ARFID=Avoidant, Restrictive Feeding Intake Disorder

Connie Carr, COTA

There is a lot of anxiety around food with someone with ARFID but sometimes it isn’t the result of just anxiety. It can be the result of Fear, Anxiety, Sensory Distress, Disgust, Uncertainty and Avoidance. 

Sometimes the anxiety is the result of years of trying to survive disgust. Fear says: “Something bad might happen”. Disgust says: “Absolutely not”. Disgust is not a choice. It’s an automatic reaction designed to protect us from things that our brain thinks is unsafe or wrong. Someone may know that a food is safe and want to eat it, even wish they could but still be completely unable to take a bite. Then there is the added pressure of “Just try it”, “Stop being so picky”, You have to eat”, “It’s just one bite”. The disgust was already there but the pressure creates the anxiety. Over time the brain starts making connections that 

Food = Disgust

Mealtime=Pressure

Trying=Distress

And avoidance feels like relief.

This is why ARFID can become so much bigger than food itself. What started as disgust can become layered with fear, shame and past experiences. You can’t argue disgust out of someone. You can’t shame anxiety out of someone and you can’t pressure someone into feeling safe.

With ARFID we’re trying to help kids build enough safety to stay and try. Pressure will never create that safe space.