Eating Disorders & Aphantasia
2 min readByErin Chien-Szegedy
Hi all! I'm Erin and I'm new to the network!
I have aphantasia, autism, ADHD, and ARFID (along with a few other fun acronyms that aren't super relevant right now) and I've been speaking with providers about my aphantasia for a long time. I've found that it's hard to get any of them to take it seriously as something that could affect my treatment options or contributing to symptoms. (e.g. "so you can't picture an apple, so what?")
I've recently started with a new registered dietitian who was shocked to hear that other providers weren't taking it seriously. We talked about how senses and sensory input, internal or external, is crucial to the appetite/eating process. And to me there seems like a clear link between that and aphantasia, especially when it comes to ARFID!
For those that may be unaware, ARFID is (very roughly) an eating disorder that is classified by disordered eating brought on by sensory issues, lack of hunger cues, lack of appetite instead of body image like other eating disorders. Like a very extreme version of the ADHD's "forgetting to eat" and Autism's "safe foods".
My thought was that it seems like there is so much sensory pre-work going on in other's minds when they are getting ready to eat; thinking about the smells, thinking about the tastes of the meal, maybe starting to drool when they picture it in their mind. And maybe other aphantasic folks that don't suffer with EDs have some kind of work around to that? But to me it seems very clearly linked.
I'm not quite sure what I'm hoping to get out with this rambling, but I would just love to hear about other's experiences & thoughts on this that I don't have to start from a place of even trying to get them to understand aphantasia as a concept.
Thanks so much for reading & hope everyone is having a lovely week!