I have had problems with food all of my life, ever since I can remember really. I was always told I was just a picky eater and that I’d grow out of it eventually however I never did.
For me, it’s textures, taste and what certain foods look like. Foods like pasta, rice, yoghurt, any kinds of sauces (like ketchup, mayo, chocolate sauce etc) or thick liquids (curries, smoothies etc), any crunchy vegetables (I have to boil any vegetables I eat within an inch of their life so that they’re super soft for example)… I’ve tried pasta before, it was too slimy, it felt too foreign in my mouth if that makes sense? It made me feel sick and I had to eat something I knew I liked to get rid of that feeling properly, now whenever I think of pasta I remember what it felt like and just the thought of it makes me feel sick… salad stuff like lettuce, cucumber etc are too crunchy and they taste like nothing… I can’t put any sort of dressing on them because they’re too much like a sauce to go on food… rice looks like little maggots to me, it also looks like it would have the same kind of texture as pasta does but I never had the guts to actually try it. There’s more, but this post would be massive if I mentioned them all, those are just the main ones.
It’s worth mentioning that I also hate spicy things, so peppers, jalapeños, pepperoni etc and seasoning stuff like meats with black pepper etc is out of the question for me.
My therapist believes I could have arfid, she said that what I described to her really did sound like it, but my doctor says that I wouldn’t comfort eat/binge eat as much as I do if it were, that I wouldn’t be fat and that it’s all my autism causing it. I understand that, really I do because from what I’ve seen most people who have it don’t binge eat like I do, and I am diagnosed with both autism and ADHD so it really could just be something to do with that, but what my therapist said threw me off a bit so I thought I’d ask here.
I do comfort eat/binge a lot, pretty much all the time lately. If I’m stressed, upset, or even angry, I eat… in the rare occasion where I am happy, I eat… I’m trying to lose weight again now. I’ve tried in the past but found that the foods I am comfortable eating are far too high in calories, when I was losing nothing I just decided to give up. My doctors say to just switch out my diet, eat more vegetables, try eating rice, pasta, salad etc but they don’t seem to understand that I *can’t* do that… I would rather starve myself.
Anyways… my reason for asking is that I’m finally ready to try losing weight again… I got accepted for Mounjaro yesterday and will be starting my first dose as soon as it’s ready to pick up from the pharmacy, I already set off a gym membership a few days ago and plan to go once weekly to get myself started and then go more often when I’m used to it but I know for Mounjaro to work properly I will need to have a healthy, balanced diet which currently I don’t have and I see no way to get one… I guess I’m hoping for any advice on how to try new foods and maybe even overcome the textural/taste/appearance issues I have with the healthier ones.