sometimes desensitizing helps with some things (for me), like having to stick my hand into a bag of flour to make pizza with a group home staff.. i was cringing, then ended up liking the smooth and cool feeling from it, and flour went everywhere after that lol.. but no matter how many times i touch raw meat, or even with gloves on, i cant.. i mean i CAN, but its really unpleasant. and i stir away from it everytime it comes my way.
eating certain things is the same way.. kiwis (the first thing i remembered being in extreme distress over when it came to food and not liking the way it felt in my hands and certainly not the way it felt in my mouth. both of my parents where slapping and yelling at me as i was screaming and throwing it to the ground and slapping their wrists/hands/arms/spoons anytime they tried to force me to eat it (which was right after i would successfully reject the last piece. judging by the living space i was in, and being up in a high chair, i was spmewhere between 1 and 2 yrs old.
i cant handle sticky stuff.
the only way i know to deal with/tolerate it, is through desensitizing; and if that doesnt work, then avoidance... i feel like "avoidance" isnt an acceptable resolution deemed by those "looking in from the outside", but... the only other solution i have found is to avoid it