Diagnosis of Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder

The diagnosis of avoidant restrictive food intake disorder is rather subjective and based mostly on common sense. If you read through the diagnostic parameters of the disorder, you will certainly find yourself amused by at least some of them… especially if you are affected by ARFID.

In my experience, people who suffer from ARFID already know it. I certainly did. I did not know the proper diagnostic name for the disorder, but I surely knew from a very early age that my eating habits were far from normal and always believed there was something wrong with me that caused it. I also had no idea just how widespread ARFID truly is and how many people it affects!

This simple post discusses some of the diagnostic information for avoidant restrictive food intake disorder. It can be helpful for affected people and their close connections, as well as for people who might come into contact with ARFID sufferers in the physical or psychological healthcare sectors.

Self-Diagnosis of Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder

As noted above, virtually all people affected by ARFID know that something is not normal about the way they eat. They may or may not worry about it, but when comparing themselves to most other people, they would describe themselves as eating differently.

For people who like to research and learn, it usually only takes a short time to discover information online that makes most of these people suspect that they actually have ARFID. This knowledge may or may not lead them to seek professional diagnosis and possible treatment, depending on many individual and case-specific factors.

I never actually heard of ARFID, or its predecessor diagnosis Selective Eating Disorder (SED), until after I actually had recovered from the condition for many years! In fact, it was by chance that I came across information on the disorder and knew that I could be helpful to people who are still suffering from it, based on my decades of experience and eventual cure.

Professional Diagnosis of Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder

ARFID can be diagnosed by a qualified mental health professional, although some medical doctors will speculate on making the diagnosis, as well. The diagnosis is subjective, meaning that there is no way of confirming its accuracy. Instead, it is based on cumulative evidence and opinion on a case-by-case basis.

Some of the criteria (detailed below) is rather obvious and almost insultingly stupid, while other criteria are actually useful for diagnosticians. However, I can understand why even the most common-sense criteria are well detailed, since misdiagnosis of health issues is an epidemic concern in the modern healthcare sector and forms the basis of my life’s work with chronic pain patients, but I digress!

If a person wants to seek out diagnosis of ARFID, I strongly recommend seeing a qualified mental health professional who specializes in eating disorders. As an aside, I also strongly caution patients that some doctors believe in pharmaceutical therapy for all health ills and might prescribe drugs that are both toxic and dangerous. I recommend avoiding pharmacological therapy in almost all cases, except when ARFID might exist in combination with more significant mental or physical health issues that do indeed justify the risks of pharmaceutical therapy. I discuss this much more in my post covering treatment for avoidant restrictive food intake disorder.

Diagnosis of Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder Criteria

Below, I have listed a layman’s version of the basic diagnostic parameters for ARFID. I have simplified some language for general consumption and better understanding, but maintained the meaning of each criterion:

1. (And primarily…): Person demonstrates irregular eating habits in terms of selection of foods consumed and/or amount of food consumed, resulting in any of the following consequences: weight loss, inability to gain weight, nutritional deficiency, use of a feeding tube or reliance on nutritional supplements and/or social interference. This last factor is the most commonly used to make most diagnoses and is surely the most subjective, as well.
2. (Utterly stupid and common-sense) Disorder NOT caused by a lack of available food. Duh!
3. Symptoms are not caused by any other diagnosable eating disorder, such as anorexia nervosa or anorexia bulimia. Once again, this is rather obvious, but should be carefully considered in cases where these diagnoses are possible, as well.
4. Disorder not better explained by another mental or physical health issue (psychosis, sociopathic tendencies, digestive disorder, PTSD, etc). Once again, this is really just expanding on the idea presented specifically concerning eating disorders in #3 above, but is worth considering in today’s incredibly subjective diagnostic sector.

Therefore, eliminating numbers 2, 3 and 4 for clinicians who actually are competent and would automatically consider these factors first and foremost before even suspecting ARFID, we are left with 1 very subjective parameter detailed in #1 above. Since the vast majority of people who have ARFID do not use feeding tubes, are not malnourished and are of normal weight, the most often utilized criteria to make the diagnosis is social interference. I support this parameter as being the most universal and despite its subjectivity, is still one of the best citation evidence of ARFID.