Overview of Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID)

Learn about avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID).

ARFID is an eating or feeding disturbance that is characterized by a persistent failure to meet appropriate nutritional and/or energy needs that leads to one or more of the following:

Significant weight loss (or failure to achieve expected weight gain or faltering growth in a child)
Significant nutritional deficiency
Dependence on oral nutritional supplements or enteral feeding (the delivery of a nutritionally complete feed, containing protein, carbohydrate, fat, water, minerals and vitamins, directly into the stomach, duodenum or jejunum)
Marked interference with psychosocial functioning
It’s also important to understand what ARFID is not.

It is not:
Associated with body image issues or any abnormalities related to how one perceives their body weight or shape
The result of lack of available food
A culturally sanctioned practice
Explained by another medical or mental disorder (“If we treat that issue, the eating problem will go away”).

[Pari_Pixie]

How is it fixed though?
I have Emetophobia but also I literally never have an appetite and avoid foods I think could make me ill. I don’t know how to get better. I’ve had this my whole life.