People unintentionally triggering anxiety

Good to hear that you are feeling a bit better now after the initial shock. Sounds challenging to deal with (both the emetophobia and your mum’s norovirus updates).

If you do not look after yourself then it diminishes your ability to look after others, so you should not feel guilty if you are unable to attend your group meeting. Close contact and contaminated surfaces are the vector, so perhaps a compromise would be to go but let people know at the start that you may be a bit more physically distant than usual (and take your own flavoured water to minimise risk!). Always scared of saying the wrong thing, so I hope that has not made things worse.

Best not tell you about my childhood holiday to the Algarve.

You have made things 100% better not worse! Thank you :o) 

And thanks for suggesting going to my group tomorrow and letting them know I'll be distant. That's a good idea and I'm grateful for your input here. I wear a mask anyway so I've got that working in my favour and a lot of people already bring cleaning stuff to clean surfaces before it begins. Taking my flavoured water is a great idea as well, one I should have thought of really as I normally won't drink anything. Not a good idea really.

InfinitePlanner said:

Best not tell you about my childhood holiday to the Algarve.

I kinda want to know now LOL :D 

But I do appreciate you not elaborating. It's a kind thought and I do appreciate it.

It is a good story as it also includes an assassination, but I will leave it for when you are feeling able to cope with it.

It looks as though the guidance for norovirus is the same as for coronavirus, so you should be well-practised. Keep washing those hands!

It is very kind of you to suggest that a book of my experiences would be interesting, but I think its only purpose would be as a sleeping aid. Perhaps everyone feels like that, because you have doubted how interesting yours would be, but your posts are always fascinating, caring and generous, so I am confident it would be wonderful. If you have thought about writing the book of your life then I hope you can give it a go. I would even betray every principle that I hold and pay full price for a copy. I believe that writing things down can be highly beneficial, as it helps me to order my thoughts and think things through logically rather than everything being a sea of chaos in my head.

I had wondered after posting whether you might already be vigorous in your handwashing given your fear of that thing that shall not be mentioned, so apologies if my comment came across as insensitive. I have had problems in the past with cracked skin on my hands, and a combination of three things seems to have sorted it out (not sure they are all necessary, but not prepared to try missing one out!) – only using cold water (I do all of the washing up in cold water as well), ensuring that all soap is washed off (which meant that I could never understand the insistence on washing hands for at least 30 seconds, as there was no chance of it taking less than that!), and drying them with excessive thoroughness (ironic that ensuring they are completely dry is the key to avoiding painfully dry skin). You will be a hand model before you know it.

It is very kind of you to suggest that a book of my experiences would be interesting, but I think its only purpose would be as a sleeping aid. Perhaps everyone feels like that, because you have doubted how interesting yours would be, but your posts are always fascinating, caring and generous, so I am confident it would be wonderful. If you have thought about writing the book of your life then I hope you can give it a go. I would even betray every principle that I hold and pay full price for a copy. I believe that writing things down can be highly beneficial, as it helps me to order my thoughts and think things through logically rather than everything being a sea of chaos in my head.

I had wondered after posting whether you might already be vigorous in your handwashing given your fear of that thing that shall not be mentioned, so apologies if my comment came across as insensitive. I have had problems in the past with cracked skin on my hands, and a combination of three things seems to have sorted it out (not sure they are all necessary, but not prepared to try missing one out!) – only using cold water (I do all of the washing up in cold water as well), ensuring that all soap is washed off (which meant that I could never understand the insistence on washing hands for at least 30 seconds, as there was no chance of it taking less than that!), and drying them with excessive thoroughness (ironic that ensuring they are completely dry is the key to avoiding painfully dry skin). You will be a hand model before you know it.