Avoiding places where you’ve been ill

[Dunarunner]

Well places and things associated with being ill. If I’ve ever been somewhere where I’ve had a bad cold or bug, I then associate it with being ill and don’t really want to go back there, even though rationally I know it has nothing to do with me getting ill. Same with distinctive things I’ve eaten around the time of getting ill, even though they’re impossible/unlikely to have been the cause. Does anyone else get this? Isn’t the brain weird?

On my avoid list are

A certain hotel in Scotland, where I arrived for a wedding but then came down with the flu and couldn’t go. I had a room service BLT there and therefore cant eat BLTs ever again because they remind me of the flu shivers

Crunchie bars - ate one as I was coming down with bad chest infection, now ruined forever

Peanut brittle - had some and later that day had d&v. Obviously not related but for me now peanut +sweet things = vom

Also a holiday destination in south of France where I had morning sickness. I don’t want to say the whole of the south of France is forever tainted with the sensation of vomiting, but it kind of is...

I had food poisoning in Turkey so badly I ended up in hospital on two separate holidays. First time turned out to be campylobacter which they only discovered after I’d been in hospital for 3 days and the second time they said it was just because my stomach hadn’t fully recovered from the first time. However, even more worryingly was that the doctor who came to our hotel room was convinced I’d been ill both times I’d visited was because I had blue eyes which is a curse in Turkey and this was in a 5* hotel!
Very close friends of ours plan to get married there and there’s also talk of a big group holiday next year and I’m terrified!

After 8 mints!

Once had the start of tonsillitis and vomiting a lot with illness but had eaten an after 8 mint and very poorly after! Always associate mint and chocolate flavour with being sick now.

Mostly no, but can't handle more than a small glass of white wine out of politeness (after a fast 2 bottles at the end of a very long shift some time ago).
But the associations remain - Caesar salad from a packet gave me food poisoning, once - though had eaten it on the train; and I started labour after a bacon sandwich eaten while out somewhere, remember sitting on a wooden bench to eat it and not knowing why my back was absolutely killing. But that definitely didn't taint bacon sandwiches!

For years I couldn't eat toffee flavour ice cream because I had one the day I began to haemorrhage internally and nearly died (completely unrelated to the eating of the ice cream obviously!) But the other day I ate one and realised I was over it. About time too as the traumatic event was 34 years ago!

Yes - I went to a christening as a teenager and dressed up smartly including a new pair of shoes I hadn't worn before. I came down with a stomach bug shortly after arriving at the church and spent the whole day throwing up. I couldn't wear those shoes again without feeling ill

I took DS to London when he was 6, just the two of us. Big adventure so we had all of his favourite foods - bacon and pancakes with maple syrup, mint choc chip ice cream, mango sorbet, pork crackling straws. Then he got really sick and hasn't been able to eat any of those things since. Two years on and he can just about manage bacon, if it's not crispy. Massive mum guilt.

Apple vodka. Was sweet enough to drink neat on the rocks, even the thought of the stuff makes my stomach turn.

Ginger biscuits. Had severe nausea and vomiting in pregnancy and my dm, trying to help, bought me like 8 packs of ginger snaps. When I see ginger snaps now I just remember how they taste coming back the other way 🤮

Heinz tomato soup, seems a common theme! I do love it but only tend to eat it when ill

Someone I knew was sick all over the back end of a grey (i.e. white) horse after eating tomato soup, while riding it! Interesting occurrence.

I can't eat supermarket sushi because I had an M&S platter when I was coming down with flu once. I definitely associate the taste and texture with the feeling of getting ill. Restaurant sushi is fine though!

I struggle with mince after getting D&V after eating mince dishes, ironically both in Devon, on 2 separate occasions. The first time was lasagne, the second cottage pie.

I've also struggled with both mash and pheasant after eating some on Christmas eve 2 years ago and coming down with norovirus that night. Worst Christmas ever, and I spent last Christmas eve paranoid that it would happen again.

I can’t stand anything with cloves in or the scent of them after having awful toothache and couldn’t get a dentist appointment so tried clove gel on the tooth. It just reminds me of toothache even 25 years later.

Also fish pie from a favourite historic pub in Cornwall gave me terrible food poisoning. I’ll go for a drink there but not food.

I had norovirus at Center Parcs a few years ago - I now take anti-bac wipes with me and wipe everything down. We hadn't even been in the pool.
It was quite fun as I'd gone with a friend and her 2 children - I was massively unwell the first night and she looked after the kids, starter feeling okayish on the Sunday and then she got it and I looked after all 5 children. Not exactly the relaxing holiday we'd imagined.

Cant eat pork pie, which I lived on as a kid, as I had a bout of D & V after eating one, and cannot even look at one now. Also when I pregnant I used Bio Oil and cannot now stand the smell as it reminds me of morning sickness. My so cant stand the small of cleaning fluids as it reminds him of being sick. Funny how our minds work.

I came down with an extremely bad case of gastric flu (six weeks off work bad) and I will never eat Cornish pasties (vomit) nor oxtail soup (recovery craving) again.

Nor will I step foot in the bakers where I bought the pasty, it may be circumstantial but it fair put me off!

I couldn’t go back to the Algarve due to morning sickness.

@squashyhat

I got bad food poisoning from some street vendor pistachios on holiday in Naxos many years ago. I wouldn't go back to Naxos for a number of reasons but that's top of the list (and I have never eaten pistachios again either).

I've been trying to go back to Naxos for the last two years. Bloody Covid...

I have been once to the lake district. Never again, caught norovirus on a coach tour. Even hearing places in the LD on the traffic news gives me nausea.

I developed Hyperemisis Gravidarium when me and dh were at Woburn Centre Parcs (on the second day) I can’t shake the association.
Heinz tomato soup reminds me of being ill as a child.
I got food poisoning from a Thai green chicken curry - now I can’t eat anything with coriander/lemon grass etc as it makes me feel immediately ill.

Maybe I should make myself get sick after eating chocolate or cake. Then I could have an aversion to them , rather than an addiction to them.

I can't stand dettol hand-wash the original blue one due to morning sickness.
DH and I once came down with a stomach bug athe same time.. Caught from our daughter. We had one loo in the house and he literally couldn't get off the loo whilst being sick at the same time in a bucket.
I had to go to the back garden and have diarrhea in a bucket whilst vomiting on the grass.
This continued all night.
We had eaten kfc.. 17 years later there's no way o can eat it

Veggie bacon-I think it was quorn
Scoffed it,felt sick and got this awful taste of mouldy beef in my throat
Started coughing up black blood and ended up in hospital with quinsy
Never again

Coffee
Bacon
Swimming pools
Xxx strong mints
Bonfire smoke
Cut grass
Petrol
A match that’s just been lit
Some fabric conditioners-Lenor,I’m looking at you
Smell of a compost heap
My brothers feet (he went through a ‘I’m not washing nor changing my socks for 8weeks’ stage in his teens)
Whiskey

Damn you morning sickness-that was 25 years ago but still has the ability to make me feel ill to this day

All I can say is if your friend who works in Emergency Care won't eat somewhere, they can't tell you why they know to avoid but trust them...

For a long time I couldn't eat cheese and onion McCoy's because I came down with a vomiting bug about an hour after eating a packet.

I still can't listen to Coldplay's Yellow as I was terribly hungover when I was young and on my way to work in a taxi feeling extremely sick with that song on the radio. I got out the taxi and immediately threw up.

Fish cakes-sick bug.
Canned fruit salad-norovirus. Bastard pieces.
Krispy Kreme donuts-norovirus
Oysters-ill twice.

Morleys!

Yes I can't drink wine after I celebrated a bit too much when landing my dream job.
DM hasn't touched a certain fast food chain in decades after being ill once.