So far it seems like everyone has trouble eating due to this phobia, I actually besides this phobia, have issues with food and overeating. I don't worry so much about myself being sick, maybe because it has been 28 years, knock on wood, and I do avoid eating out and I cook our own meat and make my own salads. I am pretty OCD about exp. dates, hand washing etc. But I am about 30 lbs overweight. Is anyone else out there overweight or is it just me. I have 3 kids and am a stay at home mom, I exercise all the time and am very active. I just love to eat. Mainly carbs because they are safer, that is probably mostly my problem. I took Paxil a few years ago and gained 35 lbs from it and haven't been able to lose it. Can anyone else relate or are you all underweight because you are too afraid to eat. Just to let you know, if someone around me has an sv or I know it is going around, I always lose weight because I don't eat then. Although last year, I got an sv from an airplane trip back home, ate a lot that day, woke up with stomach cramps, nausea, the whole nine yards, never V* but had diarrhea, like I usually do when I have a sv. Then one month later, my son got sick in the middle of the night and I ate the next day because I wasn't worried about getting sick since I already had it a month before, but I woke up that night with stomach cramps, nausea, diarrhea and I burped and hiccuped and came so close, the closest in 28 years and freaked out that I had gotten an sv again. Never v* because I work really hard to control it. That is my story for now, sorry to go on and on.