By 
People who fear going out to eat are more common than you think. Maybe you are one of them. After all, in our society eating in restaurants is considered a basic social activity. Eating together is the glue that holds us together. In some ways, we are no different from the ancient English kings described in the epic poem Beowulf. By inviting people to eat with us, we show them that we are “allies.” Most of our rules of etiquette refer to how we should act when dining with other people. Restaurants can be spaces of competition and judgment, where friendships and businesses are made and broken. It’s no wonder that eating with other people or in a public place can cause some people to panic. The fear of eating out is a common social phobia. The help, however, is out there.
When you may have a problem
How do you know if the discomfort you experience while dining at restaurants is “normal” social anxiety – most likely related to the details of your social situation – as opposed to a lifelong paralyzing phobia of eating in public? Here are some possible signs that you have a specific problem with restaurants that needs to be addressed immediately.
When you’re in a restaurant or cafe, do you feel like other customers look at you disapprovingly from the moment you walk in the door, even though you’re dressed appropriately for the restaurant and you know you’ve done nothing wrong? Do you spend hours preparing before going to social events at restaurants, perhaps taking so long that you missed the event? Can’t enjoy your food in restaurants, no matter how exquisitely prepared it is? When you’re sitting in a restaurant, do you find yourself counting down the seconds until you think it’s appropriate for you to leave? These are the signs of a paralyzing phobia. If you want to function normally in society, it is a phobia that you must resolve immediately.
Traditional therapy may not help
Since the time of Sigmund Freud, the standard way of treating anxieties and phobias of all kinds has been through intensive and continuous therapy sessions. Whether the therapist relies on dream analysis or simply talking to you, all of these treatments have one thing in common: they can take years. Traditional therapists hope to treat phobias by uncovering their secret, deep-seated, and often unconscious causes, through long years of conversation. Unfortunately, the causes of “restaurant phobia” are often complicated and multifaceted. In general, there is more than one reason why people are afraid of eating in public and, in addition, everyone’s case is different. Traditional therapies can take years, and that could be too much.
NLP and hypnotherapy work in the present
NLP and hypnotherapy are techniques that can cure or lessen your fears faster than traditional therapy. NLP practitioners don’t care why you can’t be in restaurants. All these trained people do is guide you step by step through your reaction to being in a restaurant in a guided and controlled clinical setting. They will teach you to consciously recognize the unconscious and overlooked terror reactions in your mind. Then, they will train you to eliminate that terror, to turn it into joy, calm and tranquility. With NLP, you will most likely never fear eating out again.