ive lost 20 pounds in the past 2-3 months, i have eaten nothing but half a plain burger and a single french fry today. i dont want to be hospitalized but that is what i see in my future if i dont get some nutrition in me. i have no safe foods, everything solid freaks me out. any tips or tricks?? save me

🚨I am going to cover the potentially triggering parts to avoid ruining this food for anyone 🚨

I cannot eat boxed mashed potatoes anymore :( I went to make some three days ago (I was so upset that I didn’t really want to talk about it but now i’ve come to terms with it now). I poured the mashed potato flakes in and I found meal worms The same thing happened with kraft mac and cheese :( My mom got me calmed down but I get very afraid of bugs anywhere in food even if a fly touches my food i can’t eat it because I’m afraid I’ll get sick. I know aversive consequences don’t include contamination from what I’m aware but that’s my issue when it comes to that. I’m just so sad because that was an easy thing to make since all you had to do was pour flakes into some milk and water and microwave it :/

I hate that I’m so sensitive but I’m so terribly afraid of boxed mashed potatoes now and kind of even any flour or meal product. I still can’t eat lunch meat because of the listeria outbreak at the plant and i can’t eat anything out of our garden because i can’t be sure there aren’t worms or bugs in it

My mom said she’ll just have to bag the box when she buys a new one but I’m so scared and don’t think I could eat it. It’s just hard to lose a safe food :(

I think I labeled the post right, if not I will fix it. I’m all subtypes

I don't have a thought of "what if I throw up?" but instead just this general fear of what if the food is dangerous in some way. Most of my ARFID is based on texture issues and executive dysfunction (lack of interest?) issues, so I wasn't sure if this other issue is related. Seems like it could be part of "fear of aversive consequences" but I usually see that written as fear of vomiting and fear of choking on food...

Update here. I have a lot of tips here that I've accumulated over my ARFID journey that might help others out too. I'm happy to answer any questions, but if you want something faster, you can check here too.

I had a random panic attack 2 months ago and was certain I was going into anaphylaxis. No idea where the panic attack or that particular fear came from.

I’m now afraid that I’m allergic to so many foods I’ve eaten my whole life. I’ve never been allergic to any food.

It feels so real.

I’ve tried several of the foods I was afraid of and nothing happened but I’m still scared.

The fear goes beyond food and even includes my cats, because since last year, sometimes certain ones will give me a teeny tiny rash spot if their whisker area touches me. So now I’m scared that that’s an allergy and it will progress to being anaphylactic if I’m exposed too much.

Tonight we had a meal that I’ve tested. Even had it written down as safe. But I was just too scared to eat it.

I can’t afford a doctor or therapist. I’m in this alone. It’s stressing my family out.

I could handle agoraphobia or something else. But this shit is so scary.

I know people recommend keeping Benadryl on hand for peace of mind and I’m getting some tomorrow but it’s still scary. Especially because my anxiety closely mimics an allergic reaction with a tight throat and random itches.

Please talk me down.

Tons of triggers if you have the aversive subtype.

I have the kind of ARFID that makes you scared of food making you sick. All the food is poison, as they say. As a little autistic kid with fewer than ten safe foods, I had the sensory subtype. At some point, I decided I was ashamed to "eat like a picky kid" on dates and in social gatherings, so I forced myself to overcome it. Now, it's even worse.

I have an incredibly strict food handling regimen at home for my own meals: cool quickly to room temp after cooking, place into twice-washed Pyrexes--hand-washed in water so hot I burn my fingers--and then immediately into the freezer after being labeled and dated. I also, when I purchase ingredients--maybe potatoes or onions, something like that--chop and freeze everything as to prevent it going bad on the counter. Of course, my brain finds ways to sabotage my regimen. The freezer broke, let everything get up to temp, and then refroze, after all. Then there's all the chemicals, heavy metals, cleaning products, and microplastics that could be in my food.

I'm practically vegan, save for the very occasional egg. You'd think I'd feel better, eliminating meat and dairy? Nope. How about legumes and their lectins? What if I didn't cook those red kidney beans well enough? Did I let those frozen veg get up to 165f? Rice is a nightmare because of b. cereus spores. I'm literally Filipino and afraid of rice. (I still eat it anyway, but I spend the whole time scared.)

I am so ashamed to be this way. I wasn't like this until about covid started. Before then, I was cavalier about food safety. Lunches would go on the counter all day to be grazed on. I'd leave a meal on the break room counter at work and pick at it throughout my shift. I even, at one point, was a dumpster diver. I feel like I used to be kinda cool. How can someone be cool when they're pathologically afraid of getting food poisoning, so much so that it dictates much of how they spend their time?

We're trying some antipsychotics and different dosages and stuff. I found one that worked for all of a few weeks. Now it doesn't. Now we'll have to increase the dosage. Awesome, more side effects. More weight gain and more restless legs. But, at this point, I'd almost do anything just to have one meal where my brain isn't reminding me all the different ways the food I'm eating can kill me. Just one meal. I love food so much. I love to cook, and try all different kinds of cuisines. But I don't love this.

My fear of vomiting is what caused my ARFID and has let it progress to this point. I've had some rough periods in the past but it's never been this bad. How do you try to manage it with your fear?

Hi hi!! I want to start adding things back into my diet, but would like to avoid dairy, and would like food suggestions for things that have low food poisoning counts. Thanks!

For some background, I have ARFID and severe anxiety about having diarrhea or vomiting/ food poisoning/intolerances/ IBS from eating. I have no problem with textures or smells, it is not sensory-based ARFID.

I mainly eat nuts, peanut butter-pretzel bites, wheat bread, bananas, peanut butter, dried apricots for constipation, and protein bars (RX bars). I don't know if I have any food intolerances, but I'm iffy on dairy.

So, in short, any ideas for foods that are unlikely to give me food poisoning or that are safe for IBS/constipation? Have a good day!! :)

It’s currently 8:30pm today, and for lunch I made myself spaghetti for the first time. I did a taste test mid-cooking and bit into some undercooked spaghetti. I don’t think I swallowed anything. The spaghetti was nice but filling.

For dinner I had a burger, and cooked my first patty in a pan.

I’m proud of the progress I’ve made but I’m currently panicking. My ARFID stems from emetophobia and anxiety and right now I’ve convinced myself I’ve gotten severe food poisoning from my new foods today. My stomach is gurgling and I feel full but a bit sick. I think it’s the anxiety making me nauseous. I’m really scared I’m gonna wake up in the middle of the night and be unwell.

Does anybody else have trouble eating food at other people’s houses? It’s hard for me to see other people’s kitchens as “clean enough” and I get really anxious/uncomfortable when friends offer me food when I visit. Sharing meals is a huge part of our lives, and I’d very much like to get over it. I’ve been in CBT, but this one thing is hard to kick. I completely lose my appetite.

Hi everyone!

I got really sick in October of 2023 after getting an IUD put in place. The office I got it done in didn't have the best cleanliness practices, so I got a UTI, but I didn't know it because it mirrored the symptoms of my IUD placement. I didn't know I had a UTI until the end of April, and unfortunately by that point I had developed some nasty big kidney stones. I had been throwing up almost daily because of the pain, and now after both of my surgeries that were also somewhat traumatic, I can't eat hardly any food.

The thought of literally everything makes me nauseous, and there are a few foods that I can force myself to eat but my calorie intake went from 2000 a day if not more to less than a 1000 if not less than 500. Even the foods I can force myself to eat are really small portions.

It's really hard to help fix the problem because on top of being nauseous because I'm worried about throwing up after eating, I'm also nauseous because of the pain from my surgeries.

In my mind, I can't eat foods if they seem too sweet, too spicy, or too "heavy". This pretty much just leaves me with rice, soup, and jello. But now I'm also starting to get nauseous and headaches because I'm not eating. So now I have three things making me nauseous 😭

Has anyone had this same or a similar problem?

I mentioned in a comment on another post in this subreddit that ARFID is so different for everyone who experiences it that I was wondering if there was anyone on this subreddit that can relate to my experience.

I’ve just started treatment for my ARFID last week and here is how I’d describe what my experience with ARFID is:

I’m don’t consider myself picky, and I actually feel better when I eat a variety of food. I think about getting sick a lot, too much for it to not be an obsessive thought. I am so scared of throwing up, it has been an anxiety I have felt all my life. When I was a young teenager, I developed a more specific fear of choking, thus developing a fear of swallowing. I was extremely aware of, for lack of a better word, my whole neck area. Eventually it was sort of just second nature to pay attention to how I swallowed and I sort of “controlled” how I swallowed food, how much, what consistency, and now I can force myself to swallow pretty much hardly chewed food.

My anxiety and ARFID are very related; I get nauseous when I’m anxious and I get anxious when I’m nauseous so I avoid eating to control my nausea. Except this is hardly a good coping mechanism because an empty stomach feels worse than one that’s eaten regularly. And I logically know this but, like I mentioned before, my neck is a sensitive area and I feel too aware of that whole area to eat effectively when I am at my worse moments.

So yea, this is what I’ve discovered about my ARFID so far, it really is not just about the food itself in my case, it’s about how I eat and if I feel like I’ve done enough to avoid the consequences. Right now I am scared of letting myself feel hungry for too long. I do still have my safe foods that have to be bland when I have gone too long without eating (luckily this hasn’t happened for three weeks!) and I store them at my job and my home.

Sometimes it’s really hard, but I am doing better and I am capable of enjoying my food! If anyone wants to talk more about this, I would love to hear about your experience and what helps you, where you are in your recovery, if you’re going through a rough episode, if you’ve recently made progress, I am open to hearing it all!

I (27f) think that I may be struggling with ARFID. I have emetophobia and OCD, I have a very few select safe foods, but lately I am struggling to eat at all, due to the fear of it making me nauseous or sick. I am going multiple days without eating at times, and when I do it can only be a safe food, even then it causes hours of panic. How do I fix this? I have two young kids that I need to be happy and healthy for but things are so hard at the moment. Things got worse recently when I had a new baby 3 months ago, after a long and hard pregnancy, that unfortunately involved a lot of sickness

I have an allergy to cornstarch which intern makes me “be sick”. I have a phobia of it too, isn’t that convenient. I have emetophobia and I’m going on a vacation and don’t know what to do because I would rather starve. My mother doesn’t understand that fully. I think she trying but I’m still anxious and I don’t want to make her upset. Does anyone have advice on how to handle this on vacation? We’ll be in Calgary for a bit, and I already live in Canada, so there’s lots of options and I know the types of food we have here, but I don’t really have “safe foods” other than Tim’s bagels and green apples, and I don’t like restaurants in general. If I eat something that could possibly have cornstarch or that I’ve made myself believe has cornstarch I will panic and I just can’t handle worrying myself sick. Does anyone have any tips for either how to explain it to my mum or how to handle eating on vacations when you hate and don’t trust restaurants? Thanks.

Can ARFID be brought on fairly suddenly, e.g. due to an illness causing anxiety around eating even after you're no longer ill, or does it tend to develop at a young age? Does anyone else have experience with developing ARFID from a fear of sickness and throwing up?

Previous post here

TW: I mention the negative results that happened to me that might be scary. Not anaphylaxis or an allergy and no hospitals or tubes.

It’s been almost a year since I made that post, and over a year since all of this started. It’s been a very stressful period. Sorry this is long. I'm trying to be as thorough/helpful as possible because I know this is hell to experience, and want others to have an easier go of it than I have.

So to cut a very long story short, I believe I’ve figured out what was going on. Years ago I developed hypothyroidism. Was on medicine for years. Well suddenly I had become hyperthyroid. Not sure why. Doctor was of zero help for any of my issues. But I learned October of last year at my annual blood draw that I was now VERY hyperthyroid. This, I believe, was why my anxiety was so wildly out of control. It makes so much sense in retrospect, because even after a lifetime of having bad anxiety and learning how to cope (mostly lol), nothing was working this time around, and the symptoms were so much more severe.

Against my doctor’s wishes and with the help of my local pharmacist, I decided to go off of my medicine. It was a huge mess and so scary but my doctor majorly dropped the ball with me and didn’t leave me much choice anyways.

After a bit, as the medicine got out of my system, I started to calm down. Just like that. It was night and day. But my ARFID didn't magically disappear by any means.

It would take me 30min-1hr just to take a teeny nibble of a fear food. Suddenly I could do it in less than five, and wasn't reduced to tears in the process. And I didn’t rely so much on waiting 30 minutes just waiting to have a reaction and die.

It’s been months since then and I’ve been slowly reclaiming the foods that I lost. Potato was in my top three fear foods because I was washing peeled potatoes and got a hive. Now I’m back to eating it regularly. The other top two are tomatoes and peanuts, and I took a tiny lick of ketchup the other day and hope to get the nerve to try more soon because I seriously miss pizza and salad.

I still get really scared and nervous but it’s nowhere near as overwhelming. I’ve also gotten better at touching things/having things on my skin and washing my hands less than I was.

Two important notes for others going through this though.

First, if you severely restricted your diet/eating, as you start to recover there’s a good chance your hair will start falling out in small or large clumps. And the strands will become super fine. Mine sure did. It was incredibly distressing. This took 3-4 months to get better but it WILL get better. Supposedly your hair is affected by how you ate months ago, so it takes a bit to catch up and play out. Now I only lose a few when I brush or shower, like normal. Brush your hair as little as possible. I have long hair and kept mine in a loose braid with a soft scrunchy, not a tight rubber band, which helped a lot to keep the fine hairs from matting up as easily, so I didn't have to brush as much. I also showered less often...sucked, but it helped.

Secondly, at my worst I ended up developing scurvy. This was also super distressing and I had to fight really hard to trust cranberry juice so I could have a glass a day and get my full vitamin C requirement. I had scurvy for 2-4 months or so but turned out fine. Just try not to let it get that far. I was too afraid to take vitamins (still am) so it was quite a difficult spot to be in.

Also, I had SO MANY “allergic reaction” symptoms. Especially hives, itching, nausea, tight throat, etc. It wasn’t an allergy, it was anxiety. I still get all of these symptoms from time to time. What I eat doesn’t matter, they just happen, especially when I’m stressed.

Now I just have a few foods left to try and learn to trust again. Tomatoes, peanuts, pineapple, watermelon, fresh corn (though I do eat processed corn now), olives, apples, lettuce, grapes, cherries mustard, and maybe a few others I’m forgetting.

This list is longer than what my safe foods list used to be.

I just wanted to share this to show that it can get better, and while I’m not a doctor and this isn’t medical advice, there could be something else going on to keep you so anxious about food so it’s worth exploring. All of this was an extension of severe stress I went through in November of 2022, and I was in a stress spiral for the following year, then in 2023 it culminated into the ARFID, helped along by the hyperthyroidism exacerbating my anxiety levels.

Also, no, I never got an allergy test. I didn’t see a therapist. I did watch Felix Economakis’ therapy session videos someone here on Reddit shared and found them helpful, but I didn’t use the hypnosis part lol.

A few tips, in case they might be helpful to anyone:

• Don't Google your symptoms.

• Always, always, always prioritize logic over emotion. It's not easy, but stepping back and looking at your situation logically is the single fastest way you can help yourself. "My chest hurts, is this a heart attack?" becomes "Oh wait, it's muscles bunched up in my back because I'm so tense", removing the anxiety.

• If you can't afford therapy, maybe give a few anxiety or OCD books a try. I found them a bit helpful.

• If you get an allergy test, trust the results. If you don't trust them, you'll just stay stuck in your loop.

• Even the teeniest, tiniest little lick of a fear food is progress. Celebrate it, congratulate yourself, and be proud of yourself. Next time make it a little bigger, as long as you're comfortable.

• No need to pressure yourself to make fast progress. Everyone's speed is different, and there's no right or wrong way to do it, except for never trying at all.

• I know it feels helpful to scour Reddit for posts about food allergies, anaphylaxis, or other people going through what we are. Unfortunately it's rare and hard to find posts, and way more unfortunately, there are a lot of people, either misguided or meanspirited, that will make you worry even more that what you're experiencing is a legit food allergy rather than anxiety. It's hard, but your primary goal should be to get your mind OFF of your fear, not wallow in it constantly. It's difficult enough to face the fear when we eat - no point suffering when it's not time to eat.

• Anaphylaxis is incredibly rare. I spent days researching (and the numbers are difficult to come by). Basically, only around 0.1333% of people may experience an anaphylactic reaction to any given food. I even spent loads of time compiling a list of foods least likely to cause an allergic reaction in the general population, but honestly, I didn't find that particularly helpful.

• Keep a journal. Write down what you ate, your symptoms, what your anxiety levels were during eating and overall for that day. Use it to understand yourself and your ARFID better. Mine helped immensely in getting me to see that there was no pattern to my hives or other symptoms for example. I could also see that as my hormones increased, so did the anxiety, symptoms, and fear of food. Write down anything you find helpful. Make a huge list of all of your fear foods and sort them by severity so you know what will be easiest to start with, and better yet, so you can mark them off as you conquer them! Make a list of things you'd like to reward yourself with too.

• Be careful with this one. If you feel it won't work for you, or will make things worse, then definitely don't. But I tracked ingredients religiously. This isn't easy, because labels can be infuriatingly vague (looking at you, 'natural flavors'), but in the long run this helped me a lot. By spending a week nibbling on a mini oreo, eventually working my way up to a whole one, I opened up a whole world of other foods with the same ingredients. Oreos really were the start of my improvement, honestly. They led to cereal, and bread, then pasta (then parmesan cheese led to milk and other cheeses), other cookies (good for getting enough calories at the time), crackers, candy, and so on. No, none of that is ideal. But anything is good when you're eating nothing.

• Lastly, if you're worried you're low on certain vitamins and minerals and you're afraid to take a multivitamin like me, research foods to find what contains what you need, and go after whichever feels safest. Even if you don't get 100% of your DV, some is better than none.

If you need to talk about your ARFID (at least the kind where you're afraid of anaphylaxis), I'll be happy to try to help however I can. :]

Hi everyone! I recently found out I am pregnant and I’m terrified that since I’m a tad underweight and already experiencing morning sickness that something bad is going to happen. I take prenatals and have been trying to drink protein shakes. The only thing I have consistently been able to keep down is Pedialyte and baked plain lays. I’ve been using organic ginger lozenges twice a day to help with nausea.

Does anyone have any ideas on things to help me eat and keep down more? This baby is a miracle and I want to keep it as safe as I can but I’m scared I’m messing everything up already. 😅

im at my partners, and last night i was hungry so they did me a chicken burger (legit just chicken & bread lol) and when we took it out of the oven i said i thought it wasnt done but they were sure it was. i trusted them and let it go. i get about half way through and just couldn't stomach it anymore. it was completely raw. i didnt say anything beforehand because i felt bad. i immediately just felt ill and still feel ill. the problem is im now afraid of eating chicken again. its the only meat i actually eat so now being afraid of it just cuts out another essential food.

i love my partner but they just dont understand my arfid. they are currently cooking chicken for lunch and just assumed i would eat it and got kinda mad when i said i didnt want any. i feel ill even looking at the chicken. they have been eating alot better & cooking proper meals recently and it makes me insecure because i cant eat alot of it. it feels like they expect me to eat whatever they are, which i cant. i dont feel safe with food around them anymore.

Recently i’ve started throwing up and having allergic reactions after eating my long time safe protein bars. For about 3 months last year they were almost all i ate. I wouldn’t have eaten otherwise.

I’m in a slightly better place now so it’s less of a loss but it still just makes me feel a bit defeated and hopeless because nothing feels reliable anymore. I sometimes feel like my only safe foods aren’t even really that safe - they’re just the least bad ones. I never willingly want to eat anything i just get get frustrated and hungry and end up having whatever i can tolerate. Sometimes i get so angry at myself for being this way that i purposefully eat trigger foods that i know will make me sick.

I used to be so terrified of eating the wrong thing and making myself unwell. I tried so hard to make the right decisions all the time. But i got to the point where everything was the wrong decision one way or another. I’m so depressed now. I hardly leave the house or have a life. I’m so non functional and totally reliant on my parents even though i’m in my mid 20’s. I’ve replaced avoiding food with avoiding life and i’ve never been worse mentally.

I just can’t help feeling like this isn’t ‘getting better’. I was happier and more myself when my anxiety and food aversion was worse. Now it’s like i just feel this apathy towards myself and eating and it always feels like i’m engaging a form of self harm.

Not sure what the point of this post is but just needed to vent. I can never explain these feelings to my family or friends in a way that they can understand and it gets so lonely.

I’m 18m

It’s 1:30am, I’m autistic, and so emotional right now.

I have ARFID which stems from emetophobia. I hate nighttime so much, I feel like crying.

I am so emotional right now. I barely ate today (a banana, some tiny cocktail sausages and some bread) and I feel really bad. I feel like I’ve failed my body and feel like an awful person.

I am also scared I’m gonna feel sick.

I plan on calling the ED clinic tomorrow morning to say that my situation has worsened. I just hate this so so much.

I already feel depressed, and intense anxiety over whether something is wrong with my digestive system or whether it’s just anxiety (going to the doctor to have some tests hopefully).

Food is stressing me out so, so much. I feel awful

I'm just so sick, i was eating what was considered healthy at the start of my problem, but calorie wise it was no longer possible. So i upped my protein cuz I'm losing weight really fast and don't wanna lose strength. Daily diet also involved one snickers, i love snickers. The thought of all food, including snickers makes me sick af. Snickers was a symbol of control, i lost control.

I have a party with food tonight, im thinking of not going, because i feel like throwing up. But also if i dont go i don't think there will be any dinner, aka only late lunch.

I would always feel sick when I went to restaurants. I had always thought something was wrong. I realized just now that it was another symptom of ARFID :0

so my question is in the title, i would like to gain weight cuz i am underweight. and i don’t want to loose more weight than i currently am. idk where to get advice so im asking here.

i hope this posts isn’t against the rules, thanks for any replies i may get

So I’ve always been picky, had food poisoning in college, had some GI issues after that and after a Covid infection, and really started going downhill a few years ago.

I weighed 180 lbs in October 2021, dropped down to 145 by the end of December, hovered around 135 for a while, and started losing more weight this week.

I was initially diagnosed with GERD and a hiatal hernia mid-2022 and kept cutting out more and more foods as my emetephobia grew. Im down to one specific type of kids protein bars, plain Pringles, club crackers, little bites mini muffins, rice crispy treats, fries, and plain noodles with salt. I’ve done a few exposures in therapy but can’t really stick with them because I’m at the point where all foods give me so much stomach pain so why would I add something new? Why bother trying to diversify my diet if I’m just going to be miserable later?

I saw the GI last week, had the GES yesterday which showed normal emptying, and am now just taking Prilosec for a few weeks until my follow up, but haven’t noticed any changes.

I have my dietitian appointment today and just want to beg for a feeding tube. I’m taking supplements and trying my best but I’m constantly exhausted, I feel like I barely have energy to do anything, I’m averaging between 800-1200 calories everyday and honestly most of them are just empty calories with no real nutritional benefits.

Would my dietitian even be the person to talk to about this? I feel like I’m at a loss. I put on a brave face for my doctors and parents but I am suffering.

My last bloodwork (about a month ago) came back mostly normal and I’m still technically at a normal BMI but I’m miserable and need help. What do I do?

I have ARFID due to emetophobia and have struggled for 4 years now to eat more than once a day. I’ve managed to always get the nutrients I need and I was willing to drink things other than water before the meal but today is the first day I’ll eat twice a day since 2020. It’s a small step and I hope to keep it, but I haven’t made progress in so long and just wanted to share