TW: forcing a kid to eat kinda aggressively
I don’t have ARFID myself but I’ve researched it quite a bit this video didn’t sit right with me at all could you guys please tell me if it’s just me or if I’m right
I have arfid (sensory subtype) and i’m doing decently well as i’ve been in treatment for the past year, but one thing that i still struggle with is getting enough protein. i’ve started working out, trying to build muscle as i am genuinely so weak, and i’ve realized that i’m not eating nearly enough protein to support that.
i can’t eat eggs, fish, greek yogurt, nuts, cottage cheese, most of the typical stuff people eat to increase their protein intake. i’ve yet to find a protein shake or protein bar that doesn’t make me gag. the only higher protein foods i can eat that i know of are chicken, steak, deli turkey, eggo protein waffles, and quest protein chips, but even if i work in one of those protein sources at each meal, i don’t think i’d be getting enough, and i think i’d actually go insane in the process.
i don’t know what to do! does anyone have recommendations for sensory friendly protein sources or advice on how they were able to up their protein intake? any tips at all helps, i’m totally hopeless here.
Breakfast is the meal I struggle with the most because I have very few options. 99% of the time I will have chocolate chip muffins but I want to try to change that because it’s so sugary but it fills me up the most out of what I can eat. I can also have pancakes and Cheerios but most of the time I’m not in the mood for either and Cheerios will barely fill me up and I’ll be hungry again in like 2 hours. I would like something that fills me up more so I’m not hungry at work so soon after eating. Thank you!!
Edit: I am gluten free, and also cannot have regular chocolate or vanilla protein shakes. I have an iced tea flavor protein powder that I take but try not to have it everyday because it’s like $30 a bottle
I don't know if this is ARFID, anxiety, GERD, or something completely different, but I'm desperate to know if anyone else has gone through this.
Back in February, I was going through one of the hardest times of my life and I was under more stress than I've ever experienced. One night while eating dinner, something just... changed.
I suddenly became hyper-focused on my breathing and swallowing. Instead of just eating without thinking, I started taking tiny bites, chewing forever, and trying to coordinate every swallow with my breathing through my nose. It was like my brain forgot how to eat normally.
Since that day, eating has never been the same.
Every meal feels exhausting. I don't really get hungry anymore, and I don't enjoy food like I used to. I constantly feel like food is getting stuck in my throat, my throat feels dry, I clear my throat all the time, and I'm always worried I'm going to choke or that food is going to go down the wrong pipe. Sometimes I can swallow just fine, but my brain keeps telling me something is wrong, so I overthink every single bite.
I've wondered if it's GERD because antacids seem to help a little, but this all started so suddenly after an incredibly stressful period that I'm starting to think my brain somehow got stuck in "manual mode" when it comes to swallowing.
It's been five months now, and I honestly miss being able to just sit down and enjoy a meal without thinking about every chew and every swallow. I never imagined something as simple as eating could become so mentally draining.
Has anyone here had something similar? Did it end up being ARFID, anxiety, functional dysphagia, GERD, or something else? Were you able to get back to eating normally? I'd really appreciate hearing your experiences because this has been one of the hardest things I've ever dealt with.
I don’t know if this is my audhd, my arfid, or both, but I’ve always had a diet that I would say is larger than what the majority of people with arfid have that I’ve seen. However, it does these really weird cycles? They can last anywhere from a week or 2 to months. Basically, I can only eat some of the foods on my list at any given time.
It rotates completely randomly and is almost always quite instant. Ex. one day I look at the fridge and go ‘yep, I can eat everything on my list. Except that cereal in the corner, that looks nasty.’ and the next, I look at it and go: ‘this all looks fucking disgusting. Besides that one box of cereal in the corner, that looks yummy.’
Cycling out of a food can be anywhere from just losing my appetite for it; but being able to eat it if I have a very good reason to, or it feeling so foreign and disgusting I need to spit it out immediately.
I have a drink (+water) and a single food (maybe 2, can’t remember) that I never cycle out of.
Does anyone else do this? (Sorry if my phrasing is bad, I’m cursed with only posting stuff late at night.)
I've basically been living off cereal and protein bars for months at this point but a couple of days ago I suddenly started feeling sick just by looking at sweet things. I still like the texture of both, having the contrast of the tiny crunchy varied pieces (I'd mix cereals) and the big chewy bar if that makes sense. How I wish the two could be savoury...
Anyway, if anyone has any safe foods that are savoury and have a similar feeling (lots of little pieces of two or three types - I mean lots, something like a bag of crisps would be too big I think - or one bigger bar type thing) I'd appreciate recommendations! Maybe I can get myself to try something else.
I’ve done my research and can’t think of an explanation for what the fuck is wrong with me besides arfid, but I’m not diagnosed, and likely will never be able to due to life circumstances right now. Is this a subreddit fine with that or not?
Hi everyone. I have autism and recurrent major depression. My first severe depressive episode happened when I was a teenager, and now, at 30 years old, I’m experiencing another severe episode and am currently staying in a psychiatric hospital.
I asked my therapist to also help with some things like my diet. I only eat soft foods, and I basically only eat sweet things. Which is bad. I don’t really have a feeling of being hungry, I eat with a schedule or when I‘m feeling bad.
How did you successfully change your diet long-term? I can force myself to eat differently, but at some point return to my „good foods“. I‘m actually scared to become overweight or get diabetes one day, so I really want to work on this now.
I'm making a bracelet which would symbolise my mental health issues. I'm looking for charms but I don't know what would match Arfid. I'm not talking about awareness ribbons. It's like for autism the symbol would be rainbow infinity sign and for ADHD rainbow butterfly. What do you think would be cool for ARFID?
TRIGGER WARNING: MENTION OF ILLNESS ever since i heard there’s a parasite going around, i feel like i’ve been avoiding food again because i’m afraid of getting it. and yeah i know it’s not contagious but people say it can make you really sick and that’s like the main reason for my arfid and why i don’t eat much because i’m afraid i’ll get sick.
I need to have throat surgery. One of my biggest fears ever.
They found on a CT scan for something else my vocal flaps are enlarged one a bit. The other a lot. It explains some things but we are unsure when it happened. Usually happens to long time cigarette smokers. I am not one. I have a rough voice, they asked me when.it started. I laughed "at about 11. Other girls got more girly voices. I got this."
I'm 51, I've always sounded like this.
So I'm getting surgery just don't know when yet. But last week I choked. Chicken that my first thought was "this is Hella dry"
I seriously almost died alone in my apartment. I took drastic measures that messed my throat up more.
But now I feel I'm back at step one. I'm afraid of everything choking me. So chew, but I can't chew to much it enters that texture stage I can't swallow without liquid. And I can't do that now with out the fear of choking.
I fucking worked so hard to eat the food I can, could. Ugh
I cried at the bus stop outside the store. I had a panic attack inside.
you have to try a new food and i'm not going to tell you what it is!!!! MWAHAHAHHAHAHA
(Heads up, apologies if my grammar/phrasing is bad, Im tired and just want an answer.)
I’ve looked into it so much but I just can’t tell. I’ve been an extremely picky eater since I was around 6, and never stopped. My symptoms seem to kinda.. contradict and point towards both arfid and just being picky.
The main reason I’m confused is because my lists of food i can eat is a bit larger then most, but only when counting in things that don’t count as meals (snacks, candy, ect). The amount of actual meals I can have is.. quite pathetic, to the point where every doctor I’ve ever seen has told me I need to get my shit together when it comes to my diet. As mentioned earlier, I have quite a lot of snacks I can eat, but none of them would really be considered meals. Stuff like goldfish.
It’s extremely difficult for me to try new foods and I often have extremely severe anxiety when I want to try a new food or if my food is altered. Within 1 and a half years (this year and 2025) I believe I only tried 2 or 3 foods. All of them I spit out immediately and had to chug water to get rid of the taste. Even then it took minutes and minutes of hyping myself up to take the smallest bite. A lot of times my gag reflex triggers too, it’s fucking terrible.
But I don’t dislike eating, love having the foods that I like! I look forward to eating the stuff that’s on my list (unless it’s altered in some way. Then I want absolutely nothing to do with it.), I just can’t really.. expand that list.
for anyone who hasn't heard some outbreak of explosive diarrhea is happening and apparently it's because of where people are eating out at but i almost never eat out (cause arfid) so i'm safe from it haha
Eating is painful??
Hi there.
I am 26, 5 ft 3in, and have been underweight since as long as I can remember. I was born premature and at only a few ounces. Almost died and had to be in an incubator for a few months. I dont know if that means my premi status makes me lighter and smaller. But. Every single doctor I ever saw growing up said my body fat percentage is like non existent and I was underweight.
I am trying to eat more. I currently can only get down *maybe* 1000 calories a day. Sometimes less. Which I know isn't a lot and a dietitian told me I need to reach the goal of 2,500 to 2,800 calories if I want to gain weight.
I have been diagnosed with ARFID and gastroparesis. I also have endometriosis. Which means that I am in EXTREME pain EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. I. EAT.
I saw my psych a few weeks ago and I am back down from 110 to 98 pounds. My dietitian has a goal weight of 125 pounds that I fear I will never reach. I am loosing hope. I will be seeing a doctor for a colonoscopy in case something is up with my GI tract.
My questions are... what do you do about the pain? Is it normal to be in pain when underweight and trying to eat more? I feel like I've always been in pain when I eat. Sometimes I'll take gasx or pepcid to relieve gi upset. But it doesn't really help. Maybe I just need to drink like WAY more water?
I would super appreciate any tips to relieve pain from eating. How to stretch out my stomach. How to listen to hunger cues. How to keep eating when my ARFIDS literally makes me gag on the food as I try to eat more.
I think the arfids causes sensory, texture, and mouth feel issues, sometimes taste issues. I have no idea how to work with my arfids to find food that won't trigger these reflexes.
I feel very hopeless. I want to start working out but I have been told by doctors that I am too underweight to be exercising. I know excercise in the past has really improved my appetite though.
I do have a plan to start drinking an ice cream shake with protein powder before bed. Learned that from reddit, about how the body stores fat at night. I also might try to split up my meals into 6 across the day instead of 3 larger meals. I am stashing snacks all over my place so that I SEE the food and hope I just start snacking. But maybe I need to be on a more strict eating schedule. I got up to 117 lbs in my prime with an intensive eating disorder program. But then I lost my insurance. Have new insurance now but they wont cover/I can't afford the intensive program again. (But also the program didn't really help me with arfids. They basically just told me to eat through the pain/disgust).
I just want to enjoy food, and feel good in my body. But eating has always caused me pain. Advice would be so appreciated. I am so lost. I just want to feel healthy again and not in pain anymore. Thank you.
ARFID sucks, we all know this, but dating when you have ARFID is awful.
Food or eating is such a social activity, especially when it comes to relationships/dating. If someone wants to cook for me? I can’t eat it. If someone wants to take me out to a restaurant? If it’s not a place I’ve been to before/is a place with safe foods, I can’t eat it.
It’s the same reason why I feel I could never be a parent. I can’t make food or eat food unless it’s a safe one and that’s such a small list. I can’t eat food made by others because it terrifies me. I feel so so bad about it because then my partner has to deal with that. I feel like less of a person for it.
I can’t even cook myself. I don’t know how to make dinner for other people. I’m terrified of getting it wrong and having to experience the consequences.
I have been thinking about feeding tubes for a while and have come to the conclusion that I think getting one would be very helpful for me. However I don’t think I met the typical criteria to get one. I am at and able to maintain a healthy weight and generally able to eat two meals a day. But doing this takes a lot of mental effort and I spend most of my time thinking about and planning for where and when and what I can eat. I think having a tube and having the option to not need to eat while still being fed would make this much easier and may make me enjoy eating more when I do so. Has anyone had a similar experience and been able to get a doctor to give them a feeding tube? Thanks for any help.
This is becoming a problem in my relationship, we've been together 8 months. My girlfriend knew I had ARFID from the get go, but now it's becoming a problem for her. In this case it's when it comes to kissing. I just can't kiss her after she's ate unless she uses a mint and wipes her mouth etc. Depending on what she's ate it will be an all day thing.
She'll eat the worst shit for me like a tuna melt, meatball sub, or garlic bread and then expect me to kiss or make out with her. Then if I ask her to use a mint or wash her mouth or whatever she gets pissy about it. I've explained to her that it's not her and that it's the food, but she says I make her feel unattractive when I ask her to do that.
I fully understand where she's coming from but I just can't help it. I feel like this is going to be a relationship ender even though I don't want it to come to that. Any advice here?
Apologies for how long this rant is -
I'm currently working on recovering from ARFID. I have definitely had ARFID my entire life, but was only officially diagnosed within the last year. After getting my diagnosis, I pretty immediately joined an outpatient program and was in that for ~3 months. It was intense but successful; I was able to gain a substantial amount of weight, and my anxiety around eating improved immensely. However, I am now ~5 months out from discharge and struggling to deal with the bodily effects of weight restoration. I am looking for some encouragement I guess.
I recognize that where I was before was not a good place to be. I was incredibly anxious and very underweight, but I was also stable. My weight had been stable for years, and my digestion and periods were super regular/predictable. Not anymore! Without going into too much detail, the digestive effects of weight restoration were really horrible for me, and the problems have not gone away. And now my period is very unpredictable and waaaay worse in terms of digestion and cramps. I'm dealing with a lot of things that I have never experienced before in my life.
I had a check-in with the clinic I went to (my weight has been stable since discharge) and basically a lot of my tests (metabolism/body comp stuff), which had consistently improved while in the program, were worse than before I started the program. This was super discouraging. They have now set a new weight goal for me and want me to gain about the same amount of weight again.
What's been frustrating is the messaging I feel like I keep getting that once I am just getting regular proper nutrition (which I feel like I've had for months) and hit the right weight for my body, whatever the heck that is, all of these problems will just resolve and go away. To me right now, it feels like the rapid weight gain is what caused all these problems, and I feel like I've just been left with them. I do want to say that I'm obviously a biased narrator here. I have a nutritionist, therapist, and PC who are all wonderful and are doing their best to help me. Whenever I try to bring any of this up with friends/family (none of whom have EDs) it always comes to something like - but don't you feel so much better now? Aren't you glad you did it? Yes, I am glad I did it, but I also don't physically feel great right now, and I feel like people don't want to hear that.
What I want to know is, did anyone else have similar bodily issues during treatment, and was there anything in particular that helped you through it? Also, did your problems sort of magically resolve after a long period of time or a certain amount of weight gain? Thanks to anyone who took the time to read all this.