Always thought I was alone dealing with this it's hard to talk about with anyone your feelings like your being judged it's hard to get people understand especially when I don't understand why it can control your life your social life always making excuses people don't seem to understand it's not that easy to deal with imagine having a panic attack over dinner , it will affect your relationship it hurts but I understand why women would get flustered and leave though it hurts I get it I don't expect any woman to have to be in a relationship or married to me it just ruins everything , it will get old quick eating the same thing on regular basis, you feel bad about for people invite you to dinner then make excuses come off as being rude if it were easy as people think it is I would not be a grown man dealing with it imagine a a invisible wall just Pop up in front of your mouth even when you force yourself there nothing wrong with the food but any thing outside your limited diet trigger your gag reflex I hate it it takes e toll on your mental health and there seems to be no way you can think of to deal with this just feel alone anyone outside family and friends well them to don't get it they have all just got use to the way I am , I don't want to be alone but I don't expect any woman to have deal with me it always starts they think it's no big deal you will get use to it but doesn't take long before them to get annoyed have enough it then back to single again to the point you just give up looking for a woman that would be willing to deal with me and this stupid problem your life seems to revolve around it I am kinda like a quiet shy person in the first place but this just makes it 10 times worse unable to connect with someone because of it so hear I am telling Internet strangers I try my best to to break this problem but nothing works , for me I think it's a texture thing is my biggest problem, on top of all that it can ruin your health because all the things your body needs to be healthy is off limits to me I think talking about it helps a little not being so self conscious of

I live in queens New York and it was 12 am when I found this website and i read soooooo many comments and it's now 330 am and I'm writing this post. While reading everyone's eating problems it seriously made me want to cry, I just turned 33 last week and I can remember as a child I used to eat everything, like very very young child like 8 years old. I don't know what happened in my life around that time but I have no eaten anything since then. reading these comments make me feel so much better because trying to explain this to people is beyond impossible. I worked at a job where I worked in. a truck with a new partner everyday jand every single f**king day I was questioned about why I don't eat this and they would go through list asking me if I like this or that. that's not even the begining. I have been dealing with this for so long I really wish it would end. The saddest part of my whole life is that I met the girl of my dreams I love her more than life itself and she's a very simple girl who isn't flashy doesent party isn't anything she's so simple and loves one thing sooo much, and that is food. My girl loves to eat, she loves to go out to restaurants and try new places and try new foods from all over. Mind you I live in New York so the food is on another level over here...... supposably. I'm so lucky because when we go out to eat we go only to Italian food places because I can eat chicken parm but it has to be extremely thin sliced chicken if it's thick I won't eat it ughhhhh!!!!!!!!!! I'm so fucking annoying I seriously annoy the sh*t out of myself. I would do anything to change this!!! i seriously have one gift in my life I'm not skilled at anything at all besides one thing and that's baseball I'm soo good at baseball but I can t even write this without crying., so when I got to high-school everyone was growing and I wasn't growing at all and I realized that I wasn't growing bevsude of the way I eat and I was better than every single person on the team but I was so small I never would make it anywhere I realized everything I was doing was a complete waste of time and I dropped out of high school because the only thing I ever cared about and was good at was baseball. I used to be kind of heavy for my hejgbt I'm 5 ft 7 and I used to weight 150 lbs, I honestly gave up on food every single day when I'm hungry and I have to think for 3 hours about what I can eat for that meal, it became so misersble to me that I ended up giving up on food and now I just don't eat unless I'm absolutley starving and now I'm 33 years old like I said I'm 5ft 7 and I'm 127 lbs. I am so sad everytime I look in the mirror. I wish you guys could see what I look like, I'm such a good looking guy besides all the bul*sh*t and I can't get a job right now I have been looking for a job for over a year if you look in my email it's consistently emails of me getting denied for job after job after job after job after Job. The only job that I have gotten interviews for are construction jobs and like I said I'm 5ft 7 127 lbs and I'm soo fu*king nervous to take the job and embaress myself and everyone's going to laugh because I can't use the tool because I'm too weak or I can't carry something because it weights more than me. It's the most terrifying thing ever to me. I don't know what to do with my life and I'm with the love of my life it's the only good thing in my life right now and she's ready to leave me because I've been stuck in this situation for over a year. I don't know anymore and I can't even believe I just started to write and I've been writing for about 35 min straight without stopping I never did that in my entire life it felt good THANK YOU SOOO MUCH FOR THIS WEBSITE I HAVE BEEN SO ALONE MY ENTIRE LIFE. No doctors knew how to help me noone knows how to help me and I'm so so so tired of trying to help myself and failing its so exhausting my body hurts everything hurts and I have so many dreams but everything I start I have all this ambition and I never go through with anything I don't know why it's like I have a Damm wall I start things and just can't seem to follow through everything just stops. ughhh if anyone has any comments negetive or positive I'm open to litterally anything, if anyone has any critique or criticism I'm all ears. If anyone can help me in anyway possible please please please email me at howardtvondemand@gmail.com I'm open to any help if you can point me in the right direction, if someone can help me make a meal plan with how awful my pallette is to try to gain weight I would so appreciate it you don't even understand. Noone can help me and I have no idea where else to turn and I stumbled across this page at random and maybe my path was to stop here and write this entry to this guestbook for an hour straight. Who Knows. I really hope someone can Email me some advice somehow, I will be checking all the time. Thank you again for this website and letting me vent and blow off some steam. Thank you to the. creator, I really hope to hear from someone soon!!

Wow!!! I thought I was one of a kind! I am over 60 and I have been a very picky eater my whole life. My Dad always said it started at about age 2 when I saw whipped butter scooped like ice cream on a restaurant table. I insisted on eating the ice cream and after screaming like a toddler, he finally let me eat it. Apparently, I was so shocked to taste butter, not ice cream, I lost all trust in foods and servers.
…I have my doubts that this event triggered my picky eating, but who knows. After all, I don’t imagine many 2 year olds have developed a wide-ranging diet yet.

Throughout childhood my diet was mainly restricted to peanut butter, plain white breads, French fries, and a few sweets. I have many memories of sitting at the kitchen table all by myself until bedtime because I would not eat what was served. My parents even sent me across the country to spend a summer with an Aunt who swore she would break me of this. For you parents who are dealing with children who are picky eaters, please know these were traumatic times for me and I believe they only served to increase my anxiety. I think it made it worse… for me anyway.

During high school and college, I worked very hard to add fried chicken and good cuts of steak to my list to give me more options in social settings to try to hide my affliction. I was successful, but only in adding KFC Original Recipe chicken and ribeyes. Since then, I have only expanded my chicken to other brands, including carefully prepared home-fried chicken, and chicken tinders/nuggets. I have also added filet mignon, but steaks must be prepared with only salt and pepper, nothing else.

I have taken multi-vitamins most of my adult life, adding a variety of supplements over the last 15 years.

Surprisingly, I am in excellent health. I am physically active and I feel 15-20 years younger than my age. I add this as a ray of hope for others who are struggling with this and for parents who are worried about their children with this affliction.

I readily admit, my desire to hide this from everyone except immediate family members has negatively affected my social life. I still try to avoid social meals with others when possible.

It is unbelievably comforting to know I am not alone. Now that this is being recognized by the medical community I am hopeful new treatments will be sought and found for picky eaters like me.

Best wishes to all!!

I am 49 years old and have been eating French Fries since I was 3-4 as well. I do eat pancakes, breads, doughnuts and some candies. I eat fat off bacon and do not eat crust of bread or biscuits. Oddly I am even picky on what types of fries and where they are from and how they are cooked (I do not like crispy ones or breaded ones). I am allergic to shellfish and intolerant to milk/dairy. I never let my eating disrupt my life or tried to hide it or was ashamed of it or really cared what others thought. I do wish I could overcome this and at least add some chicken or protein to my diet. Would love an update on your life after you went live with this on 20-20 and have you been able to “overcome” it and if so, how? I do not recall why mine started

I'm 34 and have been a picky eater for as Ling as I can remember. Trying new foods is such a tall task for me. When presented with the opportunity I feel sick to my stomach, irritated, and I feel a mental block preventing me from going forward. I have taken great strides in hiding it my entire life which has very often limited what I do socially. My limitation has caused stress and frustration amongst myself and my wife. Now I am a father of a 1 year old and one my largest goals as a father is to not allow my son to go down the same eating path as me. I just don't know how I can prevent his picky eating without addressing my own which I have been unable to do for so long.

Hi, I'm 23 and I've been picky all my life. I've started to eat some new foods, but I often have anxiety in public eating situations that are unfamiliar. Today, for the first time ever I discovered the term ARFID and I felt so seen. Over time, I hope to get better, and I am so happy to know I am not alone.

Much love!!

After reading some of the posts here, I see that all of us are so similar with our "picky eating'. I am extremely texture oriented. I have developed 4 [simple] "food rules" that I tell people when planning dinners so that others can try to understand the foods I won't/can't eat. Most vegetables are on my list of things that are a no go. I am 48 and also worry that I'm not getting the nutritional balance that is necessary for a healthy life, but it is so hard to eat most vegetables. I also do what another poster does: I will put a little of something in my mouth, chew as much as I can handle and then swallow it with as much water as necessary. I eat peas like taking pills. It's exhausting trying to trick myself into eating these foods. I have increased the variety of foods I will eat as I have gotten older, but very little. I will only try new foods with a trusted friend or family member who knows my food issues. Thankfully, I have several very supportive friends who accommodate my "pickiness".
I also have Brumotactillophobia (not wanting food to touch on my plate), which leads to a whole other range of food issues. LOL
I'm glad I ran across this site. It helps to know that there are lots of other people struggling with these situations. Thanks for allowing me to share!

I am happy to find a group that offers understanding. I suffer from AFRID.

I’m glad I found this. I am 31 years old and I have also been “picky” all my life. Unlike many of the posts on here I do not have an issue with gagging or vomiting. For me it is more of a mental block. I have read on here about “regular foods” not looking like foods to us and that really resonates with me. I really struggle with it because I know it isn’t logical. There is no reason I can’t eat the things I don’t eat I just simply can’t make myself do it. I’m lucky that my picky eating still allows me to make healthy choices. I’m okay with most vegetables and I am okay with white-meat chicken prepared pretty much any way. Herbs and spices are ok but sauces are a hard no. I don’t eat dairy or any meat other than chicken or crispy bacon. Some fruits are ok (green apples, red grapes, most berries - not blueberries). I have a hard time preparing meals for myself. If I see the chicken before it is cooked I often cannot eat it. I find that I eat out a lot (usually chicken fingers) to compensate for this. I have learned to live with my issues and I am lucky to have family that tries to understand and a spouse that supports me. The main reason that I am reaching out for support is that I now have a 3 year old son who seems to be struggling with the same issues. In a lot of ways he seems even more selective than I was so I worry and I am looking for any information to help him so that I don’t make the problem worse. My in laws tell me all the time that we just need ti keep serving him the same food until he gets hungry enough ti eat it. I obviously do not agree. I do my best to support him in trying new foods (sometimes with bribery) while making sure that he is fed with things I know he likes. I’ve always done my best to provide him with a varied diet including lots of food that I personally don’t eat but it seemed almost right away that he was very selective. I worry that I have caused this and just want to help him as best I can.

I'm a 27 year old female who has always been defined as a picky eater. I eat the classic kids foods but cannot stomach fruits & vegetables along with most other non-grain foods. Growing up, I was told that "no one likes what they eat, they tough it out and eat it anyways!" and "you know what foods to eat to be healthy, so just do it!". I was convinced by others that seeking any external help would yield no results and that this was a choice I was making to disregard my own health. I gained a lot of weight over the past 10 years and have developed an intense anxiety concerning food in social situations. It's not that I want to a "picky" eater. I wish I wasn't. I feel shame for who I am and I've always thought I was the only one who was like this. I found this Picky Eating Adults website tonight and I'm sitting here crying because I've realized for the first time in my life that I'm not alone. I relate so closely to so many of the posts I am reading. I didn't know I needed this, so thank you.