I've never been diagnosed with it, but I've met the criteria for ARFID as a child and it lasted well into adulthood. So many of the things I ate would give me a stomach ache that I became afraid to eat. I figured no food meant no sickness. I'd restrict my food, and if I ate something and got sick, I'd stop eating that food, and if I had to go someplace I wouldn't eat until after getting home just to be safe. Even if that was school or a ten hour work day. I had only a few safe foods for years, all else was a big nope.
I'm still a picky eater, and get scared to eat things, but not in the same ways or to such a degree. There are still a lot of foods I refuse to eat, such as meat. Im probably just paranoid, but I think additives and preservatives in foods give me an upset stomach, so I do things like make my own bread instead of buying a loaf from the store. Covid and the yeast shortage has messed up my bread game, so its flat bread or quick bread now, but regardless of its real or in my head, I don't get sick when I make things from scratch so I just do it as much as possible.
It's been working for me because over these last five years I've gotten up to a healthy weight and maintained it. I couldn't have said that before. I'm also willing to try new things now because I know what is going into my food when I make it, so my diet is more diverse and instead of hating food, I'm starting to really enjoy a lot of things.
17 Aug 2020, 7:56 pm
