Now Its The Swine Flu

Just when the wave of relief over the end of norovirus season swooped by, we now have to face the Swine flu. Flu like symptoms could include nausea and vomiting but those aren’t the main symptoms and in many people, if not most, they don’t violently vomit from the flu.

Emetophobia has made me paranoid about getting sick, period. When an illness has possible symptoms of nausea and vomiting, paranoid turns into panic. Especially when it’s of near epidemic proportions and airborne.

On Sunday I was walking amongst crowds of tourists in Times Square. Yesterday I heard there was a confirmed case of the Swine flu at a company located in Times Square. This is very scary since I can wash and sanitize my hands frequently, which I often do, but I can’t control what I’m breathing in.

I only hope this flu dissipates as quickly as its spreading.

Expiration Dates

If you have ever known an emetophobe, you probably noticed how fanatical we are about expiration dates on food.  Most of my perishable foods are tossed before the expiration date, just to be on the safe side.

I’ve heard everyone from close family member to grocery store employees tell me the date on the product is only when they must stop selling the product rather than when the product should no longer be consumed.  And some products specifically say they are best before and then a date.  That may sound ok to normal people but for me it poses one question.  How long after the posted date is the food safe to consume?  All of the answers I get are very ambiguous and well, no one seems to know.

Situational Depression and the Emetophobia effect

Those who follow my blog may have noticed it hasn’t been as active as it once was. It’s not because of lack of interest. I really do enjoy blogging.

One reason is that as my screenname implies, I tend to get writersblock often. The other reason is depression. The past few months, there has been too much stress and anxiety in my personal life. Generally, I don’t deal with stress well and it doesn’t take much of it to throw me into a panic stricken or depressive state. Since 2009 began, one stressful situation after another piled up and now I’m on overload. The last time I’ve had this much anxiety in my life, my emetophobia reared its ugly head.

I know other emetophobia sufferers who also feel it was brought on my stress and or depression.