"Flying the nest" with emet

[wallflower]

In February, if I get into the course I want, I will have to move out of home. I've applied at two universities, one in Sydney and one here in Melbourne. If I stay in Melbourne I'll at least be able to go home on the weekend. I've applied for self-catered accommodation because I can't stand the thought of sitting in a dining hall twice a day, with people watching me eat and the risk of hundreds of people contracting fp at once. But how am I going to cope, even if I cook for myself? I went to Open Day the other day and took a tour of the residential colleges and most of the students said they have cooking rosters. If I just lock myself in my room and refuse to help the other people on my floor (I'm quite happy to help them clean up afterwards - yay OCD - but I'm not going to eat the food they cook) I'll look weird and antisocial. PLEASE don't tell me I should be seeing someone about my emet before I move out or whenever. There's no other option and I will be seeing someone when I've finished Year 12 and I can start treatment properly. I realise moving out will only make my problems worse.

Anyway, how did you guys cope with moving out for the first time? Did you put it off? Get worse? Get better? Horror stories? Success stories? Advice? I don't mind telling people about my emet - I'd rather they know why I behave strangely and think that's odd than just not knowing and thinking I'm weird for another reason. Did you live in shared accommodation and have to tell people?

I'm really looking forward to moving out - I'm at that age, haha - but this is casting a huge black cloud over everything![img]smileys/smilies_12.gif[/img]

[sootywillow]

Hi

I was really scared about moving away from home and going to University
but it was the best thing that happened to me. I actually found my emet
was the best it's ever been during those years. Being away from my
parents suddenly gave me much more control over my life and no one
was forcing me to do things and this coupled with having a load of
friends around all the time allowed me to get so much better.
Anyway, I dealt with the horror food poisoning scenario by opting to be
vegetarian which I thought would minimise the risk and in fact neither I
nor any one I knew suffered from fp during the whole three years. You
might get away with opting out of the rosters if you claim to have a
special diet which people won't want to bother with?
Hope you have a great time being a student.

[mxw08]

Hello!

I'm living three hours away from home going to college right now, and I live in a house with 8 roommates. As far as food goes we usually eat our own, but I agree with you and won't eat things they make. Or rarely anyway... I've only been here two weeks, but already I've noticed my anxiety is actually better than it was at home! Back to the food subject, my roommates like to do a group dinner thing on Sundays and for now at least I just usually volunteer to cook at least part of it, then I just eat the part I cook.

I'm not sure what you mean by food rosters, but could you do something like that? If not, then yeah, I'd probably just tell them I was a very picky eater or had a sensitivity or allergy to some foods or something.

[laylamommy]

Mine got much better because when I was living alone...I didn't have to worry about anyone else in the house getting sick.

[wallflower]

Wow, thanks guys! Positives so far... I am definitely going vegetarian when I move out, as soon as my mum can't force me to eat meat...