How has having RDPD shaped your life decisions on a grand scale?

We all know the daily discomfort of this condition, but I’ve been thinking recently about the major life decisions people might make due to suffering from RCPD.

I am 47, and first went to the doctor 30 years ago, in 1994 when I was 17. She sent me for an x-ray with barium solution to look for ‘oesophageal pouches’ but obviously found nothing and had no further ideas.

Not surprisingly, I’ve spent most of my life thinking that I’m the only one who experiences this. I used to watch TV and wonder how TV presenters and people being interviewed could wear a microphone on their lapel? This further made me feel like it was only happening to me.

I knew a career in television or theatre wouldn’t be for me, and I was never going to be a spy wearing a wire! I also couldn’t imagine having any kind of sporting career. Women win Olympic medals on their periods, but while bloated with air after lunch, not so much.

But I think the biggest thing that has shaped my life is the emetophobia that has accompanied the condition. I was terrified seeing someone throw up and it would haunt me for months afterwards. I am now able to predict a vomit scene in a movie before it happens and know to look away and close my ears in time.

I think this phobia is the reason I decided never to have children. The prospect of morning sickness was so frightening that I convinced myself that I didn’t want children anyway. And then all the childhood illnesses I’d have to nurse. It’s too late for me now and my life has been good and full without children (maybe also because I didn’t have them?).

So my question is: How has having RDPD shaped your life decisions on a grand scale?