I'm too embarrassed to eat in front of anyone and I think it's really impacting my social life. There is nothing to do in my town except go out to eat, which I never want to do because I just feel so weird eating in front of people. I can't even eat in front of my family, I wait until they're gone to eat. I always take my boyfriend out to eat and he always gets mad at me for not eating. I feel disgusting eating in front of people, I don't want them to see me doing something like that. It doesn't feel natural and I don't feel comfortable eating in front of anyone. I have a dinner date tomorrow and I'm really nervous about it, I don't want to be rude and not eat but I also don't want people to see me eat. Is there something wrong with me?

i don't mean to sound mean but, that's kinda weird... 0_o i mean, if you can't even eat in front of FAMILY, how'd you live with them until now??? there's nothing wrong with eating in front of people, it's a natural human thing to do. that's part of how we LIVE. hopefully you overcome this...

What's so strange about eating in front of them? o_o
Fear of them being disgusted? o_O

I'm sure you know etiquette. It can't be that bad.

i'mnot int eh same boat as you btut i do feel funny when i eat in front of my fish =( he jsut stares at me and i feel bad that i'm eating meat

I'm a little like that too. I tend to like to eat alone, and I used to hate eating in front of others. These days I still find certain situations where I hate eating in front of others and I generally don't eat with my family. But sometimes you just have to suck it up and eat in front of people. Just remember that everyone else is pretty much eating in front of you so there is nothing shameful or disgusting about it, though is awkward. If you can try, just take a few bites, it might help you get past the feeling of not being able to eat in front of others. If you still feel awkward just try to be kind and say you're not very hungry (which you most likely aren't when there are others around; because I'm like that). :T I'm not really giving any useful advice, but you're not alone.

yeah probably. If it's interfering with your daily life, you should probably seek some professional help.

I think you should talk to someone

this isn't normal

if you are feeling embarassed and you feel disgusted i think you really need to consider going to the doctor.

whoa.. o_o that's so weird.. i think you should go get that checked out.
i used to be afraid of eating in front of my bf before we got together. now i'm fine.

yeah...thats weird...wat's wrong with eating in front of everyone..?
i hope u will overcome this....

that's strange...
I do have problems rating in front of strangers sometimes, but with friends and families? no

you are like me, i also don't like eating in front of anybody anywhere..

well, if your so really cares the he should understand. buy takeaway and go somewhere private in a nice public park and have a picnic with him.

or.. get him to pick a nice restaurant ith secluded places where you can eat without people looking at you.

I dunno why you'd be so self concious... unless you're eating like a mad pig or something, I don't think people single out others to watch while they're eating .__.
That's really strange. Maybe you have a psycological problem or something about this.... go check it out with a doctor
o_o

well. im kinda like that... i'll eat in front of my family and stuff but in front of other people.. i cant seem to eat infront of them.. its.. awkward...
but.. i think you need to talk to your family members about this and you should REALLY try to eat infront of people.. you'll never acually see if its embarassing until you try, right?

im embarassed to eat in front of people i like.. like a crush or something. might be food stuck in my braces
but if its in front of my family i'm fine. I think you should try to get over it, because.... its your family. its weird if you can't eat in front of your OWN family :X

Wow.. hm.. I get nervous before when I just started dating my bf because I was embarrassed and stuff like that. However, now I'm fine with it and I've always been fine with eating with my family so... I think you should try to overcome it, it's really nothing weird to eat in front of people. o_o

I used to be like that.. Now I just eat like a beast. HAHA. Chomp chomp chomp.
Well, I'm just a messy eater that's all.

I guess without eating infront of people make you ease

I dont think u feel disgusted i think ur just shy
cause at first i was like that.i would eat wen every body leaves
or wen we're at a restaurant i would lie and say im full. >.<
but now i eat in front of everybody cause wen im hungry im HUNGRY..lmao
=D

I had this problem too. I couldn't eat in front of anyone or in public cuz I was too embarrassed. Like, I remembered once that my mom bought me a slice of cake and told me to each it while walking to the market, I just smiled at her and told her I'll eat it later.

Well, as I got older, I grew outta that. I hope you will too but if you don't then you should see someone. If it's not shyness, then it's something deeper and perhaps worse.

This actually sounds like a symptom of social anxiety disorder. Or it might be something less serious like you're extremely shy? However, you're not comfortable eating in front of other people? It seems like it's disrupting your social life so it has become a problem.
Have you tried exposing yourself to situations where you eat in front of others? Start slowly with just one person like a close family member, and go from there until you feel desensitized from your embarrassment of eating in front of people. This is one method that could work for you, there's also professional help, but you can always talk to your family and friends about this too.

Friends: check!
Pets: huh? Ok, check too!
Boyfriend: This can be understand when the relationship is not too deep yet. Check.

Family:..... no, can't check this. They are your family. My family always eat at the same time and together, even though my parents have to wait until 9:00-10:PM since my last class finish at 9:10PM. If you can't eat in front of your family, then somthing is absolutely wrong. Talk to them. Do something.

I agree. :T I mean, how can you never eat in front of your family?

Even now we don't eat together, we're still used to it. My family doesn't care, eat like pigs, then eat like a pig. It's your family.

I agree with my friends though, sometimes I feel as if my piggish behaviour at home just changes the way I eat. I try not to be so... sloppy and gross. =_= But sometimes I really can't help it, it's just how I am.

i guess that you are probably too shy to eat in front of ppl... i used to be like that when i'm eating with my friends, but now, i eat what i want and i don't care about it...hahaha!!
cause everyone's eating with you, so there's nothing you can worry about..
give youself a try and u'll be fine with it later... ^^

Even infornt of your family?

Wow, perhaps you should go see a doctor to see what's going on.

try taking small bites of stuff if that makes u feel better. remember it's nothing to be ashamed of.. everyone eats and no one will think you are gross or weird or nething. They might think so if you never eat in front of them though. however, if you can't/won't eat in front of your family or anyone still I think you should seek help.

maybe it's a psychological issue or something, because...when i see food.. i pounce =_= i rarely care about the people around me.

I Just hate eating in restaurants like where everyone is staring at you for. it's just too hard. but if it's eating with my family I guess there's no prob since I always eat with them anyways

probably because you're not used to it or try to go eat with your friends more...maybe you will get used to it once??

im a little bit like this but i ALWAYS eat in front of my family. like...A LOT. same goes with my friends, especially the ones that i ALWAYS hang out with. but sometimes i dont eat in front of people who i dont know or know a little bit. its not because im embarasses but its because i just dont like people staring at me while im eating. i usually take small bites.

maybe you should ask your doctor about this. =D

Hm i'm fine with my family when it comes to eating. But whenever I eat a friend's place, I eat less because I try to act as polite as possible. That's why i usually try to shop with friends who will, like me, not eat but mostly shop. Once at my friend's place they were having crabs which made me worried. The reason why is because when you're with family, you just casually use your hands and just well eat away. But at my friend;s house i tried to eat it with a fork. Bad idea. I dropped it on the floor and the meat inside also came out and you see my friend's older sister getting annoyed lol. My face was burning red and i excused myself to the bathroom and tried to finish the rest as fast as possible. I finished and offered to clean the dishes but the mom wouldn't let me. So i ran to her room and waited, embarrassed. Its the fact that i was eating with the family since I always want to give good first impressions and well i didn't xD

you shouldn't be that embarrassed ^^ Just talk happily while you're eating and you'll totally forget about your weakness of eating in front of people. Or just take a napkin and just cover your mouth while you eat and chew. Or maybe you could watch tv or a movie with the person while eating. Then they're more concentrated on the media then the entertainment of you eating lol. There must be a way that you can help overcome it. I doubt avoiding is the solution good luck. i hope i helped just a bit.

i NEVER used to eat in front of my bf. i just never felt hungry, my appetite was never there. but after a few months...i started to eat how i normally do in front of ppl.

now im like the non-stop eating monster whenver im with him. he buys me lots of food =]

I hate eating in front of boys. =/.
I guess it's the effect of going to an all girls school.

I just can't be comfortable, when i eat in fron of them.

SAME HERE! I feel i look disgusting, and my mouth is full of food afterwardss (braces ). but in front of pets&family? that's kind of weird ><

I dont think its unusual or anything because I know alot of girls and even some guys who have this problem. Its something that you eventually grow out of when you start getting comfortable eating in front of other people. But if you're embarressed eating in front of your pet then thats a problem.

I have a problem with eating in front of people i just met, i never had a problem before you know?
until day this guy commented how i eat in very small bites (burger) and started laughing at me :S .. far out i was so embrassed ever since then i get paranoid about eating in front of people i just met

I also hate eating at public places. Especially Korean restaurants, because Koreans seem to just love staring at people in a very rude way (I'm Korean, so please don't flame me or whatever)..and I have some trauma from a time I went to Johnny Rockets when I was little, and some white girl who was next to my booth kept staring at me and saying pretty loudly how I was eating my hamburger with my jacket on. It was frickin cold, and..umm..yeah...think some of my problem comes from that But I have no problems eating in front of family.

Anyway, I guess your case is kinda different, because I don't think it's disgusting to eat in front of people, but here's my advice:

Since you can't avoid eating in public forever, take "baby steps". For example, I never order 'finger foods', because for some reason, I don't want people seeing me touching food and getting them dirty. Order things like salads, or things that require just a fork. I also avoid eating things like noodles and steak, because I don't want to make slurping sounds in public or get stares for cutting incorrectly And maybe you could start eating at buffets? The people who go there are too busy trying to stuff themselves, so you don't have to worry about feeling disgusted (well...don't stare at other people, 'cause maybe seeing them could make you feel sick ).

Sorry for the crappy advice, but hope that sorta helps...and hope we can all overcome our problems

Well soon you're not just going to have dinner dates, you're going to have dinner interviews which could affect your future & career. Better start now.

Start with something small, as mentioned above, a salad. If you're that conscious don't order finger foods.

i used to be embarassed about eatung un frint if people i didnt know well ..
afraid of looking messy or whatever in front og them
but relax, they arent even paying attention to how you eat .. they're focused on THEIR eating.
just relax, i learnt to grow out of this habit .
hopefully you can too!

i eat in front of family, but i cant relaly ike GOOOOOOOBBLE
alot in non like close freinds.
but in good freinds i can lols xD

O___O. u should really learn to grow out of that habit. not eating in front of others?! ur gonna be missing out on a lot buddy

yeah i feel that way sometimes.
the way i eat is just stuffing myself like a starved pig .
Nowadays im just like wtf are you staring at.
there's nothing more sexier than stuffing yourself with a burrito.

maybe try eating in front of a mirror. your reflection can be seen as an other "person". also if your problem is with how you look eating, with a mirror you can practice and see for yourself exactly how you eat.

Good luck. It's not a strange problem really, but you do need to resolve it.

i know how you feel kind of..well not that extreme
when we go out to eat, i eat as quick as i can or none at all because i don't want them to see me eating :/
i don't know i just feel that i don't look 'right' when I eat compared to other ppl
so i always just order some sort of drink or nothing that requires me to chew..if that helps you

lmao i'm embarress to eat in front of others except my family
its like at home i eat like a PIG & with cousins freinds i eat very slow
i dont eat alot either & i barely even finish my food

wow. that's kinda strange. i mean, i can see you don't like to eat in public infront of strangers, but your family?!

hm sometimes i feel weird eating in public or with my friends because at home i eat really messy HAHA

dont be a wuse
just eat ~ put food and chew
once u get over it
ull get use to it
do it!! EAT in PUBLIC!!!

Well, I'm similar...i can freely eat with my family and my best friends, but I feel VERY uncomfortable when I'm with others..Like we were camping with scouts and i just barealy ate like once a day or even less...I feel like everyone is watching me..but the strange thing is..that i don't feel hungry at all O_o so is not really painful or anything..XD I'm just happy I can loose some weight by skipping some meals!XD

anyway i suggest you to buy something that is easy to eat..like...little portions...this way you won't have to dropp, chew or anything and you'll feel less uncomfortable..at least it works for me..XD