idea of morning sickness -- and worry that they might not be able to care for their children if such care involved overseeing upchucking.

Ross says that when the fear of vomiting is so severe it makes a person rearrange his activities -- even if he has never had a bad experience involving vomit, as Ross says is usually the case -- it crosses the line to become a phobia.

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