ARFID, avoidant restrictive food intake disorder, is a psychological disorder that causes avoidance or restriction in food intake due to aversion, fear, and/or disinterest with disregard for health.
Below, I have listed eight common traits of ARFID. This list is not exhaustive of the many ways ARFID can affect an individual's life.
8 Common Traits of Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder
1 Individuals with ARFID typically have the eating disorder before knowing they have ARFID.
These individuals begin limiting food or food groups due to sensory sensitivities or because they are supertasters. Other ARFID individuals experience firsthand or see an event, such as choking or vomiting, that triggers fear and anxiety. Over time, without realizing the growing anxiety surrounding food, they begin to restrict foods to prevent the adverse consequence from happening.
2 ARFID can lead to serious health problems.
ARFID can lead to numerous health problems. These health problems include, but are not limited to:
Weight loss or failure to gain weight
Stomach pain for unknown reasons
Failure to grow
Nutritional deficiencies
Thinning hair or hair loss
Dry skin
Darkening around eyes
Tingling in feet and legs
3 ARFID is not picky eating.
Picky eaters typically eat more than 30 foods whereas people with ARFID tend to eat less than 20 foods.
Picky eaters do not have fear or anxiety surrounding foods, eating, and eating environments. The majority of ARFID eaters have intense fear and anxiety with food. Even talking about food causes anxiety in these folks.
Picky eaters, like most people, enjoy eating foods they like and do not enjoy eating foods they do not like. ARFID individuals typically do not have an interest in eating at all and tend to have an overall decrease in appetite.
4 People with ARFID commonly have co-occurring conditions.
It is common for these individuals to have generalized anxiety disorder, mood disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, or autism spectrum disorder.
Other conditions that can co-occur with ARFID are celiac disease, diabetes, especially type 1, and an allergy to foods.
5 People with ARFID are not concerned with their body weight, shape, or size.
Individuals with ARFID are not concerned with their body shape, size, and weight and oftentimes would like to gain weight. This is one way that ARFID differs from other eating disorders, such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa.
6 ARFID has several psychological and physical signs.
Psychological signs:
Upset stomach around food, meal times, or talking about food
Lack of interest in eating
Often skips meals due to being distracted or forgets to eat
Fears of vomiting, choking, or having an allergic reaction to non-allergy food
Fears having a full stomach
Fears overeating will cause vomiting
Mood changes around food, meal times, or talking about food
Unable to concentrate
Physical signs:
Feel full after eating a couple of bites of food
Does not feel hunger cues
Stomach cramps or feelings of constipation
Poops often or tries to poop often
Dizziness
Sleep problems
Often feels tired
Often feels cold
Menstrual irregularities
7 ARFID can coexist with other eating disorders.
This is known as ARFID Plus. There is not much information on the prevalence of ARFID coexisting with other eating disorders, such as anorexia nervosa or binge eating disorder.
It is thought that these individuals developed ARFID first and then over time developed one of the other eating disorders.
They begin to have concerns about weight and size, fear gaining weight, become restrictive with preferred foods, and shame and loss of control in eating preferred foods.
8 Treatment is effective, and recovery is possible for ARFID.
There are a few different treatment methods for ARFID. One method is cognitive behavioral therapy. Cognitive behavioral therapy focuses on anxiety and uses exposures to feared foods and internal sensations to work through the anxiety.
Some people need a few exposures to work through, while others need continuous exposure and practice to make a lasting impact and recovery.
Recovery from any eating disorder takes time, patience, and the willingness to put in the work. There will be many struggles as well as a good amount of trial and error. You will have progress and setbacks. Expect to take two steps forward and one step back when it comes to recovery.
