Help with eating anxiety?

[alex99]

Hi everyone, I was just looking for some advice and to see if anyone else has had a similar problem.

Basically, I have a problem where I'm unable to eat out in public. If I go out for a meal with friends, when the food arrives I feel like my throat is closing up and that I just can't swallow and if i do swallow I'll vomit. Normally I end up forcing one or two bites down and then giving up and leaving most of my meal.

This has started happening over the last 3 or 4 years. I used to be fine going out for meals but for some reason this problem has developed. Now I try to avoid situations where eating out will be involved which obviously means I'm missing out on a lot of events with friends.

There are some situations, like weddings, that I haven't been able to avoid so I've gone for the whole day not being able to eat and then feeling ill the next day.

The strange thing is that I normally go to music festivals in the summer and I have no problem eating with groups of people there.

Does anyone have any advice because this is something I'd really like to overcome.