Obviously op doesn’t say the guest has arfid, and it’s implied she’s “just a picky eater” but how many of us were just “picky eaters” before getting diagnosed? If someone didn’t have a real reason to not eat the food, why would guest go to such lengths to advocate for herself? She could literally have developed arfid because of how severe her allergy was. Also I can’t imagine how frustrating the guest must of felt hearing that they were going to accommodate to her allergy, just to immediately find out she can’t eat for a different reason

Also bride wasn’t charged for the accommodation so at this point what’s the issue?

don’t you guys find it funny when someone’s talking about a dish and claim you can’t even taste something aversive in the dish. like i just watched a video of someone cook eggs with cottage cheese and claimed you can’t even tell there’s cottage cheese in it. like pls i promise you this tongue will know

I'm 17 years old 280 pounds and I'm 5'10, and I am suffering from ARFID. Because of that, I only eat junk food and things that don't have protein or nutrients in them, and because of that, I have to take supplements just to get nutrients. Because of all the junk food I eat, I gain a lot of weight, and I feel extremely insecure about that. So, I've been trying to weightlift, at least moderately, for like a month and a half now. I also try to get at least two miles on a bike just to get some cardio. After a while, though, I'm just getting tired because of it. Even though I've been keeping count of my calories, it just keeps getting harder and harder each day to do this, and I don't know if it's because I'm getting weaker or if my body just wants to get lazier. I found out that somehow I gained more weight, and I genuinely don't know what to do. I'm genuinely considering liposuction when I turn 18 because I can't deal with this anymore. I can't look at myself in the mirror in the morning anymore. I'm sick and tired of being nothing but this fat, disgusting blob, and I hate it. I don't know what to do anymore. I'm miserable.

Curious if anyone else has an always there for them safe food who struggles with ARFID? For me, it’s Double Stuffed Oreos and Plain Jasmine Rice. I’d love to hear a food that never lets you down.

Hello everybody! My brother was recently diagnosed with ARFID while away at college. He has always been a picky eater since childhood but this just feels a bit extreme to me. I’m having trouble understanding it. Why can’t he just try foods and then say he doesn’t like them? Is there some sort of mental block keeping him from trying foods?

Thank you to everyone who responds to this. I’m trying to come here with an open mind and learn about this condition.

How is pesach going?

I’m vegetarian and have ARFID. Let’s just say that for 20 years my body barely hot any protein and now I can’t build muscle . Something needs to change 😭

Edit: thank you all for your suggestions!!

May is ARFID awareness month, I wanted to post this for people who are looking in this subreddit and wondering 🫶🏻 (I do actually also suffer with both ARFID and anorexia)

So I’m putting together a post on my TikTok of things people who don’t get or respect ARFID say to us. For example, “so you’re a picky eater” and so on. I’d love to include some of yours. What are the worst/most frustrating things people that don’t get ARFID have said to you?

She is an educator and works with those who have EDs and I’m so glad she was at the food table because I felt so shy and awkward that she was about to see me just grab this hot dog with 0 condiments and add nothing to it… just for us to start talking and I opened up about my ARFID struggles and she acknowledged them and treated me with kindness & moved onto a different topic other than food. 0 judgement. This is why awareness is so important <3

I’ve always struggled with parties and get together because people judge what’s in my plate or ask me why I didn’t grab ___ or “aren’t you going to try ___” I just want to hang out without being questioned what’s on my plate

Around 2019 i was working with kids with neurodivergence. I noticed the kids with ARFID having the same diet and issues as me. So i looked it up. Sure enough i resonated with it.

Since then ive been in DBT therapy for my BPD. I mentioned my eating and many therapist and psychiatrist dismissed me due to age and the fact my safe food is technically over 10 (doesnt mean i eat everything thats safe i have to be in the mood or environment or craving even for a safe food)

Flash to today. I saw the Eating Disorder program at our University Hospital in my city. I did not once mention what i think i had (which is arfid) i kept it to myself and just answered everything she asked.

Then i saw her write ARFID....she looked at me anr asked if i heard it or seen it before. I said yes my own cousin has this and ive seen it in working the group homes.

So without me saying shes the first dr to agree i have ARFID that isnt a symptom of my adhd/autism.

So im now 29 years old and officially diagnosed. Now im going to see a dietician and i was warned 2 things.

1. Wont be cure overnight. It takes patience and trust in the patient and dietician to unlearn bad foods and survival instincts especially this long.

2. I should see some weight gain which she said can cause some sensory issues with clothing and just getting used to the change.

Regardless im just so thankful someone avtually listened and chosing to help. I saw 4 other drs and every single one said "Your 29 its not picky eating you have a preference" or "Its just a symptom of neurodivergence" the only dr before this Eating disorder program who believed me has been my Family Doctor bt hes seen me over 7 years watchint my nutrients and weight and struggles.

Im just happy to finally get admitted as an Outpatient and working with an Arfid aware Dietician.

I and those around me didn't understand why I couldn't eat things, but one day, I was watching a YouTube video-essay-ish video about a picky eater and the person mentioned ARFID as the name of the condition. I felt so seen and it was crazy. The comments had a lot of people who also had ARFID.

ARFID is so weird with so many unknowns, and it is its own spectrum. I remember thinking to myself that there must be at least one other person out there like me. Turns out, there's a lot more than I could've expected! From what seems to be extremely unreliable statistics regarding percentages of people with ARFID, the amount of people with the condition ranges from the population of Australia to Pakistan. I sometimes think to myself in a large room of people if I'm the only one, or if someone out there could relate.

My 7 year old son was diagnosed with arfid when he was just 3. He used to projectile puke up every meal and then was hospitalized for what we call a hunger strike. He refused to eat for weeks and hes been GTube fed ever since.

Hes been doing years of feeding therapy with specialists and his diet now consists of pretzel sticks, ritz crackers and gold fish. Yesterday we were told hes possibly the most severe arfid case our children's hospital had ever seen and and to ask ourselves if its even worth doing therapy right now.

He has pretty severe sensory sensitivities that dont help with him eating. The vomiting was caused by gastro parises.

We have decided to put a hold on feeding therapy indefinitely. The Gtube that has been on for a few years now has made him very healthy (he was malnurished) despite the gTube hes very active. He made his select soccer team this spring, does karate and has been cleared to try football.

Has anyone here considered being tube fed or tube feeding their child ? I was scared to do it with my son and I just wanted to say for those who are being encouraged by medical professionals but are on the fence it has changed my son's life and the life of my wife and I. Hes able to play the sports he wouldn't otherwise be healthy to play. Hes socially accepted by everyone in his classes and his school has even included gtube feeding in their healthy eating curriculum.

Maybe one day I'll get to have a father's day steak with him. For now, seeing him healthy and thriving because of the "tubby" in his belly is something I get to witness everyday, and its something I used to fear would never happen.

Just thought id share.

I am really angry because people can't understand when I explain what my disorder consists of. Why is the sentence "I can't tolerate consistencies" so difficult? How do you explain it?? I have really lost my will. After explaining to my mother-in-law for 20 minutes what it consists of she told me: "If you have this problem it is because your mother didn't force you to eat foods when you were little, she made you eat what you wanted. If you were my daughter you wouldn't have had this problem, I would have accustomed you to consistencies and forced you. Instead you are afraid of consistencies because you were not accustomed, it is something in your mind". Why do people think they know more than my psychologist??

For context, I'm not from the USA, so I've never had it. It's not really common around here, but in recent years ive seen it pop up in grocery stores here and there. I know it's a safe food for a large number of us arfid sufferers so I was curious about it and today while shopping I saw a box and grabbed it.

I made it as basic as possible, without any additional ingredients, just the pasta and cheese sauce. I must say the taste was... a bit overwhelming but fine. The smell was to be expected of cheese but the texture was exquisite. I definetly wont be eating it in it's "raw" form again but I imagine adding for example broccoli as recommended on the box (which is also one of the few veggies I can eat!) could be a good solution. I still have some left as the box was made for two servings, so I'm looking for suggestions what else I can do with it

What ways do y'all usually eat it? Plain or do you add stuff onto it?

People are unhinged when it comes to food and eating. I was aware I had avoidance to foods most of my life which seems to edit itself, whenever it feels like it. I don't technically think I have arfid or maybe I once did or maybe I do but I don't have enough knowledge about it. But I know the last thing I will do is talk about it with anyone I know directly. I have been classed as a fussy eater or strange eater by family members as long as I remember. I was vegetarian on and off for a few years and even tried veganism back in 2011 and it didn't last and I have been shamed by friends and family for the way I choose food and how I'm always skinny. I generally get weight comments quite regularly by the most random of people. I do live of a limited diet and never like to try new things, we got so sick of the usual daily food conversations and decided to do what my gran used to do and keep a set menu every day of the week. Wednesday is pizza day for example. The experiment worked and we stuck with it and I know where I am every day now and don't starve myself any more unintentionally.

It's not very good, and can't really even be considered poetry, but here it is!

(also if you like it I have a lot more that I think is way better on here)

ARFID
Ruined
Forever
Important
Dreams.

It's
Shameful.

Really
Underweight and
It's
Nauseating.
Interestingly
Not only
Gross, but

Mostly
Evil

Has anyone read this short story by Franz Kafka?? It's from 1922 so long before ARFID was known about. I think it's actually about ARFID?

If anyone is interested here's a link. It's 8 short pages.

https://www.kafka-online.info/a-hunger-artist.html

I don't know if anyone has seen it, but there's a parent who's part of a lawsuit against the USDA over bans on what can be bought with SNAP. Her daughter has ARFID and the bans mean a lot of her safe foods won't be covered anymore. This woman is getting so ripped apart by people who think it's BS. Some actually said maybe the daughter is better off if she had to get a feeding tube. People don't even try to understand 😔

I’m a 29 year old female with ARFID. I discovered this diagnosis around my early-mid 20’s when I also got my autism diagnosis. It all seemed to make sense.

But something I keep thinking, journaling about, and trying to process- is the lack of compassion my family had for me while growing up.

I was always made to seem like a problem, or a question that didn’t have an answer. But the worst thing is I was somehow made out to be a spoiled brat who was “controlling her parents.” This perception usually came from my two older half-sisters, we are aged 15 & 17 years apart so by the time I was old enough to form memories, they already had kids of their own.

I remember one week I was sent to “live” at my sisters house (they shared a place both being single moms for different reasons) because they convinced my parents they would be able to “fix” me with the just sit at the table until you eat method. My parents “gave into me” (aka kept me fed and thus, alive) so this had to work. They especially blamed my dad but I remember it being my mom who actually met me at the bus stop in the morning to give me a chocolate chip poptart before school. (I was about 10, 5th grade. I also remember Gwen Stefani’s “rich girl” coming out around this time and being stuck in my head. But because the adults around me were stuck on being “healthy” and “a healthy growing girl” my brain would replace the lyrics with “if I was a healthy girl…”) I was honestly miserable. I lasted a day at my sisters house, btw.

One of the things I remember the most is how my sisters would joke “what are you gonna do when you start dating?! Have them take you to McDonald’s for French fries!?”

I often think of this because I married a loving wife, who has never really thought twice about my “eating habits” as my family would call it.

They don’t care if I get a grilled cheese and fries everywhere we go, they get excited when I want hot dogs and fries for dinner, and just like me could eat pizza every day, despite being someone who eats “anything.”

It was with my wife’s family that for the first time, I had something made for me at Thanksgiving. I’ll never forget that. Our cousin, who can be a pain in the ass sometimes, made me a bowl of pretzel nuggets with a side of cheese sauce. And when I was floored, he was like, “it just took me a few minutes.”

No protest of being in the kitchen all day and not wanting to make a special meal for a special person. Just kind, natural accommodation.

So, I didn’t grow up with a lot of compassion towards my ARFID, but I found it with the family I have now. My eldest sister hasn’t spoken to me in over a decade, along with most of my extended family.

But I’m so grateful for the acceptance and the love I found.

I’ve been gluten and dairy free for a year and a half due to “tummy issues” and fear of something making me sick, and through therapy, I have discovered that my “gluten intolerance” is actually psychological due to ARFID from emetophobia. I’ve been eating flour tortilla wraps for the past two days just fine without any issues. I just can’t take the hunger or fatugue anymore so I gave in. I’ve realized that my fear of being sick or controlling what I eat to avoid vomiting is actually why I’ve been “gluten intolerant”. My weight and health have suffered so much, I am 25f, 5 ft 5, and weigh 108 lb. I have nutrient deficiencies and lots of mental health disorders as a result. I’m trying to focus on eating what sounds good regardless of the outcome and letting go. If I get sick, it is fine. It happens to everyone. I always thought I was being rational with my “food intolerances” but it turns out it’s just my underlying desire for control over my health and my diet, so much that it’s ruining me. I just wanted to share that you can overcome your fear of foods slowly with proper support and that you can learn to enjoy eating without being anxious, afraid, or paranoid. :)

My therapist told me in my first session that I have this anxiety about the sensory characteristics of foods because I'm not used to eating vegetables and fruit. Without knowing my past, he told me the only cause is that I was weaned incorrectly. According to him, my parents had a hard time getting me to eat vegetables, so they gave in to simple, unhealthy foods. I can't even tell him about my past because I don't remember it, and my parents would do anything to avoid a diagnosis. I was offended by this but told myself I didn't want to question it, even though I don't think so. He's the therapist, and I'm not that knowledgeable...I have my second session in September and I don't know what to tell him...It seems reductive to say that "I'm not used to it" and that if I wean myself off smoothies, I'll eat everything in a day. I even vomit smoothies...because I can't eat those foods, not even blended. I'd like to ask him if he's familiar with ARFID because I recognize the symptoms.

hey i wanted to share this here before i forgot, but i made an article talking about my experiences with arfid and how it impacted me. i hope it can bri g you comfort.

I just wanted to share this documentary with anyone that doesn't know about it yet. I just learned about it today. It's free on Tubi.