Afraid of Rotten Produce

Post Reply New Topic

How do I overcome my phobia?

Afraid how so? Of buying it, touching it when it goes rotten, consuming it when you're not sure?

I think it's good to be careful about the freshness of food unless you feel absolutely everything is rotten even when it is perfectly fresh.

You can probably learn to judge whether something is fresh or not from its appearance. That way you will always feel safe.
You can also learn what fruits and veggies tend to stay fresh for a long period of time (e.g. carrots, grapefruits etc) and choose to eat them rather than those that can go bad fairly quickly (e.g. cucumbers, raspberries etc).

Before I attempt to help, I really have to know, why would you want to overcome your fear of rotten produce?

And just how far does this fear go?

It's perfectly fine, and really good for your chances of survival, if you avoid foods that don't look right and don't smell right. Although brown bananas make yummy banana bread, and the human taste for alcohol has been linked with apes eating rotten fruit, many kinds of produce that just don't seem right can make you sick. They don't smell or look right because they harbor harmful bacteria, yeast, or mold, sometimes alongside harmless ones.

I totally understand this! I'm not as big of a misophobe as my brother, but I have a very rigorous cleaning schedule in my own house, but the one thing that sets off my anxiety and sinesthesia into "NO. Mode" is food garbage, and in particular rotting plant matter. The smell kicks off so many unpleasant visual thoughts, and then colors and mold appearance just completely make any smells 10x worse. What I usually do is take a step back for a few take a step back and think out a clean process for removing the offending waste. Without getting any contaminants on myself of course.

I think I'm too afraid of seeing or touching produce that's gone bad.

Why? What do you feel will happen to you if you do such a thing?

Nothing, I just become too disgusted to think straight.

It's perfectly normal to be disgusted by rotten food.

It's abnormal to overreact like I do around rotten food. That's my main issue. I want to learn to desensitize myself somewhat.

Ok, well, can you touch a garbage bag that contains rotten produce? Like, can you tie it off and take it out to the dumpster?

Can you bag it with a grocery bag like a dog walker does with doggy doo doo?

Can you touch it with vinyl or latex gloves on?

How about meats?

I have some ham stamped with a "Sell by" date of January 31, 2015. It still tastes fine.

I have some cans and dry foods with "Sell by" dates that were several years ago.

You're not going to eat those, are you?

As long as there is no apparent problem when I open them. Some things go downhill quickly and some things don't. For example, macaroni or rice seems to hold up rather well.

I did learn years ago not to keep cans of saurkraut too long. The juices eat through the cans too fast.

I'm okay with touching it indirectly, as long as I don't smell it, obviously.

Doesn't sound like a phobia to me. The person with a real issue seems to be eric76.