Processed ham/food poisoning does anyone know?

[Nogodsnomasters]

Hi, would anyone know if you ate out of date processed cooked ham how long would food poisoning take to kick in? I made a sandwich yesterday with dennys processed ham and ate it around 1pm. This morning I've went to make another one for my husbands lunch and realised there is two opened packets in my fridge, one with a date of 24th Dec and one with a date of 31st Dec! I have no idea which one I used yesterday on 27th and am now massively paranoid I've eaten 3 days out of date ham.

I have emetophobia so massively worried about causing food poisoning. Would anyone know if I have eaten the wrong one when would symptoms start typically? Is it 24hrs or could it be longer?

Thanks for any help/info in advance.

[flatoutpanic]

What a waste of life eh getting so worked up over something minor for most people, actually makes me feel so pathetic.

Not pathetic at all - you can’t rationalise phobias. A friend of mine had a good degree of success with CBT for emetephobia. May be worth a try if you haven’t already?

[Flossie44]

What treatment are people on?? Those who say they are medicated??

[Hilda44]

You'll be fine my DH is a chef

[DramaAlpaca]

I would, and do, happily eat ham a good few days over its use by date. It's processed, therefore has preservatives in it, and as long as it's been stored in the fridge at the correct temperature it will be fine. As I say to my 20-something DC, just use your nose, it'll be obvious if it's off.

[Nogodsnomasters]

I've had cbt for health anxiety, which touched on my phobia a bit but not massively. It worked in the sense that I used to be a lot worse but it's never fully gone away. I used to carry anti-nausea tablets with me every where I went and panicked if I didn't have them, but I haven't had those for 7 years now, I also wasn't able to even see people fake throw up on TV shows or films without covering my eyes and feeling a wave of anxiety wash over me but now I'm OK with fake throw up (I know this sounds completely ridiculous!) so there have been improvements over the years but it's still there unfortunately.

[NigesFakeWalkingStick]

I have emetephobia too - very severely. To the extent where it's completely ruined my life for over 20 years. I'm medicated, I've had tonnes of therapy, but I still can't get past it. I now have a 3 year old and everyday I am terrified of it. It's stopped me from living. I'm a shell of a person, so it's a very real and very severe phobia depending on who it affects.

[WhoisitnowRalph]

IfOnlyOurEyesSawSouls It's the 6th most common phobia in the UK (I can't remember where I got that statistic but it might be out of date now). The reason so many people have it in this thread is that emetophobes will be drawn by the subject matter and will either rally to offer support, or morbidly/rabidly come and read the responses to store for future reference (e.g did the OP get sick from the ham, have previous posters been sick from old ham, etc).

People who are not phobic (or not that interested in food hygiene) will probably just scroll past.

Flossie44 I take 70mg lofepramine daily, have done for 21 years. It takes the edge of the anxiety off so I can function.

A PP very accurately surmised that true emetophobia is not simply "not liking" vomit (who likes it?), but extreme, debilitating anxiety and panic triggered by references to, sights, sounds and smells of anything even vaguely linked to stomach symptoms, vomit or vomiting. I once ditched a car and ran across a dual carriageway, and vaulted a table and climbed out of a window because somebody vomited (in the car scenario, I was tricked into believing someone had thrown up because they thought it would be funny to see my reaction when I was driving).

[WhoisitnowRalph]

NigesFakeWalkingStick sorry to hear its effected you so badly. You're braver than me, it's pretty much the only reason I never had children.

I don't think we'll ever truly be "cured" because you can't run away from your own body, our best hope is to simply manage it from day to day. I hate this time of year, but things have been quiet on that front - you know what I mean! Have you tried switching up your medication?

[Nogodsnomasters]

Yes it very almost stopped me from having a child, but it has stopped me from having more than 1. My pregnancy was the worst thing I experienced due to morning sickness and severe panic attacks, I barely functioned.