The Realm of Literacy

I have a feeling that pop culture has made vomiting into a cheap token sign of emotional distress. Like, y'know, Neo does in the Matrix (except that he has good reason for that, because the "human farms" are not only shocking, but also revolting)? I've seen at least several books where the authors were clearly struggling to fit a description of an appropriate emotional reaction into their busy plot schedule, and finally, in a stroke of brilliance, decided: "Vomiting! That should get the point across!".

A couple of years ago, I even found a page called "Post-traumatic stress disorder writing guide" which was designed to aid writers in creating character with realistic PTSD symptoms. According to its author, a former PTSD sufferer, one of its major goals was to "put an end to all the gratuitous vomiting".