Eating in front of people

I feel you on that one

I have difficulty eating out at restaurants, especially on the weekends when it tends to get packed with people here in my city. I always feel like people are watching me eat and I can't even look around the room before the food even arrives because that just makes me more nervous, so I pretty much spend the whole time just looking down at my hands in my lap or pretend I'm texting someone on my phone. Pretty lame of me but, it helps to lessen the nerves :/

Being overweight, especially in high school, really escalated this anxiety for me. I was always concerned that everyone would look at me and think something to the effect of, "HAHA, look at the fat guy eating all by himself! No wonder he has no friends, he's too busy eating all the time!". So I'd just stop eating lunch at school entirely or hide in the bathroom and eat. I still have this issue to this day, particularly at restaurants.

I hate insecurity.

omg i can so relate to this.. When I eat, i can't enjoy every bite, because I think it looks weird, stupid and awfull. This week i was in a store, and you can get snacks there, and my dad bought me a snack, my mom and dad were eating snacks and i was just standing there with my snack in my hand, trying to eat something and looking around if someone notices my weird eating manors, but yup. A man was watching me alllll the time, so I said to my folks, I'm going outside, see you later. They said, NOo, you are staying because you need to do this, who cares, everybody is putting a snack in their mouth (what made me laugh nervously), so i was just standing there.. but i still didn't eat it.xD, i have ate it in when i was in the car again. so that's just nottt cool, im too self concious, and i think i eat like a pig xD. omg soo, its terrible to eat for me in a restaurant, but i hope someday i can eat like animals, and dont give a Fuk , and just eat my drumsticks with my hands and dont care about the mess i make, and just enjoy the food. because i cant enjoy food in a restaurant very much, more in the house and i remember skipping lunch too at school, people called me ''Miss Bones''. but i really need to just eat in front of people, i do it, but still i feel weird :S also when i read a book for example, i feel affraid of people watching me. And when im in the waiting line, im afraid i see something stupid in the magazine im watching, and the other people see it.. how stupid is that? so.. i really should stop caring.. xD. but still im too nerrrrrvous

Reading these posts has filled in another piece of puzzle for me. I can now see that my social phobia for eating in front of others originated in a situation where I had to eat in front of others; no choice of leaving; no choice of not eating. This was when I worked at a place where staff sat around a table together to eat. My first panic attack happened there, I had to go home 'sick'. I'm fine eating alone in public places now; with others around a table will cause some tension but is ok, depending on what is being eaten.

wow yeah Phocas. I remember my parents making me eat, i think we probably all have been there right? Brussel sprouts and beets-Yuck....but it was a form of torture, i know they prob had good intentions getting me to get veggies but i don't respond at all to be forced to do anything...i lock-up, shut down etc. So yeah a piece of the puzzle for me to is they kinda took that too far with me (my brothers once made me eat spaghetti and that was abuse) and now i really still don't like to eat veggies but I do eat them. But eating with people just took on a miserable connotation for me because of their tactics being so harsh for me. Plus my mom was an awful cook. It was yrs before I had a nice dinner at a bf house surrounded by his family and good food before I felt right about eating in front of people. Then about 16 yrs ago I had an episode of panic at a restaurant with my family and it all came back and I still struggle off and on...it never goes away completely.
That makes me feel sad.grr...

FlowerieGirl-you are silly<3 we should eat like pigs in public and not care!! I wish you the best! I know exactly how it feels to be so f-ing self conscious you can't even enjoy something so simple.... The things others take for granted really makes people like us appreciate life soo much more when it's good far more than they will ever know. I have more gratitude in my pinky than most because of stuff like this. like when I do have a good experience eating out for example I am happy for hrs afterwords, I don't complain much at all either. I never complain about cold food or bad service for example. I think we are very grateful and that's beautiful.

ever since my ex said i had the best table manners he has ever seen, i feel good about it...

applegirl said:

I dislike eating in front of people especially strangers. I can't even sit in my school's cafeteria or in the student lounge or stand in the hall and take a bite of something. the minute i see someone coming my way i hide my sandwich or whatever. either that or i don't try to eat at all.
yesterday on the train this girl sitting next to me opened her lunch. everyone could smell it. I feel like when someone puts his or herself in that kind of situation he or she is more inclined to get looks because of it. For me I feel it's out of place for myself to be sitting on a train and eating when everyone else is not.

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But what can you do, applegirl? Do you have any choice if you're really that hungry?

Me, if I'm hungry, I don't care if I'm alone, or whatever, I just have to eat somewhere clean. hahha. Maybe you're just not comfortable.

Sometimes you just have to adjust to it and feed your stomach first before being self-conscious about others, who may only be minding their own business and eating away and not reaLly cares about who they're sitting with across the table. LOL

But yeah, I do get awkward sometimes, esp when you're eating and others are not. Just smile at them and give them a look that says, "Hello, let's eat."

We went to a hibachi/sushi bar and my group had a misunderstanding. We wanted sushi but they seated us at a hibachi table with another group. We ended up leaving. I was simultaneously embarrassed to leave and desperately wanted to get out of there.

I hate eating in front of people. I feel so ugly when I eat and I feel like people are judging me, like, ''Urgh, look at that disgusting pig slopping away on that sandwich''

It's so hard for me to eat in front of people, usually I avoid it if I can. Not even fully comfortable eating in front of my own family. It just feels like everyone is staring at me and I worry about looking like a pig when I eat or spilling something on myself. I'm pretty clumsy and a messy eater so I DO spill stuff all the time, heh.

I stopped eating lunch some point in elementary school. Back then I was so anxious I felt nauseous and developed a kind of fear about eating lunch. It was pretty rough when I was a kid, my stomach was constantly upset and I felt sick often, made a lot of trips to the nurse.

These days if I have to eat in public I try to get food that's not messy and easy to eat. I would never eat spaghetti or anything that falls apart and drips. I eat really slowly and carefully so I'm always the last one to finish. Then because I don't want everyone waiting on me I pretend like I'm full even if I want to finish my food. I feel wasteful for leaving so much food on the plate but also too embarrassed to ask for a take home bag.

i get scared of eating in front of my parents, they're so judgemental, especially my mom, whenever we invite someone over, she always remarks that i shew out loud, my mouth is closed, but i have something with my jars, it's not on purpose, so i eat reeeeeally slowly and calmly, but in front of other people its normal, i wanna say to you that, the problem isn't about eating in public, its about getting too much attention while doing that, well people are hungry most of the time, and if you have something delicious, they'll look at you and the thing you're eating, They're hungry, you shoudl'nt like offer to eat to every single person that looks at you while eating, but if someone is really staring, offer to him, because at the same time, it is not polite to stare, maybe they'll look away

I cover my mouth when I eat whether it's infront of people or not.
In school, I'd go to the art room at lunch and eat while I worked on an assignment.
The teacher never minded as long as you made an effort to make it look like you were working or 'contemplating your work' and not being loud.
haha

I don't like eating in front of people either. When I'm with friends or family, I'm fine. But if I'm by myself or with people I hardly know, I can't really bring myself to eat anything. I mostly just end up picking at the food on my plate. If I do force myself to eat, I eat small bites and I never eat all my food. I'm afraid if I ate everything, people will notice how much of a pig I am. ::

Along with eating, I can't type or listen to things with high pitches, write certain things. I shake or have head twitches if I do and that looks/feels weird.

A couple of years ago I had this problem really bad with one of my boyfriends, and him only. I physically could not eat in front of him. I would go to visit him at his college for the weekend, and I would not eat the whole weekend. I would be so weak and tired. Sometimes I would bring granola bars and eat them when I went to shower. We would go to the dining hall & I could barely walk around in there. I watched him eat & had nothing. It was like my mouth just wouldnt chew & swallow.

Being a ridiculously slow eater I prefer to eat in private. It's always difficult making conversation with co-workers around a staff room lunch table.

Yeah ive always had this problem. Its not so bad when im eating in front of friends but when im with people im not familiar with,or when my sister brings her insanely attractive friends over its so difficult. I go to grab my drink and my hand is shaking like crazy. I find restaurants are ok when I have a booth, when I have one of those tables thats right in the centre of the room its brutal.

im not too bad with this. i avoid it where i can but i can tolerate it if i have to. though i tend to look down and scoff it very quickly, not looking at anyone else for the duration