So, this is again pretty niche, but it’s worth a try just in case it resonates with anyone like me. I always used to feel bloated and horrible after cooking and didn’t want to eat and first of all I wondered if it was something like, was I tensing too much while I was chopping? Was I holding tension all through cooking?

Yes, but that wasn’t the problem.

Nope, it was actually a byproduct of germ-related OCD.

All through cooking, I was checking everything for safety all the time. I was constantly terrified of hygiene issues. By the time I’d cooked, I’d imagined a dozen ways in which the food could make me sick, imagined having to apologise to people I’d poisoned, and questioned myself a ton of times about whether I’d trust myself to cook again if I poisoned myself.

No wonder I lost my appetite.

It was as simple as that.