Cure the Fear of Eating Out – Overcome Phobia of Eating in Public

People who fear eating out are more common than you’d think. Perhaps you are one of them. After all, in our society eating in restaurants is considered to be a basic social activity. Eating together is the glue that holds us together. In some ways, we are no different from the old English kings described in the epic poem Beowulf. By inviting people to eat with us, we show them that we are “allies.” Most of our rules of etiquette concern how we ought to act when dining with other people. Restaurants can be arenas of competition and judgment, where friendships and business deals are made and broken. It’s no wonder that eating with other people or in a public place can cause some people to panic. The fear of eating out is a common social phobia. Help, however, is out there.

When You Might Have A Problem

How do you know if the discomfort you experience while dining in restaurants is “normal” social anxiety–related, most likely, to the particulars of your social situation–as opposed to a crippling, life-long phobia of public eating? Here are some possible signs that you have a specific issue with restaurants that needs to be addressed post-haste.

When you’re in a restaurant or cafe, do you feel that the other patrons are glaring at you with disapproval, from the moment you’ve entered the door–even though you’re dressed appropriately for the restaurant and you know you’ve done nothing wrong? Do you spend hours getting ready before going to social events at restaurants–perhaps taking so long that you’ve missed the event? Are you unable to enjoy your food at restaurants, no matter how exquisitely prepared it is? When you’re sitting in a restaurant, do you find yourself counting the seconds until you think it’s appropriate for you to leave? These are the signs of a crippling phobia. If you want to function normally in society, it’s a phobia you’ll need to resolve right away.

Traditional Therapy May Not Help

Since the time of Sigmund Freud, the standard way to treat anxieties and phobias of all kinds has been through intensive, on-going therapy sessions. Whether the therapist relies on dream analysis, or simply on talking to you, these treatments all have one thing in common: they could take years. Traditional therapists hope to treat phobias by discovering their secret, deep-rooted, often-unconscious causes, over the course of long years of conversations. Unfortunately, the causes of “restaurant phobia” are often complicated and multi-faceted. Usually, there is more than one reason that people are afraid of eating in public, and, moreover, each person’s case is different. Traditional therapies could take years, and that could be too long.

NLP And Hypnotherapy Work In The Present

NLP and hypnotherapy are techniques that are likely to cure or lessen your fears faster than those of traditional therapy. NLP practitioners don’t care why you can’t be at restaurants. All that these trained individuals do is take you through your reaction to being in a restaurant step-by-step in a guided, controlled, clinical setting. They will train you to consciously recognize your mind’s unconscious and overlooked reactions of terror. Then, they’ll train you to will that terror away, to turn it into joy, calm, and ease. With NLP, more likely than not, you’ll never fear eating out again.