14 DAY TRIAL // Selective Eating Disorder (SED) is a growing phenomenon among adults in the UK. Lately, we've heard stories about different types of food phobias, and this is just one more.
A 22-year-old student from Herne Bay, Kent, suffers from turophobia – an irrational fear of cheese – and panics every time she walks past the cheese counter in the supermarket and sees chunks of the dairy product piled high on the shelves.
Melissa North is so terrified of cheese that she literally bursts into tears at the sight of the food. She developed the phobia at the age of four, after being served up cheese on toast at a friend’s house. Although she didn't like it, she ate it out of politeness, but she has been afraid of it ever since.
Now, she says that seeing or eating cheese makes her feel physically sick.
“Walking past a deli counter in a supermarket is really difficult for me. I get so clammy and start to have a panic attack. It just looks awful – so gooey and disgusting,” Melissa told the Daily Mail.
“Touching or eating cheese for me is like someone who is scared of spiders holding a tarantula,” she added, trying to explain her fear.
The young woman, who studies illustration and visual communications, says she's scared of any type of cheese, but soft varieties such as brie are the worst, followed by blue cheeses.
Apparently, her fear of the dairy product got worse after some of her classmates played a cruel joke on her, throwing cream cheese at her face.
Melissa says her friends and family still don't understand how serious her condition is and find her phobia amusing.
“My boyfriend is always making fun of me. He will chase me around the house with a block of cheese in his hand but I just go into a state of panic. I just have to lock myself in the bathroom until he gets bored. He is supportive of me but it’s hard to explain how much I hate it,” she said.
People who suffer from turophobia often associate cheese with a traumatic experience or are lactose intolerant. Melissa falls into the first category. Although there are different types of therapies that could help sufferers overcome their fear, many of them don't seek professional help and live with the phobia their entire lives.
Dave Smithson of Anxiety UK says, “There are various ways you can help people with their phobias, in most cases it involves some sort of therapy, and a therapist can devise coping therapies.”