Bella Ramsey didn’t leave the house for months due to fear of vomiting: “I’d rather die than throw up”
Bella Ramsey has revealed that there was a time they thought they’d “rather die than throw up” due to their fear of vomiting.
The star of The Last of Us appeared on the latest episode of The Louis Theroux Podcast on May 6th and discussed many aspects of their fame, including how their fear of vomiting, otherwise known as emetophobia, has affected their life and career.
Ramsey explained the phobia by saying, “It’s such an all-encompassing fear. Say if I’ve been in contact with somebody who has got Norovirus, for the next two weeks it’s a thing of monitoring how I’m feeling.”
They added: “And then there was a time in which I couldn’t leave my house up in Leicestershire because everything outside was a threat.”
The actor recalled that when they were around 13 years old, they were unable to leave home “for months” because: “You go out and it’s like you see germs, you see sickness everywhere. Terrifying.”
Although Ramsey’s emetophobia meant, “There was a time which I thought that I’d rather die than throw up. That’s how intense it is for a lot of people at the time,” they noted how their diagnosis of autism helped them to come to terms with the fear.
Regarding this, the actor opened up: “Not all people who have autism or are on the autistic spectrum have emetophobia, but when I got that diagnosis, so much in my life made sense and so much of my experience growing up. It’s helpful for me every day, having that understanding.”
The Louis Theroux Podcast is available on Spotify and all podcast platforms.
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