Are you afraid of food? Does your anxiety go beyond simply eating new foods? Does just being around some foods greatly disturb you? You are not alone.
Food and eating phobias are rather commonplace. There are several notable types of fears and several diagnoses associated with severe expressions of these fears. This entire website is devoted to one such diagnosis called AFRID or avoidant restrictive food intake disorder. I suffered from this eating disorder for over 35 years of my life and it certainly had serious consequences while it persisted.
This post delves into the fear of food items. We will certainly discuss eating fears, but also go into a less discussed realm of simply fearing exposure to certain food types and items. If you suffer from any manner of food phobia, this post is written just for you by someone who has been there themselves and understands your condition REALLY well.
Afraid of Eating Food
Fear of eating certain foods or types of foods is one of the major characteristics of ARFID. It goes beyond simply being a picky eater. It is a disorder that has real consequences on life and health. I already covered much about various types of food phobias in my dedicated post on that topic. However, let’s spend some time getting to understand fear of eating at a more intimate level…
Fear, anxiety and disgust are the most common reactions to eating (or even being presented to eat) certain types of foods. What effects might come about from these feelings? In some instances, the consequences will be purely psychological. In other cases, people will actually demonstrate physical effects such as nausea, gagging, upset stomach or vomiting. Although the source of food fear is psychoemotional, the effects can easily be transferred into the body via the mindbody interactions.
Food fears might include phobias to eating new foods, called food neophobia, or might include eating familiar foods, as well. The more limitations and restrictions on eating a person might have, the worse the clinical severity of their selective eating will typically be considered.
Even Nearby Foods?
Many people transcend fear of eating foods and are actually disgusted by the presence of the food item near them. They might fear or detest the sight, smell or other characteristics of the food item and can suffer consequences simply by being in close proximity to the food.
This was a problem that I suffered from for many years. It was not enough that I found eating most foods impossible. I actually was repulsed by most foods, especially those with a distasteful appearance or strong smell. I never had gagging or vomiting problems, but often found myself feeling quite ill and having digestive issues when exposed to foods in social eating settings. My worst nightmare was sitting next to a person who was eating something that I considered disgusting (most foods, in fact…)
If you suffer from such exposure-related fear, anxiety or physical symptomology, then your selective eating disorder is also considered quite severe. After all, now you are reacting violently to foods that are not even going in your mouth. Just their presence is enough to cause consequences to you across psychological, social and possibly physical realms of expression.
I Was Truly Afraid of Food
My food fears went way beyond eating. I was equally affected by being around people who were eating things that were distasteful to me. This made family get-togethers, holidays and all manner of social outings extremely unpleasant for me from the time of early childhood until my late 30s. I provide a short form version of my food fears in the My Story section and go into great (and humorous!) detail in my book My Food Fear. I am sure that you will enjoy these resources and will “see yourself” in them…
My food fears came to an end over the course of a couple of years at the hands of my wife. Unlike all the people in my life who attempted to help me to eat more normally previously, she actually succeeded. She is responsible for my cure and now I eat almost everything, with the exception of meat, fish, poultry and any dead animals… I remain a strict vegetarian to this day, but otherwise eat very normally and love to dine out socially.
If I can cure my ARFID condition, you can too. My case was truly extreme, since I only ate a small handful of food items every day of my life and tended to eat the exact same foods at the exact some meals day in and day out for many decades. I am thrilled to have found a cure for avoidant restrictive food intake disorder and am happy to share my experiences overcoming ARFID in order to help others who want to change their eating habits, as well. If you are afraid of food, let me assure you that help is available. However, if you simply rather stay within your comfort zone and eat the way you always have, that is fine also. You do not NEED to change. You are welcome here as a part of our community whatever your goals are: cure, improvement, understanding, compassion, empathy or just information.
