Since breaking a tooth eating Tacos I have avoided Tacos. It makes no sense but my mind has built an association. The same thing happened a few years ago with a take away pizza. However irrational it appears to others these associations can be so strong as to be virtually unbreakable. For example I heard about a lady who cannot eat coleslaw because the name sounds too much like cold sore. That is extreme but it happens. I remember for years I could not eat rice pudding because it reminded me of something else. The thought is hard to get around. My wife won't drink a coffee I make if she knows I put the milk in first. If I do and she doesn't know she drinks it without comment. If course I know longer do it anyway now that I know but there was a time I did.
For some reason, I have no desire to prove, my wife and oldest both watched videos that have put them off eggs despite both loving them for as long as I remember. Same goes for bacon with the oldest. Maybe we are exposed to too much nowadays. It's something that I am aware of and as such will ensure I avoid anything that will give me adverse thinking.
And this process of association is very apparent in my own world, agoraphobia. The reaction to being too far from home for my own liking came from one incident one day. Up to that point I was free to go anywhere and a second later not. An association with panic outdoors combined with its relief by getting home caused the most severe association. That path etched deep so as to leave a gaping scar which remains to this day. A simple association. But as strong as they are they can be unchained. The link can be dissolved. It's just not as quick or easy to deconstruct as it is to quickly, instantly sometimes, construct. It can though be done with patience, repetition and a bit of thought.
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