I have never eaten cucumber, onion – or an egg. Can I cure my extreme food phobias?

Is anyone more disliked than people who eat food? It seems unlikely if you exclude the obvious candidates. It is unfortunate that an era in which half of the population identify as foodies has coincides with one in which the other half believe that eating wheat or nightshades will cause spiritual death. Worse still are people who change entire food groups on the basis of childhood quirks that should have been left behind. I should be aware that I am one of them.

My diet is one of the top three things that annoy me the most, and it's one of the things that I like to sing about. I have never eaten onions, lettuce, carrots, cucumber, tomatoes, mushrooms, eggs, or anything else.

An aunt told my parents that I was unlikely to grow into an adult who ate only fish fingers and chips because I was too young. We are here. If you bumped into me at the grocery store today, you would be forgiven for thinking that I was cooking a children's party or conducting a medical experiment into how quickly a person could develop diabetes.

I have gotten slightly better with age, gradually adding ingredients such as peppers, peas and tender-stem broccoli to my menu. I dread the moment when a new friend invites me to dinner and asks if I have any leftovers. The wait to see if my various substitution have been successfully accommodated is an anxious one for my boyfriend. For a while I lied and claimed I had allergies, but my self imposed rules are often conflicting. I reconciled myself to the fact that I might have an eating disorder after I used to feel self-conscious about it.

My weight isn't something I'm focused on. The threshold of what I find disgusting is lower than other people's. I used to like watching I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!, but I would rather eat a plate of witchetty grubs than a piece of coleslaw.

If only I could eat like a normal person, I’d be able to go on holiday without stuffing my hand luggage full of safe foods

I don't have any logic to what I will and won't eat. On a group trip to Canada, I found out that I could eat oysters as a party trick because I like spicy food. I like the idea of being a mermaid and being in the vicinity of a beetroot makes me cringe. It's difficult to explain all of this without sounding crazy.

I have certainly embraced the idea that I am a supertaster. My nemesis is chopping boards that harbour the flavours of foods I don't like and I can often identify traces of my triggering ingredients. When I was a kid, I would be out the door and down the street before anyone could open a can of tuna, because I had a strong sense of smell.

When I was seven years old, my mother took me to a hypnotist, but the session was abandoned when the therapist said she couldn't make me eat problem food. There were bouts of projectile vomiting caused by attempts to smuggle feared ingredients into food. For a while, I was forced to sit at the table until I finished my work, but we found out that I had a lot of time.

If I could eat like a normal person, I would be able to go on holiday without packing my luggage full of safe foods, and I would be able to accept dinner invitations without having to negotiate. Is it possible to teach an old dog a new trick? Felix Economakis is a psychologist who specializes in treating people with avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder which was added to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

I was wrong to think I was expecting something. Economakis is a man who has heard it all before. A lot of people he sees restrict themselves to just one or two foods, which can lead to scurvy, rickets and even blindness. He began applying the same framework to those with Arfid after being approached by the producers of the show. Since then, he has seen more than 5,000 cases, and has a success rate of 90 percent.

Economakis wants me to bring with me samples of five to 10 foods that I would like to eat. It is frightening. I decided on a curry with mushrooms and onions because I am an aspiring vegetarian who will never eat a vegetable in the house. I buy a salad from Pret and a quiche from M&S in a panic because I can't imagine anything worse.

I see a new vista on my horizon, one with working lunches, fine dining and no hushed requests to see the kids’ menu

The London office of Economakis is more like a study than a clinic, filled with sofas and thank-you cards from former patients. He explains the evolutionary roots of foodphobia. We are suspicious of animals and food when we are young. We rationalise this fear by making our own rules to keep us safe. He has seen people who won't eat green foods, or mushy foods, or two foods that they would eat individually but won't touch on a plate. He's seen chefs who can cook all manner of dishes but can't eat certain ingredients. I'm afraid that unsafe foods will cause you to get sick. The food is not to blame. It is my fear of onions that makes me cringe. The symptoms are eliminated by eliminating the fear.

Because my eating habits have always been a huge source of embarrassment, I have become accustomed to avoiding questions about it or making fun of it. It is a relief to have someone who understands the complexity approach it calmly and without judgement. Economakis is confident in my ability to change. It seems like a simple misunderstanding that Economakis is helping me to put right is what the problem feels like. He does most of the talking and sometimes asks if I agree or disagree. Our goal is for me to become a scientific eater, someone who tries food before deciding if they like it or not.

Economakis says that logic-based solutions like cognitive behavioural therapy don't work because foodphobia is not a rational fear. We complete a series of visualizations geared towards overcoming barriers to change instead of him speaking in the language of the subconscious. These are easy to understand. The Arfid part of my brain is what determines which foods I like and which I don't. He thanks it for trying to keep me safe, but says these are no longer necessary. I imagine a fork in the road where I can either be restricted by my fears or embrace a new path. I will become freer, healthier and less anxious if I follow the right path. After closing my eyes and entering a relaxed state, he reinforces the decisions I have made.

I am going to climb my own personal Everest and eat a mushroom after just over an hour. I opened a Tupperware to look at the curry my boyfriend had prepared for me. I feel better now. A determined person. I can do a daring stunt with grace, elegance and not a trace of vomit. I felt a wave of embarrassment when I put a piece of onion into my mouth. It doesn't seem to like much. I wondered if this was what I had spent so much time running from. I tried a bigger piece of mushrooms. Again, the same thing. It isn't slimy and doesn't have a strong flavour. It wasn't unpleasant. Next up is a pie. My fork was loaded with a mound of yellow egg. I am able to attempt again after some reassurance. I chew and swallow it, even though it isn't very good.

I am on a roll right now. I don't feel like I'm in danger. I eat a piece of Cucumber. It's alright! It was like a slice of apples. I can see a new vista on my horizon, one dotted with working lunches, fine dining and no hushed requests to please see the children's menu, even though the Earth hasn't moved. Economakis wants to know how he feels. I feel like I have a sense ofclimax. It is as if I have spent years preparing to enter a haunted house only to discover that it is occupied by rabbits. He says that one of his colleagues described it as an "underwhelmed therapy that can have overwhelming results" Eating is a normal activity and the goal is for it to feel normal.

Over the next few weeks, I will have to keep trying new foods. We will consider this session a success if I can enjoy 30 and hate 10.

I think I will be unable to repeat the results without Economakis holding my hand. Maybe I could use him as a kind of hype man who accompanies me to restaurants and yells encouragement when I see dishes with three or more ingredients? I don't have to. I have been brave enough in the weeks since our session to believe that a Pride of Britain award is possible. I continue to try new foods with an open mind and an open heart. I have tried everything from the ordinary to the exotic. At a wedding, I eat a canapé consisting of squash on some kind of unidentified fritter, and my friends gasp. Is this how to make a bride stand out?

It isn't a complete change. Jack was 11 months old when I swapped my burrata starter for pasta and tomato sauce at the wedding. He loved his burrata. I continue to make progress. When I was alone in the house, I added some onions to a sauce that I had eaten. I can say that I am the whole package if you eat what you want.