r/ARFID

I am 18 years old and have had Arfid my whole life and was officially diagnosed when I was 6. My safe foods are genuinely embarrassing and some of the worst I have seen on this thread as I only eat plain pasta, chips, sour cream and onion Pringles and milk chocolate. Nothing else.

I work in retail and on my half hour break I go to the local Burger King for chips as that’s the only option I have for something to eat. And recently my co workers have noticed this is the only thing I eat and it got brought up in work a few days ago with someone asking me why I don’t eat anything else and putting me in a very awkward situation.

I wish I could easily explain how I have a eating disorder called Arfid etc etc but I don’t want to put anyone in an uncomfortable position as the term “eating disorder” often does that to people. I also don’t want anyone to view me as mentally ill.

Has anyone else had to deal with this? And is there any other way I can describe my situation to my co workers without making me look crazy?

I’m 39 next month and I keep running into articles or forum posts that file ARFID under “pediatric feeding issues” like we’re supposed to age out of it at 18. I work IT support, so I spend all day troubleshooting stuff that refuses to behave, and apparently my appetite is just another stubborn ticket that never closes. Does it get under anyone else’s skin? Not asking for a cure, just annoyed that adult experiences are treated like an edge case. I’d rather see more people talking about managing this while paying rent, sitting through meetings, and trying to enjoy an anime binge without turning dinner into a whole project. Maybe I’m just tired, but the framing makes me feel like I missed a memo everyone else got.

Something happens to me that everyone tells me is unusual. I almost never feel hungry or have the desire to eat. I can go many hours without eating and not even notice it. I can even have food right in front of me and not feel like eating it. Most of the time, I eat because I know I should, not because I actually have an appetite.

However, after several hours without eating, I sometimes start to feel something in my stomach. It feels like an empty sensation, as if my stomach were being squeezed or contracting. Sometimes it also feels somewhat like a burning sensation or just something strange inside my stomach.

The weird part is that I don't really associate that feeling with being hungry. I don't think, "I'm hungry, I want to eat." I just notice the sensation in my stomach, while still having no desire to eat.

But if I eventually eat even though I don't feel like it, the sensation goes away.

Does anyone else experience something similar? Is it possible to feel the physical signals of hunger without actually having an appetite or wanting to eat? Or does hunger normally come with the mental feeling of wanting food?

I want to clarify that I don't do this intentionally. I'm not trying to avoid eating, lose weight, or hurt myself. I simply almost never feel hungry or have an appetite, and I can forget to eat. I normally go to the gym, although I haven't been able to go lately because I don't have enough time due to university.

It always felt like the media was reinforcing the idea that picky eating or ARFID is just an attitude problem or ”stubbornness” that can be fixed with a single bite. 

Because then the kid tries it, magically loves it, and the episode ends with "see? You were just being stubborn!"

That trope set such an annoying precedent for how real life adults treated me whenever I struggled to eat foods. It made people think forced exposure was a cure. Because one bite of broccoli has definitely cured my entire sensory system every single time. /s (Bonus points if the episode ends with the kid suddenly making it their favorite food.)

I wish we got cartoons showing that it’s completely okay to genuinely dislike a food, or better yet, actual ARFID representation where a kid’s food boundaries are respected instead of treated as a phase to fix. Why can't media show a character saying "I tried it, I still hate it, and that's fine"? Not every food is for everyone, and enforcing the idea that "you'll love it if you just try it" makes it harder to set normal boundaries around food.

So today was the day… I’d been mentally weighing up whether it was worth taking my suspicions to the GP ( always a different Doc, you never end up seeing the same one twice ) but I did. The appointment went 50 / 50 - she didn’t seem to be entirely aware of ARFID, so I explained it as coming under the category of an >!eating disorder… despite not being in the realms of anorexia or Bulimia!<. I tried to explain that my concerns come from a complex medical history, including previous history of being tube-fed, generally low appetite and an inability to gain further weight ( I fluctuate around 125 lb ).

Hopefully, she’s going to refer me to a dietitian - I specified that I would ideally like to be seen by one aware of ARFID - but towards the end, she asked if I’d like to be referred to an eating disorder clinic. I said no, because I don’t consider it a conventional ED.

Buen día, escribí aquí porque necesito de consejos, les pongo en contexto, mi hijo tiene 5 años, tenemos (con mi esposa) el problema que el no comer nada, solo lo que se acostumbro a comer desde pequeño, en su menú solo existe galletas oreo, pan baguette de una tienda en específico, jugo de jamaica, papas lays y en ciertas ocasiones sandía.

Cuando el tenía 1 año y medio se enfermo del estomago, tuvo diarrea y vómitos durante 1 semana, a raíz de eso el ya no quiso comer nada, antes de que se enfermara, el comía de todo, su puré normal de frutas o verduras, huevos, frijoles y lo cotidiano que podamos comer.

Lastimosamente cuando el tenía esa edad tuve que salir del país por trabajo y el pediatra que lo había visto desde que nació, decía que el comería a su debido tiempo, que no lo forzaramos ni obligaramos a comer lo que no quería comer, que no usaríamos agresiones como lo hacían antes, debido a lo que dijo este pediatra mi familia se lo tomó muy enserio, no le daban comida ni absolutamente nada que el no aceptará.

Hace un año nos mudamos juntos en otro país, dejamos a este pediatra atrás y no enfocamos de lleno con que el comiera buen, dado esto, en el país en el que estamos tiene muy buen sistema de salud, nos asignaron a una nutricionista y ella fue muy radical, nos dijo que le sirvieramos la comida que nosotros con mi esposa comemos regularmente y que si mi hijo no quería comer, que no lo obligaramos, que simplemente lo dejemos sin comer y que el.solo vendrá a comer pero llevamos hace días con este método y mi hijo prefiere estar recostado en cama o dormirse por las noches sin haber comido nada.

Es algo que me preocupa porque psicológicamente el puede darle igual su alimentación aunque por las noches llora por tenés hambre pero se niega a comer la comida que le damos y solo quiere lo que el está acostumbrado.

Necesito de su ayuda, consejos o si necesitan más contexto, estaré atento.

TW: mentions of dry heaving / gagging, and vomiting (not physically vomiting, but the fear of it happening)

a little introduction: i am currently 18 years old, F, and i am still struggling with food. i feel stuck in the loop of asking myself “am i just picky?” or “is it more than that?” my family members have always made comments about my eating habits, and it has made me feel bad about myself many times.

so, here is a little list of my symptoms!

- i have struggled with this fear of food since i was five. i would have panic attacks over school lunch, thinking that i would starve since there wasn’t anything on the menu that i would eat. when we wouldn’t get the lunch menus in advance, my mom would have to go to the school and ask for one, and explain that her daughter (me) would cry if she didn’t know what she would be eating. most days, my mom packed my lunch.
- when i was younger, my mom tried to make me try a singular green bean. just the thought of it made me start crying, so i sobbed at the kitchen table and was dry heaving over a green bean. i don’t even think i took a bite, i don’t remember.
- i don’t like trying new foods because i don’t want to gag or throw up. i don’t have a FEAR of vomiting, i just absolutely hate the feeling.
- i don’t like going to new restaurants without looking at the menu first, and i feel embarrassed when i modify my food when talking to a waiter. i feel like they’re judging me, when they probably don’t care since they’re just taking my order. new restaurants with unfamiliar menus give me anxiety because i don’t know what is safe or what anything looks like, typically. i usually order the same thing over and over when i go to a restaurant i know, because i know that food is safe and i like it.
- speaking of eating foods over and over, i eat a lot of the same snacks / meals over and over because i know that i can eat them comfortably.
- i don’t like foods with certain textures (ex. i will not eat mushrooms or anything of that sort. i will not eat mashed potatoes if it has any lumps. i REFUSE to eat chicken if it even looks off to me, i think it has salmonella if it’s a certain color or something and i don’t want to get sick. fat in steak makes me gag. i will not try fish because it smells fishy, and shrimp looks too rubbery.)
- i do not eat any vegetables, besides potatoes and green onions IF they are in a specific soup from a restaurant. the smell and (what i think) the texture will be like are what stop me from trying them. even just touching a mushroom or onion in my food will make me gag. i can tolerate garlic if it is veeeery small. most of the times, not.
- for example, even if my mom claims that the onions she put in my meal are “very finely chopped” and i “won’t be able to taste it”, i still find them. i hyper focus on the idea of there being an ingredient that i do not like and i will not eat it. i can try and pick it out, but i ultimately give up. (also, i am extremely thankful to have a mom that tries her absolute best to work around my issues with food.)
- i have had panic attacks over food that other people have made, and thought that i would be judged for not eating it or only eating one thing.
- i would rather go hungry than try new foods most of the time. i think of what my reaction could be to eating them and that stops me from trying something new.
- the only fruit i like are apples. nothing else, i just really like apples.

i apologize for the really long list, but those are just a few of my experiences / symptoms. i have been called picky all of my life, but i wonder if other people will think it’s more than that or relate to what i have said.