Can you stand being watched while eating

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One evening after I had finished cooking my dinner my parents and sister had finished their meal and my mother and sister left the room, But my father was still sitting at the table. They had complained about me a few days earlier about me eating in my room so I reluctantly sat down at the kitchen table and I attempted to eat but I suddenly started to get irritated because I felt that my father sitting there silent not saying anything and not within my peripheral vision was so unusual and inappropriate which made me feel paranoid that I was just being blindly stared at for no apparent reason. I could not stand this and abruptly went out of the room after throwing the majority of the dinner out.

An analogy that I can compare this to would be like a person being in a public toilet cubicle and someone in the cubicle beside standing up on the seat and looking over to watch a person take a s**t, Which would be weird and disgusting.

I don't know what it is but I can eat without any issues if someone is present in a room but totally engrossed in something else like watching television, reading or working on a laptop, However I can't tolerate that If I have already started eating a dinner and half way through a person appears in the room and starts doing something else, At least most of the time not always.


Another more recent situation was my Grandfather invited myself and my parents to a restaurant that I had been to many times before. When we walked in we unfortunately came into contact with my dads x-business partner and his wife which their table was situated in front of ours, It didn't bother me and despite the irritating level of noise in the room which did slightly bother me everything else was fine. At least until my dads friends were leaving at the exact time our dinner had been brought out.

So they were just hovering over our table and having a reasonably long conversation about random things. My parents and grandfather started on their meals but I couldn't, It was like a mind block but it just felt strange and inappropriate to be hovering at someones table, I just couldn't stand it and impatiently went out to the restroom to do nothing but wait for a 5 mins which I thought would of been enough time for them to f**k off but it wasn't. When I returned they were still there and I was just waiting not touching the dinner until they eventually left.

I know that many Aspergians often enjoy solitary eating habits but does what I have described sound typical or can any of you relate to this?

Personally I don't mind someone watching me eat. But restaurants are difficult to converse in due to my inability to tune out the background noise. The thing that does upset me is someone making noise while they are chewing. That makes my skin crawl.

I prefer to eat alone, but I am not rigid about it. As long as I am not being hassled about what I am eating, and how much, I don't really care. Unfortunately, I have rude relatives who see nothing wrong with hassling me over every molecule I consume. Yes, I know I have a weight problem. Hassling me over every molecule I eat wont melt the fat off my bones. It just increases my stress levels--and guess what fat people tend to do when they are stressed?--EAT MORE!! ! Fortunately I live alone, so I don't often have to eat with my relatives any more. They still bother me about my food intake in phone conversations, and then complain that I don't often answer my phone or call them. DUH!! ! I am in my mid 50s. I am old enough to eat what I want, when I want, and to not have people hassle me about it. I have enough other problems in my life giving me stress. I don't need my relatives piling more on over my food intake. I most definitely prefer to live ALONE!! ! My stress levels are far less now that I live alone. My chronic lifelong depression is more manageable now that I live alone.

As for your own situation, when it happens at home, either eat at a different time than the rest of the family, or eat in your room, if it bothers you. When family members question you about it, just tell them that you can't eat when people are watching you, so you will eat alone. When eating out, if a similar situation happens again, pick up your plate and move to a different table to eat, at least until the visitors are gone. If your family wants to know why you did that just tell them the truth. That having people hover over you while you are trying to eat makes you too uncomfortable to eat, so you moved to another table. And remind them that eating out is supposed to be a pleasant thing, not a stressful one.

If you choose to eat alone, just remember to clean up after yourself. And if you want something different than what was made for the family you will also have to make your own alternate meal, and clean up that mess, too.

i hate it. if caregiver walks into the kitchen while i am eating, i will pout and push him out.

mostly he stays out of the kitchen while i am in there since he knows how much it upsets me.

I can feel people when they look at me, which is almost like making eye contact with them.

I dislike eating new and unfamiliar meals in front of people because I might not like it and they may end up feeling bad and me feeling weird, also my food sensitivities mean I have to heavily modify or completely cut out foods from my meals, this makes me feel weird and humiliated in front of people I am not close to or may not understand. Other then that I am usually fine as long am I am not being pestered for some stupid little thing or starred at.

just stare at me and do nothing else - no can't take it.

I can handle and actually enjoy eating in the company of others who I know and like being around.

I do not equate taking in nutrition with relieving oneself, one requires actual exposure, while the other is just being there.

I am the same, sometimes I find it ok, but most of the time it makes me too nervous to actually eat, you know when your mouth goes dry, its just too difficult.

I am the same with other things as well, when I am working and a teacher comes and watches behind me my hands start to shake and I just freeze, exams are annoying for that reason because I have to stop whenever someone walks past looking at me . I like to be invisible a lot of the time.

I also can't stand doing anything where people are not talking or there is no background noise, creates the same problem when eating.