Read on Twitter
The reality of ARFID - A thread
TW: The following thread may contain references to triggering content such as weight loss, vomiting, and various other things which will be marked accordingly.
TW for weight loss
This woman’s autistic son also has ARFID, and a particular brand of waffles was his safe food. They’ve since been discontinued.
Regularly staying hydrated becomes a struggle when inconveniences pop up.
TW mention of gagging/vomiting
.
Food becomes a struggle, you feel like you’re letting people down and hurting others.
.
Food becomes a struggle, you feel like you’re letting people down and hurting others.
TW for gagging
.
Even medical professionals tend to not take the diagnosis seriously, it’s often compared to ana and seen as “less severe”.
.
Even medical professionals tend to not take the diagnosis seriously, it’s often compared to ana and seen as “less severe”.
It’s embarrassing, how can you explain that there are foods that scare you?
You lose the ability to work like you’re expected to. You struggle to intake enough to power your brain.
People make fun of your fears, you constantly feel judged.
Randomly losing safe foods mean having to find something new, not knowing what to do with all the safe foods left over.
TW for bugs
.
.
.
u/BrainlessKiddo made this artistic depiction of how they feel when faced with a new food or a food they fear.
.
.
.
u/BrainlessKiddo made this artistic depiction of how they feel when faced with a new food or a food they fear.
Eating becomes a chore, it never feels fulfilling.
People often present “cures” to our disorder and end up exposed as frauds. There are multiple instances showing RECORDED therapy sessions of ARFID “treatment” where the patient eats things with ease, facing fear food after fear food seemingly without issue.
They aren’t real.
They aren’t real.
People embarrass you without trying.
More examples of judgement.
Tw vomiting
Your own family may not believe in your ED and is convinced they can fix you.
Your own family may not believe in your ED and is convinced they can fix you.
TW for depictions of being severely underweight
.
Your underweight body may be fetishized or glamorized when you’re extremely unhealthy.
.
Your underweight body may be fetishized or glamorized when you’re extremely unhealthy.
Fuck pushy vegans; ARFID edition
Extreme restriction can be lifelong
Blatant abuse is normalized towards children with ARFID.
This is all only the tip of the ice berg of thousands of experiences unique to each individual case of ARFID. However, these themes of fears and lack of understanding do reoccur in most cases. People doubt our experiences and we are overshadowed by other conditions,
told to get over it all and that it’s all in our heads.
We know there’s no real threat, but it is still terrifying to challenge that internalized fear. It’s exhausting to challenge fear foods and we rarely receive support for when we do.
We know there’s no real threat, but it is still terrifying to challenge that internalized fear. It’s exhausting to challenge fear foods and we rarely receive support for when we do.
Because our fear is so irrational, it’s not taken seriously, but there should be much more respect for the disorder. It isn’t easy to fear what you need to survive.
I wanted to add on, none of these are my own experiences! I simply got these screenshots from Reddit and though I’ve been in many similar situations, they aren’t me specifically.
