Can’t help you with your question but I am the same. I could possibly attribute it to my nauseated childhood during which I fought down the urge to vomit on a daily basis. Mostly from carsickness. Now I can’t throw up if I want to. I’ve puked five times in the past forty years, if that.
I think some people are just able to relax and let things come up, while others not so much. I’m a “bad puker” and it’s not pretty or quiet when it happens. I also don’t do it much. I think I’ve vomited maybe 7 times in my life and I’m 42. So maybe it’s also a practice thing. The “reality” shows I’ve seen where bulimia is featured, they seem to have the technique down so they can puke quietly in public bathrooms without causing a scene. Maybe someone can come along with a more factual answer since this is GQ, though I’m not sure there really is one.
I asked my mom, and she says she thinks it’s probably a developed throat control from throwing up a great deal when she was younger. She had horrible motion sickness as a child, and had to learn to hold it down. She learned to just keep burping, and let up the gas but not the solid.
She’s barely ever thrown up–short of drinking ipecac or saltwater–since she was 16.