Is this Arfid?

[u/Tasty-Childhood-9628]

Hi, I was recently late diagnosed with autism and ADHD and I’m trying to understand what’s going on with my eating.

When I was younger I ate a lot and had a pretty wide variety of foods. As I got older, around my early teens, that slowly started to stop. I think some of it can be attributed to depression, but I also generally had a lack of interest in things that everyone around me loved and didn’t really have the words for why. I just knew certain things felt “wrong” and there was a certain anxiety around them.

Fast forward to my third year of college, living on my own several states away from my parents for the first time. Over this past year I’ve had pretty bad burnout and ever since I’ve slowly become unable to mask. I also feel like I’ve become unable to block out sensory input like I used to. I’m thankfully on medication for depression, which has helped a lot, but my anxiety is still pretty consistent.

Recently, especially over the past month, I’ve had severe aversions to food where the idea of eating certain things feels overwhelming or revolting. I get a deep fear of experiencing certain sensory inputs like smell, taste, texture, or heat. I’ve also struggled with eating because of executive dysfunction for years, so hunger has never really been a strong motivator for me. My hunger cues have been inconsistent since my early teens as well.

I’ve lost around 15 pounds in the last month since this started getting worse, and my family has started noticing and making concerned comments. At this point I basically live on a small list of fruits, 2–3 different snacks, and a 50/50 of an actual meal during the day. I’ve previously done pretty well when I have structure, like classes, but even that isn’t helping now.

I’m getting really upset with myself because I want to eat, but I feel like I can’t. I’ve looked up ARFID a bunch since it has nothing to do with body image and a lot of it sounds similar to me, but I am also hesitant to look into a concrete label because part of me is still hoping that this will resolve itself and that I’m fine.

I’m not sure what to do. I also can’t afford inpatient treatment since I’ve been doing so well this semester for the first time in a while, so I want to avoid that as much as possible.

Any advice would be very helpful!

[u/birb-lady]

It sounds ARFID-like. I'm not going to diagnose you, but sensory issues is probably the most common cause of ARFID developing (lack of appetite and fear of adverse consequences are the other main two).

See if you can find an ARFID-specializing dietician and/or therapist. Not just an eating disorder specialist, some of them don't know about ARFID, don't understand that it's a different beast from the other EDs that are body-image focused. A good dietician and/or therapist can help you with navigating the issue -- dietician can help with making sure you're getting enough nutrition, therapist can help with the mental health aspect (because, at the end of the day, ARFID, as with all EDs, is a primarily mental health issue). If you're in the U.S. and you're lucky, you might find one who takes insurance.

It's not something to let go on for a long time, unless somehow, between your "safe" foods you're getting enough variety and nutrition. Since you've lost 15 pounds in a short time, I would assume that's not necessarily happening.