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The original was posted on /r/tifu by /u/lettuceandcucumber on 2023-07-17 06:03:41.

I (28f) recently went on a week trip to Athens. I’m autistic and have issues with food so it’s sometimes difficult to communciate this with a language barrier. On my final night in Athens, I really wanted to eat lamb kofte AKA minced lamb shaped into meatballs or long pieces. We found a restaurant that had “lamb kofte” on the menu and because I am very funny with food I also asked them before we sat down and they assured us they had what I was asking for. Then when we ordered I doubled checked that it was what I was asking for. They said it was. I even googled photos.

When they brought my food out it was lamb on the bone and beef on the bone. It was not what I had double checked it would be. Any meat on the bone freaks me out. But it smelled devine and I told myself “this is just food, it’s fine, I am an adult, I can do this.” I absolutely hate complaining to staff. So I ate most of it, as much as it made me feel slightly ill and panicked. Just before the end of the meal, I had to tell my friend that I needed to leave because I felt unwell but that I would just need an hour to myself to calm down and I would meet him later. I met him later and still felt a bit off but after a few drinks I was totally fine. I had about 5 drinks that night.

Next morning I woke up totally fine. We went for breakfast after checking out of our airbnb at 9am and our taxi for our 10pm flight wasn’t until 7pm. After breakfast I started feeling a bit off. We had all day until our taxi so we had plans but I felt so ill I told my friend to go without me. I stayed in that bar for about 2 hours until I started feeling seriously ill. I started retching but I wasn’t throwing anything up. My hands were shaking and I could barely walk. I asked them to call an ambulance. Eventually, a member of staff came over and started telling me “you’re not sick, you’re stressed. Stop drinking water, I’ll get you a pepsi”. He sat with me and asked me about my favourite singers and then watched them with me on youtube. At this point since the night before I genuinely wasn’t thinking at all about the meal I’d had.

A few hours later my friend came back and I was still sick. The member of staff had helped me immensely though. At some point we had to leave to go to the airport and that was the worst taxi ride of my life. At one point I genuinely considered throwing myself out of the taxi onto the highway because I thought death would feel better.

When we got to the airport, I couldn’t stand. I really thought I was dying. My friend had to walk me so slowly that by the time we got to security, airport staff called paramedics. I couldn’t move my head or speak properly. I was absolutely terrified and thought I had a worm in my brain or something.

The paramedics were so so lovely. They at first thought I’d had too much to drink the night before but when I told them I had only had about 5 drinks they asked more questions. Once I was on the hospital bed I told the main paramedic that I’m autistic and have had panic attacks before. He said “oh. you should have said that. what happened in the last 24hrs?” so I started telling him about the meat on the bone and I instantly burst into tears and started hyperventilating. He told me I’d simply been having a panic attack for the last 24 hours and that the alcohol the previous night had numbed it but it was just coming back full force because I hadn’t dealt with it. He was so kind to me. He held me as I was hyperventilating and crying, he gave me a xanax and when I told him I was afraid I was gonna be sick he told me “you will not be sick. Because you are strong.” They calmed me down enough and took me to my flight in time and I am forever grateful. I tried to send a gift to him but I was told it wasn’t allowed.

Anyway, that’s the story of how I “sucked it up”, ate food I wasn’t used to eating and had a panic attack I didn’t even know I was having. So next time someone tells you they can’t eat something, listen to them.

TLDR; Checked numerous times that the food I ordered was what I expected as an autistic person. Didn’t get the food I ordered, ate it and ended up in the emergency room due to a panic attack.