Do you eat alone?

 Good Lord! Is it just me? Between bacteria-laden magazines in waiting rooms and choking on weenies while eating alone, the Pea World seems super anxiety-ridden today! I consider myself a tightly wound ball of anxiety but these kinds of things never occur to me. 

This reminds me of the time i fell in/out of the shower. All i could think as i was going down was "great, husband will come home to find me dead, sprawled naked across the bathroom floor". Luckily i caught myself before i hit my head.

But seriously, no i have never considered not eating because i was by myself. That is overly paranoid, even for me.

Absolutely. It's never occurred to me that there might be people who never eat alone.

I'm eating some while reading this thread. I find that I'm chewing a bit more carefully

I highlighted the above because that is so true. When I took a class on basic first aid a while back, the instructor noted that 90% of all people freeze or run away in a crisis and of the remaining 10%, a significant number can't remember what to do, etc. This class was mandatory at work, so all of my coworkers attended and learned the appropriate procedures in case of choking. 

A few months later at lunch at work, one of my coworkers started to choke. Everyone but me just froze or kept talking -- raising the volume of their voices -- and I was the only one who stood up, went over to her and asked if she could speak. There were about 10 people in the room, all in "caring" professions, and I was the only one who even paid overt attention to her. While I was helping her, people just sat and stared, looked away, or kept talking even more loudly. Including her best friend, who just looked down at her feet and did nothing. She still talks to this day about how if I had not been in the room, apparently she would have died surrounded by people who knew how to save her but did nothing. (In fact, when I quit that job, as it happened that coworker quit a few days later. She joked that once I quit, she had to because she no longer felt safe eating there without me. LOL)

A few days later, another coworker's husband was in a restaurant when a woman started to choke. She stood up and banged on the table, and even threw plates trying to get attention. Her husband was the only one who went over -- he did the correct procedure and she survived.

So yes, don't assume that just because you are with other people that they will save you. Cut your food into small pieces and chew thoroughly. Save yourself. 

Frequently. DH and I almost always eat dinner together but other than that, I am usually eating alone. I would think that almost everyone ends up eating alone at least some of the time.

Wasn't there a hot button Pea thread back in the day regarding a parent who wouldn't let her kid eat when he stayed home by himself while she was at work?

Oh I'm sorry to hear that! But its better than what I was thinking, that stress is stopping you from eating. Hope you're doing ok:smile:

There was a woman from one of those girl bands that I can't remember the name of, i think from the 90s, that died recently because she was drinking wine alone, broke her wine glass, and fell on the glass shards. Freak accidents can happen anywhere and any time. And there is no way I'm giving up drinking wine alone!!

Yep.  My wonderful SIL was home alone (her dh works out of state most of the time), tripped and fell in her living room and hit her head on her huge glass coffee table.  When she couldn't be reached for two days, someone went to her house.  They found her on the living room floor.  She was barely alive.  She passed later that evening.

I think about choking when I eat alone all the time. It doesn't stop me from doing it, though.