At 22 years old I just discovered ARFID / SED today. I have to say it feels nice to be validated and find that there's other adult picky eaters. But at the same time I feel like I have largely come to terms with feeling like "I'm the only one who eats this way." I'm just not sure how I feel.

Regardless, I finally feel comfortable describing in detail my diet to people outside of immediate family / my boyfriend. I mostly eat grains, dairy, and nuts. So basically bread, milk, cheese, yoghurt, and almonds (and some other nuts) are my staples (I'll eat french fries potato chips too, but I'll always go for something cheesy first). No "wet grains" as I call them: pasta and rice. No vegetables, and fruit only if it is ground up and served with a base of something else (Ex, I will eat strawberry ice cream if there aren't chunks of strawberry). I don't eat meat and that can be a source of confusion for a lot of people. I never describe myself as vegetarian. I will always say "I don't eat meat" and almost immediately people will assume I love vegetables. NO! I won't even eat tomato sauce so I have to order pizza without sauce. Not a fan of pizza by the slice places. I can stomach a half a piece of regular cheese pizza if its got less than average sauce and/or extra cheese.

Whenever I meet someone new I will avoid eating with them for as long as possible. There's 2 reasons. 1, eating out in general can be stressful for me if its not a familiar restaurant (i.e. I need to know the menu before walking in the door). I always fear I won't be able to find something to eat. 2, 99% of the time I have to custom order something/leave things off or order off the kids menu. I am very self conscious about my food issues and I don't want the person I'm eating with to judge me. So if I already know the person fairly well, then going out to eat is substantially more tolerable. So obviously this greatly limits social situations as I'm sure you all are aware just how integral food is with social life.

My parents' main strategy to trying to get me to eat more foods growing up was a combination of "you can't leave the table until you try something new" and telling me how everyone else will think I'm really weird for not eating this or that. I could always wait out their forcing me to sit at the table. I could sit there for 3 hours and have to go straight to bed after dinner. To me that was far less unpleasant than a noodle or an apple. My parents finally gave up when I was about 13. I've slowly improved over the years. Probably one of the most adventurous things I'll eat is gorgonzola cheese.

Well that's my vent for the day. Thanks for reading 😉