Why?

[Asylum]

I don't like eating in front of people. I won't eat in front of friends. I'm afraid of everythign it seems and i'm very paranoid... i dont' even sit in the cafeteria because i dont' want other people to think i'm eating.. .why am i like this?

[ShatteredGlass]

Maybe you want someone around you to care enough to ask?

[Asylum]

i guess that could be a possibility

[Sceneboy612]

Sorry this is late, but have you thought about having a friend to walk around with you during lunch? Someone who you can eat in front of, someone who will eat with you... Someone you can trust?

But i dont know what to tell you about the bathroom. But if you say you are going to the nurse, you can use her bathroom. That is what some people do in my school. :)

[Asylum]

nah liike i odn't even eat with my boyfriend... it's weird.

[cherry_boi]

lol i'm kind of the opposite, i hate eating if nobody else is, if i am eating whoever i'm with has to eat too, i can eat by myself and other ppl can eat without me but if i am eating damnnit ppl around me will eat to!!

lol i guess we're both just weird maybe? O.o

[Triceratops]

I can really empathize here.
I'm sometimes terribly anxoius eating in front of members of the public, or even some people I know. Restaurants or special occassions used to be a huge problem for me, but I kind of gradually grew out of it.

I think this is due to the individual's insecurities and unstable relationship with food. Eating in front of people can bring a sense of embarassment and shame to those suffering from an ED.

The person experiencing an eating disorder usually criticizes or feels low about themselves for eating a certain type or amount of food. This can regularly trigger them into becoming paranoid, because they're under the impression that it seems other people surrounding them (at the present time of eating) are also judging them and are dissappointed in them - equally as much as the person with the eating disorder is too.

Even so, this may not even be the case. Perhaps eating in public brings back bad memories or emotions the individual may have once experienced. They may remind them of a negative time in your life that they've been through with the eating disorder, or another moment in their life where they've found themselves struggling. Maybe these events are too personal to share with other people, so they find it hard to link these memories with everyday life.

Or, refusing or finding it difficult to eat in front of people is a sign that they want others to know because they're in need of help and support. They feel they can't cope or deal with the pain and emotional suffering that comes along with an eating disorder, so they need someone else to help them on the way to escape the eating disorder.

I may be way off, but I'm just trying to round off as to why people may struggle to eat in front of people. The examples I've just given only come from my experience though.

Also, I'm just going to add that it's very common for people to be afraid of eating in front of close friends, family members or a boyfriend/girlfriend.

[overcome.]

I know it's no concellation, but there are many more people out there than you think that have these kind of problems. Although my problems don't quite consist of an eating disorder (although it's similiar, but not a disorder), I never used to like eating in public. I'm not over keen, but I will do now. This used to mainly go for restaurants or in a college cafeteria. Like Marcie, I kind of gradually overcame it. Ok, I'm learning to deal with it, I still have issues from time to time.

OP, I like your sig also. Three underated things.