Re: my emet phobia, please read so i know im not alone!
Hi and welcome I think you will find the majority of people on here feel or at some point in their life have felt alot of the things you do, so you are definitely not alone.
I think you will find it useful to read up about the facts to do with stomach viruses as they are harder to catch than you think and it will get rid of any myths you may believe about how you can and can't get them. The link is: http://www.emetophobiahelp.org/ you just need to click on "norovirus" at the top of the page when it comes up. The website has been written by a member from here so it's not at all scary!
As for food, I used to live on crackers and toast when i was a teenager but over the years what has helped me massively with food is
a) educating myself - i.e learn about the correct way to store and prepare food, correct cooking times for meat and what ones can be served pink and what ones must be cooked through etc
b) Learning to cook! Get a good cookbook like a Jamie Oliver or Delia Smith (or whoever is the good chef in Sweden!) and make some recipes yourself, you will know exactly what is in it, how it's been prepared and that is cooked properly so you know it is safe.
If food is stored correctly and prepared correctly you have nothing to fear, things like campylobacter and salmonella can all be killed off if the food is cooked right.
Most cases of what are considered food poisoning are in fact things like norovirus that has been spread by an infected food preparer, so if it helps, when eating out go for cooked foods that you know won't have been touched by human hand after cooking.
have a good look at the website i've given you the link to and at all the info available on here too, and maybe have a look into CBT (cognitive behaviour therapy) as alot of people have foudn that useful in controlling the anxiety and sometimes the emetophobia itself, it's not for everyone but could be worth looking into.
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