r/ARFIDforADULTS

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?

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.