Going out to eat and SCARED. Please help!

[kitbuddy]

Hi everyone,

My phobia has really been overwhelming me lately. I have been making some strides (going to an exercise class, using public restrooms), but I have still been crying and panicking almost daily.

Tonight my boyfriend wants to go out to eat at a restaurant. I definitely want the night off from cooking, but I am so scared to eat food that was prepared by someone else. I used to go out to eat about 2-3 times a week (usually getting salad) and I was always fine. I'm really freaking out right now and could use some reassurance that I will be okay. I know I can't let this phobia control my life...

If I get something like cooked vegetables and rice, I should be safe, right?

(Ironically, my job consists of selling food to restaurants, so I know that most of them are good from a food safety perspective. It's the whole "being served by a sick person" aspect that is freaking me out.)

[megselina]

if you just have something light you will be totally fine honestly and you'll be sooooo proud of yourself once you do it and it will be another achievement

[Naeemahria91]

I had the same problem. Terrified of eating out and I used to eat out all the time. A month or so ago I went out to eat for the first time and I didn't freak as much as I had expected. I really enjoyed myself and had a cocktail to keep me relaxed (&it gave me peace of mind because in my head alcohol would help kill any germs that I was exposed to). But it all worked out and it felt so good to finally eat out. I've eaten out about 4 times since then and going out again today. It's felt so good to be free. You'll be ok! I also took zofran before going to bed after the first night I ate out just in case. So if you feel n* from anxiety or something you can do that too. But enjoy yourself! Relax. It'll all be ok.

[Solar_plexus]

Hi everyone,

My phobia has really been overwhelming me lately. I have been making some strides (going to an exercise class, using public restrooms), but I have still been crying and panicking almost daily.

Tonight my boyfriend wants to go out to eat at a restaurant. I definitely want the night off from cooking, but I am so scared to eat food that was prepared by someone else. I used to go out to eat about 2-3 times a week (usually getting salad) and I was always fine. I'm really freaking out right now and could use some reassurance that I will be okay. I know I can't let this phobia control my life...

If I get something like cooked vegetables and rice, I should be safe, right?

(Ironically, my job consists of selling food to restaurants, so I know that most of them are good from a food safety perspective. It's the whole "being served by a sick person" aspect that is freaking me out.)

I get freaked out even having my own food sometimes, ESP cooking meat. I sometimes think I should be a vegetarian even though I feel like vegetables can be just as risky. I eat out often and I've only been sick once I think from it, in my 28 years. I think cooked food is the safest.. Cooking kills the germs. Also I have been talking about garlic.. Garlic kills bacteria that caused food borne illness. An osteopath told me recently that transmission of a virus onto food would be very rare because the germs would spread out to much, and you need a direct hit to get sick. Even if you are still worried about that I would get something like soup or stew that is all cooked.

[Solar_plexus]

Enjoy yourself and dont worry! Going out to eat is pleasurable! I love food too much to not eat out.

[AoD]

I get freaked out even having my own food sometimes, ESP cooking meat. I sometimes think I should be a vegetarian even though I feel like vegetables can be just as risky. I eat out often and I've only been sick once I think from it, in my 28 years. I think cooked food is the safest.. Cooking kills the germs. Also I have been talking about garlic.. Garlic kills bacteria that caused food borne illness. An osteopath told me recently that transmission of a virus onto food would be very rare because the germs would spread out to much, and you need a direct hit to get sick. Even if you are still worried about that I would get something like soup or stew that is all cooked.

Garlic does not inactivate all pathogens, including those that cause food borne illnesses. I couldn't find anything that said it was specifically useful to inactivate norovirus and other GI viruses (parasites yes, but not those viruses). Also, they used pure allicin in those tests, just eating garlic probably won't have any effect and let's not forget that this was done in a petri dish, it doesn't mean that in the conditions found in food preparation that the active compound is effective and it doesn't mean that it remain effective if ingested. There was good science that showed that grape seed extract inactivated a norovirus surrogate on contact (not when ingested!! when used to soak veggies) but we don't know if it really works on the real thing or just on the surrogate. Also it reduced viral load, but did not completely eliminate it. And transmission of a virus onto food isn't rare, it's how most cases of hepatitis A are transmitted, and noro takes about 10 viral particles to cause infection, and a single drop of vomit contains tens of thousands of viral particles. That's why there are outbreaks of noro from people who work in the catering industry who don't practice proper hygiene and they end up contaminating hundreds of people from not washing their hands properly after going to the bathroom. Cooked food is much safer, as the virus is inactivated at heats above 60C for a certain period of time. That being said, most people who work in the food industry take proper measures and it doesn't happen very often that such large scale infections occur. But the reality is that if someone touched a surface that had noro, they can easily contaminate food by touching it afterwards. It can be transferred from six different surfaces subsequently (so someone touches a tiny invisible droplet of v*, touches a door, someone touches the door and pick up the virus on their hands, they touch a coffee cup and transfer the virus onto it, etc.. so that the sixth person in that chain can still pick up the virus on their hands). It's why they say not to let sick people prepare food for others, by the way.