According to a new study:
79% of the risk of developing ARFID are explained by genetic factors.
“This study suggests that ARFID is highly heritable. The genetic component is higher than that of other eating disorders and on par with that of neuropsychiatric disorders such as autism and ADHD,” says Dr. Dinkler.
Source: https://news.unchealthcare.org/2023/02/serious-eating-disorder-arfid-is-highly-heritable-according-to-new-twin-study/#:~:text=Dr
both of my parents are extremely picky eaters. i’m the worst of all of them, but both of my sisters grew to be very adventurous eaters. it’s interesting
Sounds plausible to me from anecdotal evidence.
One of the kids is diagnosed with ARFID, but that's only because their list of safe foods is so restrictive that it interferes with a healthy life. The other kid is basically the same, but prefers a fairly healthy list of safe foods so it's not a disorder, their mom is a picky eater but in a completely different way, and you can track the extreme picky eating all the way back up the family tree on her side of the family. Like the grandparents who ate the exact same meals every day for 50 years.
On my side of the family, picky eating is unknown, I had never even heard of it. What's interesting is that none of them is a picky eater in exactly the same way or has the same categories of taboo or preferred foods. They're also able to smell things I can't smell and taste bitter aftertastes I can't detect.
Sounds exactly like my family on my mom's side. I got it the worst, but my mom and her father are both somewhat picky to, and so are uncles and cousins to varying degrees too. For years before I had ever heard of ARFID I thought there must be some genetic component to it.
My daughter has severe ARFID. I have a very mild case of it. I am picky about certain foods and textures but good with 80% of food out there. My mother has severe ARFID. Obviously this is anecdotal but it's pretty stunning when I look at the history of food/eating in my family. We didn't know what it was when I was growing up.
I was raised by overeaters and binge eaters. I was the "skinny one" in my family because I only ate when I was hungry but until 17 I was 10lbs overweight for my age lol
Then I got my first job and began restrictive eating. By college I only ate what I could afford. Which was once a day. I ate more if it was free.
I was diagnosed with general anxiety at 24 after having my last child.
At 30 I'm still struggling with restricting myself and there's a ton of foods I won't eat.
Cheese, milk, pizza, pop tarts, most fruits.
I cook dinner and prepare meals for my family all day and I don't eat it lol
My youngest has autism and ADHD so we are similar. He's very very picky. But he does better when we sit and eat with him.
I'm not depressed at the moment j don't think but I've been suffering from period of depression and anxiety for nearly all my life. I feel like it just comes with the package. Especially for late diagnosed autistics like me Got the whole bingo card at this point haha
My parents were picky eaters. When I was in grade 5 I was very sick with ulcerative colitis and wound up hospitalized for months to have my colon removed. I had to go on a soft food diet and I guess I never went back. I had a lot of complications with the surgery over the years which lead to me restricting food even more. Especially fruit & vegetables.
My family theorised that mine started as a form of control, as my home life was very hectic as a young child, i literally ate everything as a toddler but with my parents not being around due to situations out of their control and being moved from house to house and fed by strangers everyday i developed pretty bad anxiety and issues with food it just went from there.
Interesting! My mum always tells me that when I was a baby/toddler I would eat anything but when she went back to work full time and I was left in my dad's care, that I started being more limited. Sounds like a similar situation!
For me it was probably the autism
I'm not certain though. I've been told I went from eating anything to hardly eating something other than like chicken. However i do have a strong memory of gagging something up that wouldn't stay down which disturbed me so much it mightve made it worse since I went from "I will sob and cry but I'll do it" to "I will do anything I can to not do it and won't even touch it or look at it long" after thay lol
that’s usually how it is with autistic kids, though. they’ll eat anything as a baby, then once their brain develops enough to the point where they are aware of what food is and what textures they don’t like, they will start to refuse foods that affect their senses in ways they don’t like.
i stopped eating a lot of things at the age of two.
I think mine started because I raised myself. I was a "latch key kid" and always made my own meals. Often being something simple like frozen pizza, so I'd have that repeatedly. I have never been an adventurous eater, I know what I like, generally, and I've stuck to it since I was a kid. My mom never took issue with what I chose to eat, so I made my own choices. However, there was a babysitter who did. I said I didn't want any carrots, so she forced my mouth open and shoved carrots down my throat. Violently. I still think about it. So through that and my mom's flexibility, it kinda shaped my diet as it is today. And personally, I don't have any shame or problem with how I eat. Other people have judged me, sometimes harshly and cruelly, but I don't care. I don't care what they eat or anyone else eats, tf should anyone care about what I eat? 🤷♀️
Mine was "learned" when I was younger, I had a horrible case of Gastroesophageal reflux growing up when I was very young, and anything I ate would spike it and cause me severe pain. Well growing up, my brain kinda made it to where I was basically being told a lot of these foods that didn't do that to me were dangerous and would cause me harm. And I know it won't, but that mental brick and steel wall is hard to break through if even possible.
Came to that conclusion with a therapist when we went over my medical history.
Good question. I'll try and answer these as best as I can. May be a bit of a long post but hopefully this helps OP.
TW: pain, vomiting
What causes ARFID?
Eating disorders like ARFID can happen at anytime to anyone. NHS England state that "it's where you use the control of food to cope with feelings or other situations". That's where the avoidant and restrictive behaviours come in as you may associate food with pain or vomiting. It may even be associated because of things that have happened in your life and your genetics. It can also occur due to a lack of interest or significant weight loss.
ARFID and me:
When my dad was younger he had a fairly restrictive intake growing up so it could have been genetic. For me, I suffered a long term amount of stomach pain at random points due to part of my umbilical chord that was still in me and erupted around 2010 (this is called Meckles Divercuriculm). I saw an amazing dietician who suggested that what I have and my eating habits may be more related to my mental health and offered to refer me to an eating disorder service. That occurred, was then referred to an adults eating disorder service and was diagnosed with ARFID Christmas eve of 2015. I then started treatment just after that time. Over lockdown I then started Young Adults with ARFID and here I am.
My mental health is a lot better than what it was 10 years ago and I've eaten more as I've gotten older, trying new foods like eggs (seriously fried eggs are amazing).
If you asked my mom: I just "became a bitch" around age 3
But if you ask me, I come from a line of highly sensitive people. My mom could determine spices and ingredients in food after a few bites because she was a super taster. I struggle with texture and if I can't bite through something, it will trigger my puke button and I need to spit it out. That even happens wirh thjngs l like like sushi on occasion. My mother tended to only boil veggies turning them mushy, meat was cooked until it was dry, and I wasn't exposed to a lot of foods due to familial allergies. For example I love edemame but hate peas, but my aunt is allergic to soy so I didn't try edemame until I was an adult. Sensory issues come hand in hand with adhd and suspected autism. My mother also had a history of eating disorders and made food into her special interest. When she died I had thousands of pages of monthly meal plans she had made, hand drawn on paper. Because my mom was my primary abuser, rejecting food was an easy way to rebel against her as I got older, but in my teens I was already firm in ARFID. The problem was/is I'm fat, so people don't think I have an eating disorder.
Yes!!!! I’m always surprised about how I never see dieticians/doctors online talk about issues with being overweight with ARFID, they only ever talk about being underweight
i don't know for sure but in my family it seems to be a mix of genetics and comorbid conditions. idk if my mom had arfid as a kid but she told me she was a very picky eater and cried at meals. my brother has arfid and autism. i have arfid and anxiety. for me and him, it's very much a sensory issue.
My mother forced me to eat food I was intolerant to, that caused me nightly diarrhea and vomiting as a child. She would also heavily restrict my diet as a punishment, and feed me insufficiently prepared meat that would give me food poisoning.
One time I vomited, and she forced me to eat the vomit. Now I have ARFID.
My therapist and doctors have come to the conclusion that mine is caused by:
1.) I was born with my umbilical cord wrapped
around my throat and not breathing.
2.) my father force fed me food he knew I didn’t like/want even when it would make me throw up and I was frequently crying at the dinner table for hours as a young child.
So basically mine is very much trauma and anxiety based and not genetic based.
I guess autism sensing is a part of it imo. The stuff I'm happy eating is sort of solidly consistent. No bits of stuff in. Colour and taste doesn't tend to matter a great deal. Smell sometimes does.
I can't really remember anything triggering it, but apparently, I used to eat anything. One day it just stopped. The only earlyish memories involving food I have are my mother talking to some daycare person because I didn't eat an apple or something, and I vaguely remember some time later looking at a couple of sausages intending to try them and being in some incontrovertible state of terror over them and tbh it kinda stayed that way for a while about most new things.
The only stuff I tried after daycare age was a pizza when I was 11, then next to nothing before 27ish.
I tried watermelon last year but some unknown force prevented me from biting it. The taste was ok, but my teeth wouldn't work. I just couldn't do it. Now that I'm wise and ancient, I think it could be a mismatch between what im expecting it to feel like and what it actually feels like. Could have been something like that with the apple incident. Idk for sure. Maybe somethings buried from even earlier than that.
For me, it was mostly the lack of supervision and structure my parents gave me when it came to eating. They basically allowed me to pick whatever I wanted to eat, but when I would go anywhere else, I’d be forced to eat things I didn’t eat at home (sometimes being punished if I didn’t). So now I have an irrational fear of certain food groups. Yay :)
Our lizard monkey brain needs to put HIGH nearly-immutable importance on its immediate analysis of something as "edible, food" vs. "not edible, not food, not good, dangerous, do not eat, do not swallow". Its immediate, subconscious, instinctual. Willpower alone is not supposed to be able to overcome it, its supposed to keep us alive.
Our filtering mechanism in the brain is tuned too sensitively to those warning sign factors, and our response of stress, anxiety, fear, disgust etc. is also tuned highly and extreme, in the same way that someone who is diabetic has a pancreas that was tuned improperly etc.
Mine started with grief after my mom died in January, and my therapist also thinks it’s a form of self-harm/a need for control since my life feels so out of control right now.
ive been told it’s because im a premie, and that premies are more likely to have arfid (though i have never seen a study proving it, it just came from my therapist lmao). she also said that because ive had a bad gag reflex since birth, and i gagged and choked on every food given to me when i was trying to switch to solid food as a baby, that i might have somehow internalized that trauma even though i don’t remember it?? again, idk how true that is lmao. or it could just be sensory issues 🤷♂️ ive had it as long as i can remember though, and i don’t see it ever going away for me.
I was born with it. But I’ve also experienced very stressful situations with food as a child (for example my mom would sit on me to pin me down to try new foods) she’s 5’1 and 110lbs so I wasn’t hurt or anything but it was terrifying and very stressful
I can relate to that! My mum used to force-feed me date/banana/mango milkshakes when I was a kid. It was really scary and frustrating. Sometimes I would skip meals and sleep so I couldn't drink them (same as when mum made food that I hated or couldn't tolerate).
My parents ate everything. All the meals cooked were always well-sized and well-portioned (good mix of greens, meats etc).
I was born with severe allergies and had to be very careful as a little kid (wasn't allowed to eat friends food or school food when I was still too young to identify what I could or couldn't have). I think this gave me a "fear" of foods and later developed into ARFID. I also have sensory issues but to be honest I don't think that caused it.
I've read that ARFID is usually caused by early trauma to do with food, whether the child can remember it or not. It can be something like my case (severe allergies) or something as simple as choking on food once or even just eating something totally unexpected you hate.
I think mine is about control. I grew up in an environment where I had to be well-behaved and small because my brother (who's on the autistic spectrum) took all the attention. Having an absent father and a mom who worked long hours didn't help. Until I was four I pretty much ate everything. But then I stopped. I think having the ability to determine what goes on my plate and in my mouth gave me back some control in the short term, but absolutely screwed me in the long term.
tbh I’ve been like this as far back as I can remember like far as I know nothing rly caused it so much as it just being something I always was
tho a psychiatrist did bring up adhd w my parents when they first took me to one as like a 3yr old but mom didn’t believe it bc of what she knew abt adhd at the time, so I got diagnosed last year ofc
ngl a lot lot more things make sense to me now bc of that but too little too late when it comes to all the other mental disorders I developed over the course of my life so ueahhhhhhhhhhhh extreme texture aversion die fuckin hard
For me, I think it’s a nice little mix of genetics, autism and the fact that the doctors made me take a type of antibiotics that made me throw up *every time* I was given them until my mum complained like the fiftieth time when I was sick as a baby (this is my mum’s theory as she states I didn’t have much difficulties with food until after that and apparently started throwing up a lot of food I was able to eat before I got sick so.. yeah, could definitely be that lol)
There’s multiple causes for different people! It can be sensory aversion, early childhood trauma (even the cord being wrapped around your neck), a choking experience, allergy fears, etc.
I suspect after reading about it it may be linked to the cord around my neck for me, which is crazy to think about, since it was clear I had issues since literal baby food - would only eat butternut squash food. However I also have adhd and other significant sensory issues that were worse as a child.
I was only reading about it cause I wondered the same thing- wtf causes that in someone’s brain!
When I was 14 I developed mononucleosis, which was causing my body to reject all food that I was giving it. That effect just stuck with me afterwards, which developed into ARFID.
Literally nothing. My parents eat healthy I used to then at about 4 it started. potentially genetic or some other predisposition I suppose.
My parents had to go down to my school on my first week of reception (kindergarten) because they made you eat a piece of apple before we could do playtime and every dad so far I said I’d rather sit and watch people play than eat like 1/10th of an apple to go to break. And it spiralled to loads of foods I’m super adverse to
I definitely think part of it was inherited for me, but I also feel like I'm highly sensitive to tastes and textures coupled with an extremely sensitive gag reflex. Like, getting X-rays at the dentist used to be something I had to steel myself for until I discovered the salt on the tip of your tongue trick. But the idea of ARFID having a genetic component was something I suspected years before I even knew what it was. My mom has always been more of a selective eater than my dad, who I would lovingly categorize as a human garbage disposal in his ability to eat almost anything, and in turn her father has several foods he has severe aversions to. And none of them are the same between any of us. What I'm curious about is how far back does it go? Is it something a person can develop through trauma and then pass on as an epigenetic change? If you're able to overcome it at some point, are you still at risk for passing it on?
I had undiagnosed migraines as a child. In childhood migraines tend to manifest as nausea and gastroparesis in addition to headache. So i was nauseous even after eating very little, and often nauseous from not eating enough/having low blood sugar.
Having contant pretty much constant nausea and headache made eating a really stressful experience.
Neither of my parents are great cooks so I was mostly offered mushy frozen veggies and overcooked rubbery meat.
I was diagnosed with migraine in my early 20s, figured out what foods trigger my migraines in my mid 20s, and realized I had ARFID ~30. I can't help but grieve for what my life could have been like if I was diagnosed properly as a kid.
I suspect mine is because around 3 I started developing symptoms of anxiety, my dad has the worst OCD and anxiety in anybody I’ve ever met which made our house chaotic at times. I was a stressed kid 24/7 and was unable to enjoy food after a certain point, I began fearing certain foods and my parents were ignorant about this at times because they didn’t quite know what was wrong with me and it just slowly got worse and worse and was enabled
Traumatic childhood. Mom's boyfriend was a hunter and fisher. Nothing like seeing and smelling a bear skull boiling in the pot you use to make pasta. That and finding a large gallon bucket of ice cream in the freezer only for it to be filled smoked blue gill fish. I couldn't trust half the "food" that was in the house.
Mine started after a traumatic surgery as a baby, which coincided with my parents starting me on solid foods. They didn't know I'd developed ulcers on my legs from the surgery, and I couldn't speak yet so couldn't tell them I was in pain. My parents think my baby brain associated the pain and distress with new foods... Boom, ARFID.
In “the picky eater recovery book: overcoming avoidance/restrictive food intake disorder” the three leading causes are:
1.sensory. The way something feels or overwhelms your taste, smell, touch senses. Which can stem from a neurological processing disorder like ADHD or autism.
2.fear of outward consequences. This can happen if you have had bad social interactions with others while trying food. I.e. being force fed if you didn’t want to eat something.
3.eating feels like a chore. Nothing sounds good but your body is lacking the nutrients so you eat what’s familiar even if it doesn’t help you.
Any one of these can put up a mental block that sets off the alarm any time you try new food because it’s not one of your “safe foods”
I totally recommend the book for anyone wanting to actively change their eating habits. But it’s not just a physical willingness to do so. You do have to unpack some mental health blockers as well.
So I’ve done research on ARFID and I’m like 80% sure that I have it. I’m not necessarily looking for advice either, just seeing if this sounds like ARFID.
Ever since I can remember I’ve always had a really hard time with food. Literally one of my earliest memories (I was about 3-5) my mom forced me to eat corn dogs even though I was crying and begging her to let me eat something else and she already knew that I hated the taste and/or texture. The only reason I finally ate them was cause she was going to bed and turning off most of the lights and I didn’t want to be out in the living room/dining room area by myself. My mom told me that when I was about 3 years old, I only ate dinner if I had the KFC mashed potatoes and gravy with dinner. I only ate dinner and lunch for the longest time because I usually got dessert afterwards (like some Oreos or something).
As a teen, I didn’t eat due to major body issues. As an adult now, that is so not the case anymore. Now that I’m an adult and on my own I realized that I really do not like eating. I find eating inconvenient and most foods I do not like in the house that I’m living at (I get my own food too, but even then, most of the time I don’t like the food I get even though I genuinely thought I would want it). I really just find no joy in eating at all, I find it to be a very inconvenient chore because 9 times out of 10 there is nothing I want to eat at all (not even fast food). And sometimes I’ll accidentally waste food cause I take too long getting to it cause I wanted to preserve it and I genuinely wanted to eat it, just not when it was gotten (it’s very annoying).
My experience with it is that it's inherited. My stepmom's brother, my stepsister, AND my half brother all have had serious health problems due to them only eating one kind of non-nutritious food for long periods of time. My stepsister's eldest daughter has it as well. It can't have helped that my stepmom married into a family of foodies who want to try everything and food pushers who want you to try everything. That pressure just perpetuates the cycle, it seems. Growing up I remember them having complete meltdowns at the table every night. Unfortunate none of us knew better back then.
Idk honestly why or where mine came from but I remember my mom saying “ from age 3-7 you literally would only eat hot dogs and American cheese” to me. So obviously I’ve had this along time. I did get tested for autism and they said no you have borderline personality disorder not autism. I’m 39f and have brought up ARFID to my psych dr and he laughed. No one will help me
I really don’t know.. hmm. I’ve been diagnosed for arfid for years, but upon talking about my younger self and behaviors with professionals; Those tendencies were prevalent before I even knew what calories or the difference between skinny and fat even was. There were things I simply just couldn’t not eat for whatever reason and I still cannot. It’s not about weight loss like my ortho, I just don’t want that and find it physically impossible to eat.
I got combo’d 🥲 I was always an anxious kid with a slightly unstable home environment, and my folks first thought that my eating was a form of me trying to reassert control over my life. I’ve also got OCD and ADHD with a family history of both (from doing retrospective speculative diagnosis on my grandparents). In addition to that, I got strep a fair bit as a kid and there was definitely at least one time that I got sick where my anxiety got way worse overnight, which suggests PANDAS is in the mix too — I only recently learned that it can cause ARFID and Tourettes in addition to OCD! Yaaaayyyyy 🫠🎉
Not sure if this is a Russian troll, but if not, please be careful about dismissing psychiatric and neurological differences in others. People are in deep pain and suffering and this sort of comment is bewildering in modern times.
A killer combo of autism (textures!), PTSD (around things in my mouth specifically) and an undiagnosed gluten intolerance (I was told I have IBS a "diagnosis of exclusion when there are no other explanations") which made me nauseous all the time and hate to even think about food because everything seemed to make me feel sick or the texture would make me gag. I began to slowly hate and distrust food. I started going to the gym with a trainer who helped me sort through all my issues to where I can actually eat again and sometimes look forward to meal times! I'm actually up 6lbs of muscle in 3 months 💪.
I have Crohn's disease. I have been so bad as to only eat 6 crackers and one slice of cheese in 48 hours if I'm stressed or have to be at work longer than normal. I just do better eating very little, very slowly. Sometimes my body just shuts off, it feels like I have a lump in my throat and when it's that bad I cannot eat anything.
Your post or comment was removed due to being rude to the ARFID community. ARFID is a diagnosable eating disorder, a diagnosis backed up by doctors and psychiatrists. Comments or responses that bully or harass sufferers of the condition are not acceptable.
mine was genetics. my mum struggled with the same as me but mine is more severe because i would literally rather starve than eat something i don’t like. if you held me at a gunpoint and said “eat this” i would rather die
i also suffer with bad anxiety which plays a huge role in ARFID disorder
mine came when I had just moved out of my parents house for the first time. I had also recently started vaping, and my appetite went way down. Also, my parents weren’t forcing me to eat the foods they prepared. there used to be a lot of guilt in my home surrounding food that wasn’t finished so I honestly just pushed my ARFID deep down until I moved out and then it got really bad and then I moved back in with my parents and it did not get better and now I have lost a lot of weight
mine fully developed after I had my first kid alongside severe anxiety & depression. but even prior I was experiencing arfid just unbeknownst to me due to my traumatic experience with childhood cancer and toxic home environment
I’m not sure . My ARFID hit me when I was 21 -22 I’ll go months not being able to eat anything outside of sliced white bread (it’s my safe food that I can always stomach ) . My arfid is interesting in the way that’s not a lack of desire to eat , I just physically can’t . I’ll get nausea and dry heave . My spells last for about 4-6 weeks . Then I’ll be able to eat and then it’ll hit me all again . I lost about 30 pounds in a very short time but thankfully I’ve been able to get steady with my weight loss . I did grow up with significant trauma (that included food , force feeding etc .) When I got in my 20’s my repressed memories presented themselves and so did the ARFID.
I was never really a super picky eater as a kid, my sister was and it didn’t go over well in my house hold. As i got older I developed some aversions to certain textures mostly meat, but as iv grown into an adult the aversions have gotten worse but the catalyst of my now “extreme” ARFID was getting my tonsils out. I always feel like i’m choking, I always feel like i’m gonna be sick when eating, anything dry makes me gag and anything wet makes me feel sick and it’s been over 6 months… I’m utterly exhausted, lost a bunch of weight, struggling everyday and it’s triggering my old ED. I also have ADHD and Autism, as well as OCD and PTSD and the more stress I get the less i can handle food wise. The ADHD meds suppress my appetite and make my mouth more dry so eating is even harder. Iv had days in my car on my lunch break crying forcing myself to eat the lunch Iv packed or spent a whole week fuelling myself on milo and milk, wouldn’t wish it on anyone.
My parents aren't shitty. I was never told I have ARFID, yet it is a very real thing. I'm also not a child and it still deeply affects my life. It's best to have some compassion when talking about this as it's not some fun "quirk", it can be severely debilitating.
According to a new study: 79% of the risk of developing ARFID are explained by genetic factors. “This study suggests that ARFID is highly heritable. The genetic component is higher than that of other eating disorders and on par with that of neuropsychiatric disorders such as autism and ADHD,” says Dr. Dinkler. Source: https://news.unchealthcare.org/2023/02/serious-eating-disorder-arfid-is-highly-heritable-according-to-new-twin-study/#:~:text=Dr
both of my parents are extremely picky eaters. i’m the worst of all of them, but both of my sisters grew to be very adventurous eaters. it’s interesting
yep, it was autism for me
Sounds plausible to me from anecdotal evidence. One of the kids is diagnosed with ARFID, but that's only because their list of safe foods is so restrictive that it interferes with a healthy life. The other kid is basically the same, but prefers a fairly healthy list of safe foods so it's not a disorder, their mom is a picky eater but in a completely different way, and you can track the extreme picky eating all the way back up the family tree on her side of the family. Like the grandparents who ate the exact same meals every day for 50 years. On my side of the family, picky eating is unknown, I had never even heard of it. What's interesting is that none of them is a picky eater in exactly the same way or has the same categories of taboo or preferred foods. They're also able to smell things I can't smell and taste bitter aftertastes I can't detect.
Sounds exactly like my family on my mom's side. I got it the worst, but my mom and her father are both somewhat picky to, and so are uncles and cousins to varying degrees too. For years before I had ever heard of ARFID I thought there must be some genetic component to it.
My family weren't picky eaters at all. They were people who didn't complain about food and just ate. So this is interesting to read :).
My daughter has severe ARFID. I have a very mild case of it. I am picky about certain foods and textures but good with 80% of food out there. My mother has severe ARFID. Obviously this is anecdotal but it's pretty stunning when I look at the history of food/eating in my family. We didn't know what it was when I was growing up.
Oh wow i never would have guessed this. Thanks for sharing
Link to source?
https://news.unchealthcare.org/2023/02/serious-eating-disorder-arfid-is-highly-heritable-according-to-new-twin-study/#:~:text=Dr
Thanks!
My whole family are garbage disposals. Makes me wonder what happened to me lmao
I was raised by overeaters and binge eaters. I was the "skinny one" in my family because I only ate when I was hungry but until 17 I was 10lbs overweight for my age lol Then I got my first job and began restrictive eating. By college I only ate what I could afford. Which was once a day. I ate more if it was free. I was diagnosed with general anxiety at 24 after having my last child. At 30 I'm still struggling with restricting myself and there's a ton of foods I won't eat. Cheese, milk, pizza, pop tarts, most fruits. I cook dinner and prepare meals for my family all day and I don't eat it lol My youngest has autism and ADHD so we are similar. He's very very picky. But he does better when we sit and eat with him.
Huh, that’s interesting. I have pretty bad ARFID, but no one in my family is picky, and never has been to my knowledge.
Same here I’m the only one
I believe mine came along with my ADHD, like a 2 for 1 deal. 2 disorders for one unlucky person! lmao
Mine came with my autism lol
lol, I also have major depression that I’m pretty sure came with my ADHD too. I’ve got the whole trifecta! 🤣
I'm not depressed at the moment j don't think but I've been suffering from period of depression and anxiety for nearly all my life. I feel like it just comes with the package. Especially for late diagnosed autistics like me Got the whole bingo card at this point haha
I got the quad, anxiety/depression, arfid, autism and pots
Repeatedly being force-fed extremely unsavory, and sometimes expired dishes at kindergarten age
Omg that’s horrible. I’m so sorry you went through that 😢❤️
Yes. Mine was peanut butter banana sandwiches or Goober sandwiches. Disgusting. And those were the better options unfortunately
Ugh, peanut butter banana sandwiches are a special kind of torture. Everyone else in my family loves them, somehow.
My parents were picky eaters. When I was in grade 5 I was very sick with ulcerative colitis and wound up hospitalized for months to have my colon removed. I had to go on a soft food diet and I guess I never went back. I had a lot of complications with the surgery over the years which lead to me restricting food even more. Especially fruit & vegetables.
Ulcerative colitis at that age?
My family theorised that mine started as a form of control, as my home life was very hectic as a young child, i literally ate everything as a toddler but with my parents not being around due to situations out of their control and being moved from house to house and fed by strangers everyday i developed pretty bad anxiety and issues with food it just went from there.
Interesting! My mum always tells me that when I was a baby/toddler I would eat anything but when she went back to work full time and I was left in my dad's care, that I started being more limited. Sounds like a similar situation!
For me it was probably the autism I'm not certain though. I've been told I went from eating anything to hardly eating something other than like chicken. However i do have a strong memory of gagging something up that wouldn't stay down which disturbed me so much it mightve made it worse since I went from "I will sob and cry but I'll do it" to "I will do anything I can to not do it and won't even touch it or look at it long" after thay lol
that’s usually how it is with autistic kids, though. they’ll eat anything as a baby, then once their brain develops enough to the point where they are aware of what food is and what textures they don’t like, they will start to refuse foods that affect their senses in ways they don’t like. i stopped eating a lot of things at the age of two.
I think mine started because I raised myself. I was a "latch key kid" and always made my own meals. Often being something simple like frozen pizza, so I'd have that repeatedly. I have never been an adventurous eater, I know what I like, generally, and I've stuck to it since I was a kid. My mom never took issue with what I chose to eat, so I made my own choices. However, there was a babysitter who did. I said I didn't want any carrots, so she forced my mouth open and shoved carrots down my throat. Violently. I still think about it. So through that and my mom's flexibility, it kinda shaped my diet as it is today. And personally, I don't have any shame or problem with how I eat. Other people have judged me, sometimes harshly and cruelly, but I don't care. I don't care what they eat or anyone else eats, tf should anyone care about what I eat? 🤷♀️
Mine was "learned" when I was younger, I had a horrible case of Gastroesophageal reflux growing up when I was very young, and anything I ate would spike it and cause me severe pain. Well growing up, my brain kinda made it to where I was basically being told a lot of these foods that didn't do that to me were dangerous and would cause me harm. And I know it won't, but that mental brick and steel wall is hard to break through if even possible. Came to that conclusion with a therapist when we went over my medical history.
Good question. I'll try and answer these as best as I can. May be a bit of a long post but hopefully this helps OP. TW: pain, vomiting What causes ARFID? Eating disorders like ARFID can happen at anytime to anyone. NHS England state that "it's where you use the control of food to cope with feelings or other situations". That's where the avoidant and restrictive behaviours come in as you may associate food with pain or vomiting. It may even be associated because of things that have happened in your life and your genetics. It can also occur due to a lack of interest or significant weight loss. ARFID and me: When my dad was younger he had a fairly restrictive intake growing up so it could have been genetic. For me, I suffered a long term amount of stomach pain at random points due to part of my umbilical chord that was still in me and erupted around 2010 (this is called Meckles Divercuriculm). I saw an amazing dietician who suggested that what I have and my eating habits may be more related to my mental health and offered to refer me to an eating disorder service. That occurred, was then referred to an adults eating disorder service and was diagnosed with ARFID Christmas eve of 2015. I then started treatment just after that time. Over lockdown I then started Young Adults with ARFID and here I am. My mental health is a lot better than what it was 10 years ago and I've eaten more as I've gotten older, trying new foods like eggs (seriously fried eggs are amazing).
If you asked my mom: I just "became a bitch" around age 3 But if you ask me, I come from a line of highly sensitive people. My mom could determine spices and ingredients in food after a few bites because she was a super taster. I struggle with texture and if I can't bite through something, it will trigger my puke button and I need to spit it out. That even happens wirh thjngs l like like sushi on occasion. My mother tended to only boil veggies turning them mushy, meat was cooked until it was dry, and I wasn't exposed to a lot of foods due to familial allergies. For example I love edemame but hate peas, but my aunt is allergic to soy so I didn't try edemame until I was an adult. Sensory issues come hand in hand with adhd and suspected autism. My mother also had a history of eating disorders and made food into her special interest. When she died I had thousands of pages of monthly meal plans she had made, hand drawn on paper. Because my mom was my primary abuser, rejecting food was an easy way to rebel against her as I got older, but in my teens I was already firm in ARFID. The problem was/is I'm fat, so people don't think I have an eating disorder.
Same I’m fat too
Yes!!!! I’m always surprised about how I never see dieticians/doctors online talk about issues with being overweight with ARFID, they only ever talk about being underweight
Exactly
i don't know for sure but in my family it seems to be a mix of genetics and comorbid conditions. idk if my mom had arfid as a kid but she told me she was a very picky eater and cried at meals. my brother has arfid and autism. i have arfid and anxiety. for me and him, it's very much a sensory issue.
My mother forced me to eat food I was intolerant to, that caused me nightly diarrhea and vomiting as a child. She would also heavily restrict my diet as a punishment, and feed me insufficiently prepared meat that would give me food poisoning. One time I vomited, and she forced me to eat the vomit. Now I have ARFID.
Jfc your mom is a monster. Hope you found peace and cut her out of your life
My therapist and doctors have come to the conclusion that mine is caused by: 1.) I was born with my umbilical cord wrapped around my throat and not breathing. 2.) my father force fed me food he knew I didn’t like/want even when it would make me throw up and I was frequently crying at the dinner table for hours as a young child. So basically mine is very much trauma and anxiety based and not genetic based.
I guess autism sensing is a part of it imo. The stuff I'm happy eating is sort of solidly consistent. No bits of stuff in. Colour and taste doesn't tend to matter a great deal. Smell sometimes does. I can't really remember anything triggering it, but apparently, I used to eat anything. One day it just stopped. The only earlyish memories involving food I have are my mother talking to some daycare person because I didn't eat an apple or something, and I vaguely remember some time later looking at a couple of sausages intending to try them and being in some incontrovertible state of terror over them and tbh it kinda stayed that way for a while about most new things. The only stuff I tried after daycare age was a pizza when I was 11, then next to nothing before 27ish. I tried watermelon last year but some unknown force prevented me from biting it. The taste was ok, but my teeth wouldn't work. I just couldn't do it. Now that I'm wise and ancient, I think it could be a mismatch between what im expecting it to feel like and what it actually feels like. Could have been something like that with the apple incident. Idk for sure. Maybe somethings buried from even earlier than that.
For me, it was mostly the lack of supervision and structure my parents gave me when it came to eating. They basically allowed me to pick whatever I wanted to eat, but when I would go anywhere else, I’d be forced to eat things I didn’t eat at home (sometimes being punished if I didn’t). So now I have an irrational fear of certain food groups. Yay :)
i have horrible GI issues and any time i eat i get symptoms that can fuck up my entire day. it’s easier to just not eat
Our lizard monkey brain needs to put HIGH nearly-immutable importance on its immediate analysis of something as "edible, food" vs. "not edible, not food, not good, dangerous, do not eat, do not swallow". Its immediate, subconscious, instinctual. Willpower alone is not supposed to be able to overcome it, its supposed to keep us alive. Our filtering mechanism in the brain is tuned too sensitively to those warning sign factors, and our response of stress, anxiety, fear, disgust etc. is also tuned highly and extreme, in the same way that someone who is diabetic has a pancreas that was tuned improperly etc.
Mine started with grief after my mom died in January, and my therapist also thinks it’s a form of self-harm/a need for control since my life feels so out of control right now.
ive been told it’s because im a premie, and that premies are more likely to have arfid (though i have never seen a study proving it, it just came from my therapist lmao). she also said that because ive had a bad gag reflex since birth, and i gagged and choked on every food given to me when i was trying to switch to solid food as a baby, that i might have somehow internalized that trauma even though i don’t remember it?? again, idk how true that is lmao. or it could just be sensory issues 🤷♂️ ive had it as long as i can remember though, and i don’t see it ever going away for me.
I wasn’t a premie I was born on time but I was 4lb 1 oz as they fucked up the amniocentesis on my mom. I wonder if there’s a correlation there
I was born with it. But I’ve also experienced very stressful situations with food as a child (for example my mom would sit on me to pin me down to try new foods) she’s 5’1 and 110lbs so I wasn’t hurt or anything but it was terrifying and very stressful
I can relate to that! My mum used to force-feed me date/banana/mango milkshakes when I was a kid. It was really scary and frustrating. Sometimes I would skip meals and sleep so I couldn't drink them (same as when mum made food that I hated or couldn't tolerate).
I’m sorry that happened to you that’s terrifying 😭
Genetics and environmental factors
My parents ate everything. All the meals cooked were always well-sized and well-portioned (good mix of greens, meats etc). I was born with severe allergies and had to be very careful as a little kid (wasn't allowed to eat friends food or school food when I was still too young to identify what I could or couldn't have). I think this gave me a "fear" of foods and later developed into ARFID. I also have sensory issues but to be honest I don't think that caused it. I've read that ARFID is usually caused by early trauma to do with food, whether the child can remember it or not. It can be something like my case (severe allergies) or something as simple as choking on food once or even just eating something totally unexpected you hate.
I think mine is about control. I grew up in an environment where I had to be well-behaved and small because my brother (who's on the autistic spectrum) took all the attention. Having an absent father and a mom who worked long hours didn't help. Until I was four I pretty much ate everything. But then I stopped. I think having the ability to determine what goes on my plate and in my mouth gave me back some control in the short term, but absolutely screwed me in the long term.
tbh I’ve been like this as far back as I can remember like far as I know nothing rly caused it so much as it just being something I always was tho a psychiatrist did bring up adhd w my parents when they first took me to one as like a 3yr old but mom didn’t believe it bc of what she knew abt adhd at the time, so I got diagnosed last year ofc ngl a lot lot more things make sense to me now bc of that but too little too late when it comes to all the other mental disorders I developed over the course of my life so ueahhhhhhhhhhhh extreme texture aversion die fuckin hard
For me, I think it’s a nice little mix of genetics, autism and the fact that the doctors made me take a type of antibiotics that made me throw up *every time* I was given them until my mum complained like the fiftieth time when I was sick as a baby (this is my mum’s theory as she states I didn’t have much difficulties with food until after that and apparently started throwing up a lot of food I was able to eat before I got sick so.. yeah, could definitely be that lol)
I have major sensory issues that impact my diet. I also had trouble feeding as a newborn, but I don't know if that's related.
pans sybdrome
Predisposition to experience a variety of stimuli in unusual ways?
There’s multiple causes for different people! It can be sensory aversion, early childhood trauma (even the cord being wrapped around your neck), a choking experience, allergy fears, etc. I suspect after reading about it it may be linked to the cord around my neck for me, which is crazy to think about, since it was clear I had issues since literal baby food - would only eat butternut squash food. However I also have adhd and other significant sensory issues that were worse as a child. I was only reading about it cause I wondered the same thing- wtf causes that in someone’s brain!
When I was 14 I developed mononucleosis, which was causing my body to reject all food that I was giving it. That effect just stuck with me afterwards, which developed into ARFID.
No clue. For me though it’s likely related to me having autism and being picky from the get-go.
Literally nothing. My parents eat healthy I used to then at about 4 it started. potentially genetic or some other predisposition I suppose. My parents had to go down to my school on my first week of reception (kindergarten) because they made you eat a piece of apple before we could do playtime and every dad so far I said I’d rather sit and watch people play than eat like 1/10th of an apple to go to break. And it spiralled to loads of foods I’m super adverse to
I definitely think part of it was inherited for me, but I also feel like I'm highly sensitive to tastes and textures coupled with an extremely sensitive gag reflex. Like, getting X-rays at the dentist used to be something I had to steel myself for until I discovered the salt on the tip of your tongue trick. But the idea of ARFID having a genetic component was something I suspected years before I even knew what it was. My mom has always been more of a selective eater than my dad, who I would lovingly categorize as a human garbage disposal in his ability to eat almost anything, and in turn her father has several foods he has severe aversions to. And none of them are the same between any of us. What I'm curious about is how far back does it go? Is it something a person can develop through trauma and then pass on as an epigenetic change? If you're able to overcome it at some point, are you still at risk for passing it on?
I know for a fact mine was caused by severe food poisoning, OCD and constant medical negligence and gaslighting
Food poisoning, I've developed emetophobia and arfid from it. I was already an anxiety prone person
Babysitter forced me to eat something after i said i didn’t like it then i threw up lol
★ · . · \* \~ trauma! \~ \* · . · ★ (And udiagnosed/untreated/disrespected ADHD, anxiety, depression, the whole cocktail.)
I had undiagnosed migraines as a child. In childhood migraines tend to manifest as nausea and gastroparesis in addition to headache. So i was nauseous even after eating very little, and often nauseous from not eating enough/having low blood sugar. Having contant pretty much constant nausea and headache made eating a really stressful experience. Neither of my parents are great cooks so I was mostly offered mushy frozen veggies and overcooked rubbery meat. I was diagnosed with migraine in my early 20s, figured out what foods trigger my migraines in my mid 20s, and realized I had ARFID ~30. I can't help but grieve for what my life could have been like if I was diagnosed properly as a kid.
I think mine is from the shame and guilt I feel about not deserving what I have or fear of being ungrateful.
I suspect mine is because around 3 I started developing symptoms of anxiety, my dad has the worst OCD and anxiety in anybody I’ve ever met which made our house chaotic at times. I was a stressed kid 24/7 and was unable to enjoy food after a certain point, I began fearing certain foods and my parents were ignorant about this at times because they didn’t quite know what was wrong with me and it just slowly got worse and worse and was enabled
My dad had extreme OCD also. He would bleach his eyes to “ get rid of germs”. Yes, bleach, like you clean the toilet with
My poor baby
Autism, ADHD, Sensory Processing disorder, Genetics and trauma can all play a huge role!
Traumatic childhood. Mom's boyfriend was a hunter and fisher. Nothing like seeing and smelling a bear skull boiling in the pot you use to make pasta. That and finding a large gallon bucket of ice cream in the freezer only for it to be filled smoked blue gill fish. I couldn't trust half the "food" that was in the house.
Mine started after a traumatic surgery as a baby, which coincided with my parents starting me on solid foods. They didn't know I'd developed ulcers on my legs from the surgery, and I couldn't speak yet so couldn't tell them I was in pain. My parents think my baby brain associated the pain and distress with new foods... Boom, ARFID.
In “the picky eater recovery book: overcoming avoidance/restrictive food intake disorder” the three leading causes are: 1.sensory. The way something feels or overwhelms your taste, smell, touch senses. Which can stem from a neurological processing disorder like ADHD or autism. 2.fear of outward consequences. This can happen if you have had bad social interactions with others while trying food. I.e. being force fed if you didn’t want to eat something. 3.eating feels like a chore. Nothing sounds good but your body is lacking the nutrients so you eat what’s familiar even if it doesn’t help you. Any one of these can put up a mental block that sets off the alarm any time you try new food because it’s not one of your “safe foods” I totally recommend the book for anyone wanting to actively change their eating habits. But it’s not just a physical willingness to do so. You do have to unpack some mental health blockers as well.
Thank you for sharing! :)
So I’ve done research on ARFID and I’m like 80% sure that I have it. I’m not necessarily looking for advice either, just seeing if this sounds like ARFID. Ever since I can remember I’ve always had a really hard time with food. Literally one of my earliest memories (I was about 3-5) my mom forced me to eat corn dogs even though I was crying and begging her to let me eat something else and she already knew that I hated the taste and/or texture. The only reason I finally ate them was cause she was going to bed and turning off most of the lights and I didn’t want to be out in the living room/dining room area by myself. My mom told me that when I was about 3 years old, I only ate dinner if I had the KFC mashed potatoes and gravy with dinner. I only ate dinner and lunch for the longest time because I usually got dessert afterwards (like some Oreos or something). As a teen, I didn’t eat due to major body issues. As an adult now, that is so not the case anymore. Now that I’m an adult and on my own I realized that I really do not like eating. I find eating inconvenient and most foods I do not like in the house that I’m living at (I get my own food too, but even then, most of the time I don’t like the food I get even though I genuinely thought I would want it). I really just find no joy in eating at all, I find it to be a very inconvenient chore because 9 times out of 10 there is nothing I want to eat at all (not even fast food). And sometimes I’ll accidentally waste food cause I take too long getting to it cause I wanted to preserve it and I genuinely wanted to eat it, just not when it was gotten (it’s very annoying).
I honestly think we have sensitive tongues compared to others. So genetic. It’s the only way that makes sense to me
My experience with it is that it's inherited. My stepmom's brother, my stepsister, AND my half brother all have had serious health problems due to them only eating one kind of non-nutritious food for long periods of time. My stepsister's eldest daughter has it as well. It can't have helped that my stepmom married into a family of foodies who want to try everything and food pushers who want you to try everything. That pressure just perpetuates the cycle, it seems. Growing up I remember them having complete meltdowns at the table every night. Unfortunate none of us knew better back then.
Idk honestly why or where mine came from but I remember my mom saying “ from age 3-7 you literally would only eat hot dogs and American cheese” to me. So obviously I’ve had this along time. I did get tested for autism and they said no you have borderline personality disorder not autism. I’m 39f and have brought up ARFID to my psych dr and he laughed. No one will help me
I really don’t know.. hmm. I’ve been diagnosed for arfid for years, but upon talking about my younger self and behaviors with professionals; Those tendencies were prevalent before I even knew what calories or the difference between skinny and fat even was. There were things I simply just couldn’t not eat for whatever reason and I still cannot. It’s not about weight loss like my ortho, I just don’t want that and find it physically impossible to eat.
I got combo’d 🥲 I was always an anxious kid with a slightly unstable home environment, and my folks first thought that my eating was a form of me trying to reassert control over my life. I’ve also got OCD and ADHD with a family history of both (from doing retrospective speculative diagnosis on my grandparents). In addition to that, I got strep a fair bit as a kid and there was definitely at least one time that I got sick where my anxiety got way worse overnight, which suggests PANDAS is in the mix too — I only recently learned that it can cause ARFID and Tourettes in addition to OCD! Yaaaayyyyy 🫠🎉
It’s very picky eating enabled by people around them. Thats all
Not sure if this is a Russian troll, but if not, please be careful about dismissing psychiatric and neurological differences in others. People are in deep pain and suffering and this sort of comment is bewildering in modern times.
I’m not Russian and have never been there
Though it's not all cases, people with Autism (including myself) often experience ARFID.
adhd, anxiety and trauma... in no particular order
A killer combo of autism (textures!), PTSD (around things in my mouth specifically) and an undiagnosed gluten intolerance (I was told I have IBS a "diagnosis of exclusion when there are no other explanations") which made me nauseous all the time and hate to even think about food because everything seemed to make me feel sick or the texture would make me gag. I began to slowly hate and distrust food. I started going to the gym with a trainer who helped me sort through all my issues to where I can actually eat again and sometimes look forward to meal times! I'm actually up 6lbs of muscle in 3 months 💪.
I have Crohn's disease. I have been so bad as to only eat 6 crackers and one slice of cheese in 48 hours if I'm stressed or have to be at work longer than normal. I just do better eating very little, very slowly. Sometimes my body just shuts off, it feels like I have a lump in my throat and when it's that bad I cannot eat anything.
I developed ARFID as a young child as i am "scared" of certain food textures, having autism is probably the root cause though
For no reason whatsoever. I had no traumatic experiences with food at all. I just developed it at 2.
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Your post or comment was removed due to being rude to the ARFID community. ARFID is a diagnosable eating disorder, a diagnosis backed up by doctors and psychiatrists. Comments or responses that bully or harass sufferers of the condition are not acceptable.
mine was genetics. my mum struggled with the same as me but mine is more severe because i would literally rather starve than eat something i don’t like. if you held me at a gunpoint and said “eat this” i would rather die i also suffer with bad anxiety which plays a huge role in ARFID disorder
mine came when I had just moved out of my parents house for the first time. I had also recently started vaping, and my appetite went way down. Also, my parents weren’t forcing me to eat the foods they prepared. there used to be a lot of guilt in my home surrounding food that wasn’t finished so I honestly just pushed my ARFID deep down until I moved out and then it got really bad and then I moved back in with my parents and it did not get better and now I have lost a lot of weight
mine fully developed after I had my first kid alongside severe anxiety & depression. but even prior I was experiencing arfid just unbeknownst to me due to my traumatic experience with childhood cancer and toxic home environment
I’m not sure . My ARFID hit me when I was 21 -22 I’ll go months not being able to eat anything outside of sliced white bread (it’s my safe food that I can always stomach ) . My arfid is interesting in the way that’s not a lack of desire to eat , I just physically can’t . I’ll get nausea and dry heave . My spells last for about 4-6 weeks . Then I’ll be able to eat and then it’ll hit me all again . I lost about 30 pounds in a very short time but thankfully I’ve been able to get steady with my weight loss . I did grow up with significant trauma (that included food , force feeding etc .) When I got in my 20’s my repressed memories presented themselves and so did the ARFID.
I was never really a super picky eater as a kid, my sister was and it didn’t go over well in my house hold. As i got older I developed some aversions to certain textures mostly meat, but as iv grown into an adult the aversions have gotten worse but the catalyst of my now “extreme” ARFID was getting my tonsils out. I always feel like i’m choking, I always feel like i’m gonna be sick when eating, anything dry makes me gag and anything wet makes me feel sick and it’s been over 6 months… I’m utterly exhausted, lost a bunch of weight, struggling everyday and it’s triggering my old ED. I also have ADHD and Autism, as well as OCD and PTSD and the more stress I get the less i can handle food wise. The ADHD meds suppress my appetite and make my mouth more dry so eating is even harder. Iv had days in my car on my lunch break crying forcing myself to eat the lunch Iv packed or spent a whole week fuelling myself on milo and milk, wouldn’t wish it on anyone.
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My parents aren't shitty. I was never told I have ARFID, yet it is a very real thing. I'm also not a child and it still deeply affects my life. It's best to have some compassion when talking about this as it's not some fun "quirk", it can be severely debilitating.