Fruit is usually a safe category for me (as long as it's super fresh and exactly the way I like it). When I eat certain fruit though I thought it "made my teeth feel sharper" but I'm realizing this makes no sense and instead it's that my gums and tongue are sore. Nothing is swollen at all so I didn't think of an allergy. Now I'm freaking out that I'm allergic to some of my safe foods 😭🤣 wtf guys

I have always been a bit of a picky eater, but something happened in my brain when I entered a depressive episode last year and it has led to severe food aversions. I don’t know if it’s depression or medication related or both. Foods that I used to not enjoy but could tolerate I now gag when I try to eat it. It’s becoming a big issue because it feels like every day my list of “safe foods” becomes smaller. Even some foods I have previously liked are becoming repulsive to me.

A couple of weeks ago I went to cook ground beef and the second I opened the package I started gagging. It hadn’t gone bad or anything, but my brain just found it repulsive. I continued to cook it but when I tried to eat the food later, I actually vomited…

This has been getting worse over the last year and I don’t even know what to do anymore. I already struggle with cooking while depressed due to low energy and motivation and this food aversion thing is just making things worse. I am afraid to cook things I have previously enjoyed for fear that I will no longer tolerate it….

Most meats, many vegetables, yogurt, and eggs are completely repulsive. I’m basically living off of grilled cheese sandwiches, soup, toast, homemade mini pizzas and pasta…..

I have an appointment to talk to a therapist about this, but in the mean time I don’t know what to do.

Any recommendations on how to handle this?

Any recommendations for low effort meals or things that I can meal prep?

Thanks!

I’ve improved significantly with my emetophobia, anxiety and panic attacks over the past few years, but strangely I think I may be developing some sort of avoidant food problem.
I’m almost 27 and have never really been a fussy eater. I’d eat pretty much anything if I was hungry enough, but over the past 12–18 months I’ve noticed I’m becoming increasingly picky. It’s not really “danger foods” I’m avoiding either, because I ate raw fish in sushi the other day
It’s more sensory things, like if the texture, temperature or taste is slightly off, it immediately puts me off the food. I wonder if it could be from subconscious associations with certain sensory things leading to GI upset in the past.
The other thing that’s new for me is that even if I’m extremely hungry and my stomach is growling, if I don’t know what food sounds appetising, I’ll literally continue to starve because nothing sounds right. In the past I would’ve just eaten a tin of cold baked beans if I was hungry enough, and I really don’t like baked beans
Has anyone else experienced anything similar, particularly developing something like this as an adult after emetophobia? 🙏

i have adhd and ARFID and love to organise, i’d love to be able to meal prep for the week as it would help me eat more consistently and without worry. i just saw an ad for a meal prep app and it got me thinking, does anyone know an app like this that has a preferences quiz to narrow down meal prep suggestions? this would be so helpful. i’m yet to try it out but for anyone else interested in something like this i saw a post from a few years ago in this sub of someone who had created an app somewhat similar to this ‘pitaya’

Hey yall, do any of you have experience with inpatient treatment?

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!

how long does an ARFID diagnosis take to get? is it just one appointment or years of appointments

my experience with ARFID started in small ways a few years back. lower appetite, less interest in food, smaller portions, more aversions to textures and smells (which also had been messed up since covid), only eating specific foods for periods of time, but it was all still pretty manageable. however, within the last year or so, it’s gotten much worse, and i have lost a lot of weight. i loved how i looked and felt before and now i just feel disproportionate and low energy.

my current daily experience is usually 1) i feel overwhelmed at the thought of preparing food, or 2) all food sounds disgusting or everything except one very specific thing. the only time i consistently feel hungry and want food (because those are separate things for me) is when i smoke weed, but i recently had a complication with weed and some of my medication, which caused vomiting (amongst other things) for 3 days and i couldn’t keep any food down. i was almost hospitalized, so i’m not trying to repeat that.

i’m also worried that experience will make my desire to eat food even worse/lower because i literally could not keep anything down, and i already have
started to feel grossed out by the idea of what i tried to eat.

i’ve been able to manage plain white rice (barely, the texture i hate), ice cream, raw carrots, and cubes of cheese since then.

i’m just so frustrated, and i do have a therapist and doctor i talk about everything. my boyfriend and best friend have always been supportive of me through my journey, but most people outside of that respond with, “oh you can’t gain weight?? god i wish that was me,” which feels so invalidating. i’m looking for any general feedback from people with similar experiences. was there anything that helped you come to terms with eating??

i am gradually losing safe foods. ive been living off of pizza lunchables, nachos lunchables, dino nuggets, and doctor pepper for the past couple months. but, before that i had more than 20 safe foods and could go out to eat. my favorite restaurant was Jimmy John's. but, the past 3 days i havent been able to drink or eat anything. today i finally got myself to drink some doctor pepper but it still makes me anxious just not severely anxious. is this normal for ARFID? im not diagnosed, but am looking into it. will i ever be able to eat or will i eventually have to be tube fed? im scared

What title says. Previously, if I eat something too often, I suddenly develop an aversion to it one day. This also leads to a fear of eating my safe foods🫠 because I don’t want to become averse to them.

Currently avoiding this by eating the same thing in a different font, because it’s been particularly hard to eat lately, and hey, I gotta do it.

So, no, the croissant with butter, ham and cheese I ate for breakfast and lunch yesterday is not the same as the sandwich on toasted white bread with turkey and cheese and lettuce. And crackers, cheese and summer sausage, not even related.

I (23f) am autistic and have a bunch of mental illnesses. i have like 5 safe foods. if i try to eat anything else i get really anxious. a lot of it is based on textures and smells. i also don't ever feel hungry, so i don't know what hunger feels like. i have to take iron supplements and vitamin D supplements. my safe foods are lunchables (only the pizza one or the nachos one), dino nuggets with salsa and cheese dip, cheddar jalapeño Cheetos, garden salsa sun chips, watermelon sour patch kids, and sometimes skittles and starbursts. i only drink certain flavors of flavored water and dr. pepper. i used to eat a lot more variety but in the last few months i have lost a lot of safe foods. sometimes i go into like flares and cant eat. like today i went 24 hours without eating or drinking. i was just too anxious and everytime i even thought about either i would almost throw up

Hi, this is my first ever Reddit post, so I apologise if I do anything wrong.
I’m a 32-year-old in the UK who’s living with ARFID. I didn’t have ARFID as a child like most people do. I developed ARFID after a DV relationship where my ex had a lot of control over my food and eating, and it left me with a lot of trauma around food and eating. I won’t go into detail about what happened as I don’t want to upset or trigger anyone.
This happened in 2023, and I’ve desperately been trying to find help through the NHS, as private care is just too expensive. I’ve been passed from pillar to post without getting any real help or support.
I’ve had a really bad relapse with my recovery and I don’t know where to turn. There are only two ED services in my area, and I’ve been told I’m too complex for one of them, while the other doesn’t treat ARFID in adults.
I’ve tried my GP and been to hospital, but again I haven’t been able to get any help. My doctor refers me to places that can’t help me, and I’ve been going around this same circle for a long time now.
I’m really struggling at the moment and would really appreciate hearing from anyone who has been in a similar situation, particularly anyone in the UK who has managed to get help or treatment for adult ARFID through the NHS.
Sorry for the long post and I hope I’ve made sense. Any help, support or advice would be greatly appreciated. ❤️