Is husband right that I need psychological help? (Won’t eat outside of home)

It sounds traumatic (and I speak as somone who ate half a slug last summer in inadequately washed salad leaves, but as it was ME who had inadequately washed them after picking them in my garden I've nobody to blame). But the chances of plain, ordinary supermarket food being contaminated is tiny. Really tiny. Did you have anxiety and/or food issues before the ready meal incident? Because most people would think 'that was nasty' but then move on. Your inability to move past it is now impacting your life and your DHs. Talk to another therapist.

DH as a child ate a boiled egg and found out it was a fertilised egg so baby chicken inside it. Not keen on eggs ever since but does eat pretty much everything else. Does eat things with egg in.

So boiled eggs aren’t always safe.

Have therapy, can’t be much fun having such a restricted diet, and part of the fun on going on holiday is sampling the food in other countries

So you only eat home cooked foods? I don’t think that’s particularly unusual. In fact it’s healthy.
whilst I wouldn’t want to eat like that, as I get lots of joy from eating out, both at home and on holiday, (nor would I get married to someone who does) - BUT - your husband knew this before he married you!

if you don’t want to eat like this, then yes clearly you will need help. But it actually sounds like you are healthy so make sure you choose the right choice for you.

I don't know. Sometimes you think you can deal with something, especially in the first flush of romance, but then when you think of spending the rest of your life never being able to go out to a restaurant or have a takeaway its a different prospect. OP you seem to have quite a serious eating disorder, so you do need to try more therapy or see someone about it.

By ‘anything disgusting’ do you mean germs or may have touched an animal?

I really doubt it ruined her life!

What happened was horrendous and understandably you have struggled to get over it.

However it is now dominating your life and spoiling your relationship.

You don’t want go live with this fear foe the rest of your life and you need help to overcome it. Hypnotherapy would be a start.

But surely you know that the papers picked up on it because it was so unusual. I know loads of people who eat many times a day and this never happened to any of them. It was unusual.

Sorry to say this but there could be a mouse anywhere at any time. Are you afraid of mice? Or ‘contamination’ ?

I had someone in my family who was like that , she would also never buy anything from a deli , bakery or takeaway basically anywhere someone has to serve you / touch the item .
Her thinking behind it was if you only buy from a shop like Sainsbury's and others they are mass produced and unlikely that is has been touched by human hand . It ruined her life .

Yeah but if there was one in the bag you would still find it. Do you really think a restaurant wouldn’t wash their veg?

I can see you would be really wary, perhaps try things where you can see all the individual ingredients, sandwiches you can open and look in, pieces of roast chicken, give the unidentifiable bits in sauce a miss. I had an uncle who wouldn't eat anything not home made, not really sure why but I think he was worried about hygiene, he may well have also had a bad experience when young. In some ways I agree that eating out can be risky you do hear horror stories about (lack of) kitchen hygiene in some places.

I sympathise with you OP as it must have been horrendous, however, the reaction it has triggered in you is very extreme.

How long ago did this actually happen?

You say you can't ever see yourself "letting your guard down" which implies this is a massive part of your life and takes up a lot of head space?

Why won't you eat crisps which are made of potatoes, but you will eat potatoes? Is it a fear that you'll open a bag of crisps and a dead animal will be in there?

And why won't you buy a loaf of bread?

What is risky about that?

I'm just trying to understand what your actual fear is? Or what logic you are following?

I would definitely ask for help as there will come a day when you won’t be able to cook.

You should do everything to get over this.

That’s ok about never again eating a ready meal, I never would eat one either but what about a bag of chips from a fish and chip shop?

What about ice cream ? A bar of chocolate?

That’s all lovely and you shouldn’t miss out in
that!

And the fact that he knew when he married you, don’t mean he has no right to want to encourage you to improve your own quality of life (and his), it’s normal for people to evolve and change over time and it’s fine for him to want that.

I can't vote on this. Yes, I think you need some assistance in getting over your fear, but because you have been the same since before marriage, I am not sure if your DH's reaction was ok. Understandable for sure.

Yes you have an eating disorder, I understand why, but the fact is this will affect your relationship, and places limits on your life. Seek help.

Yes, you are being totally unreasonable and need to seek more help and make an effort to improve your life. It’s not like you are even eliminating the tiny tiny risk of finding something like that again. Just as likely to find a foreign body in a bag of potato’s (that’s been in the ground and gone through a factory) as you are to find one in a ready meal (also gone through a factory).

You were traumatised by the incident, so yes, you need some help with what is a pretty serious eating disorder. Your DH is right.

Get help, please, for you and your family.

I think you are, and it does impact your DH (and will any DC should you have them).

Try a different therapist.

This OP, you can take steps to try to address this.

You are unreasonable. It was a one in a zillion chance. Time to get over it.