Obsessive behavior

[centipede]

Hi guys, it's been a while since I last posted on here.

Like many emetophobes, I developed some of the strangest habits that only other emetophobes would understand. One of my biggest obstacles is eating out. My main concern with restaurants is the cleanliness of the kitchen and the person preparing my food. Recently, the health department in my area started posting the food inspection reports online. I will not go to any restaurant without first looking at the report and if it has a very bad report (which most of them don't) I won't go there even if they corrected the problem later on.

[kym]

I have the saitation grades memorized!

[elaine]

Honestly this just sounds like common sense to me I could seriously be a health department inspector for how I watch everything. Where did the server touch the plate? is there a straw in my drink already? It gets taken out (they might have touched it with unwashed hands), etc etc.

[amethyst]

Hi, I am a new member. I totally sympathise with you about the obsessional behaviour that comes with this phobia. My obsession is so bad at the moment that I am avoiding walking on pavements that have had V on them even though it was cleaned up months or years ago. Someone in my house V last week all over the carpet and I can't go to that part of the house despite it being cleaned up. So, going to restaurants that you don't know the standards etc is totally understandable.

[IceMaiden]

That is a good idea of yours! Most people who aren't emets are generally unconcerned with v* as you know, and so are too lazy to check such things, but if they know it's badly reputed even they will not go there!

[alexikiss]

Hi, I am a new member. I totally sympathise with you about the obsessional behaviour that comes with this phobia. My obsession is so bad at the moment that I am avoiding walking on pavements that have had V on them even though it was cleaned up months or years ago. Someone in my house V last week all over the carpet and I can't go to that part of the house despite it being cleaned up. So, going to restaurants that you don't know the standards etc is totally understandable.

Oh, I totally do this too! You're the first person who mentioned it.

[jc83]

well, yes that is rational to us. i also..if i think i'm getting sick..will just simply not eat because i always remember what foods i v* and never eat them again. sorta sucks, but ya know.

[PinkButterfly]

Hmmmm. I'm a community health major and have been wondering what the hell to do with my major.. Health Inspector sounds totally like me. But I would grade everyone with F's HAH!

[ann32]

It is so iunteresting to me to hear how many people do not go out to eat. I grew up with a family that always went to fine restaurants etc...i love going out to eat. I have never in my life thought about getting sick that way...I dont ususally eat shellfish anyway and I will always order chicken or steak, but I did go out to dinner with my family tonight to a new fabulous restaurant and kept thinking to myself...hmmm i wonder how clean it is back there...I wont let my thoughts take over in that aspect though becasue I am a foodie and I love to travel all around and eat!!! I love food too much to not go out and I am not a great cook hahaha...

[psalm139]

I am ok with going out to eat..sometimes I do get a little panicky but I try to tell myself it is rare that you do get sick from a resturants. i use to be a cook so I know that most places are extremly anal about it. They don't want to be sued. Since there has been so much of it in recent years I can tell you they are stepping it up. Thanks God for the internet so they can post stuff like that. Plus they should after you do pay money to eat there..you have the right to see it!!

[PinkButterfly]

In one of my classes I was given a pie chart of where most food bourne illnesses occur, and it was like 50% from restraunts. I still eat out though, there are some places I refuse to go to though

[Jessh]

They post the restaurant scores online here too and I always check them. I always watch the staff very carefully too. It's rare that I will let something get to me to the point where I won't eat the food (if, say, I saw something that bothered me like someone touching the bread of a sandwich with their bare hand). However, it's always on my mind while I'm eating and afterward. I like eating at restaurants but it is a big source of anxiety because there's so much I can't know and can't control. But then again there isn't that much we can control anyway, is there? Thus our anxiety.

I reassure myself by thinking about how their jobs (food handlers) depend on whether they adhere to the rules about hygiene so there is a lot of incentive for them to do so. Plus people are generally courteous and don't wish to get others sick. I also tell myself that millions of people eat at restaurants every day and the vast majority of them don't get sick, so I probably won't either. Sometimes it helps, sometimes it doesn't. :-\

[x...RaChE...x]

Ohhh one time I was in a restraunt and my cousin started to tell the familly about the last time she went there and violently vomited afterwards.... freaked me out... I then made a pact to myself not to go there again... i was only 8 lol... the last time i went to a restraunt i got sick halfway through but that was only because I caught my mums stomach bug... :S and the time b4 that my dad caught a stomach bug... so restraunts are pretty tramatizing for me... but they were dodgy restraunts... I always say to myself "never trust a cheap meal" because its true... no-one gets sick from quality meals