Is it okay to say I have ARFID when I don’t have a diagnosis?
I would go and try to get assessed for it, and I usually am not a person who likes to self-diagnose, however I cannot get diagnosed because it quite literally does not exist as a diagnosis in my country as the DSM-5 isn’t used here. I like using it to describe my lack of interest in and struggles with food and eating because it makes me get a lot more understood. I shared some medical articles and information about it with my parents and said I suspect I might have something like it, which they agreed with. Ever since they’ve been a lore more understanding, and I no longer get shamed for my eating habits or forced to sit at the table until I eat as much as they decide I have to, and I also get other options that I feel comfortable eating during dinner now. So I feel using this term to describe myself is helpful to me, but at the same time I feel guilty about saying I have something without an actual diagnosis as proof I actually do.