I went years not eating these because of the terror and anxiety of having to open one. And one day by chance (dropped it in the sink that had water in it.) I found the secret to not getting the piss scared out of you.
Here it is. These cans are cardboard. Cardboard disintegrates in water.
If you peel back just a little of the paper. And sit it in a bowl, Make sure the side you peeled is facing down. and pour in a little water.
Then quickly leave the room or put it in your fridge or something. And in a minute or two it will pop open. And you will hear it from a safe distance. And you will be okay.
I had to have a bunch of hardware installed in my hand after being involved in a workplace accident involving an explosion caused by compressed air.
I didn’t think it left anything but a physical mark until I opened a biscuit tin a couple months after recovery…Took about a year until opening crescent rolls and biscuit containers didn’t tickle the big PTSD nerve.
When my mom was a kid, the house next door exploded from a gas leak. Killed everyone inside and her trauma from that made her have to leave the room when I, the assigned can popper, popped one of these open. Same with balloons, anything with a loud, sudden noise.
PTSD is real, yo. That shit lasts a whole lifetime.
Luckily mine was fairly temporary, but for a good year or so I was pretty antsy around any kind of compressed gas.