this post was submitted on 02 Aug 2023
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Fuckin a if this isn't spot on. Knew a few people with ARFID. Exact same list of foods. One had a slightly more expanded list to include tv dinners. One was a kid who wouldn't eat any kind of fruit or vegetables. Not even coated with candy dip or chocolate.
I don't know if it's true or not but heard that this is kind of a form of autism.
What do you think would happen if you told him about the mushrooms?
I had a BIL who hated any kind of seafood. Couldn't be in the same room if we were eating shrimp. I made an Asian beef stew with fish sauce and I watched him tear through that. One of my big life regrets not telling him and then stepping back and watching it unfold.
I’ll be honest and say straight up that I don’t like mushrooms. But if you can dice them up into a stew or something so that I don’t notice that’s fine. But I can’t help but fixate on them whenever I see them on food, even if the taste isn’t that strong. Same with onion rings. Onion rings were ruined when I noticed they weren’t just some weird French fry my parents bought.
Granted I’m reasonable about food and don’t ask for special orders. So I won’t through a fit about stuff. But there no need to force someone to change if you don’t think they are willing. Doubly so if they have autism.
Imagine growing as a person, can't have that.
I can relate to this one- I generally don't like seafood, if I smell or taste it, I won't enjoy what I'm eating even if it's something else. But I can eat canned tuna, as long as it's the good stuff, and a few times I have been talked into trying someone's fish dish that they "cook differently"- usually it's not different, but on two occasions, I have been surprised. 20 years ago a neighbor made some buttered shrimp that was quite good, and a few years ago my wife got me to try some smoked salmon, and I was ok with it.
As somebody who’s medically diagnosed with Aspergers, I can personally confirm that this was my diet more or less growing up; I basically subsisted on Spaghetti-Os, oatmeal, Oreos, pizza, chicken nuggets, and chocolate-flavored Ensures when I was growing up.
Nowadays though, I eat a lot more variety - I still have some aversion to trying out new foods from time to time, but I’ve learned to be able to prepare myself mentally to try out new foods and drinks. So when people actually act like in OP’s post and they don’t have autism or something, I can’t help but just roll my eyes because somebody with a social and learning disorder is able to do better than them.
That's a pretty impressive feat and I really applaud your efforts to try to break out of that. I feel for those with that diagnosis that this would be pretty difficult to overcome, especially unassisted and without professional help. I do also think that for others without a diagnosis it might be akin to a phobia that's developed. I myself grew up with A LOT of food hang-ups - went a full decade without being able to eat anything remotely resembling a dairy product. So these things take time and a lot of forward AND backwards steps.