Food phobias.

Hi everybody, I'm new to this forum and I recently started recovering from anorexia. As you might have guessed I still carry many of my food phobias and I was just wondering how you guys overcame yours if you had any.

Hey Z! Welcome! One very helpful thing I did was to take the very thing that messed me up in the first place and put a positive spin on it. I started learning more about nutrition, and instead of only hearing the bad and following every fad thing I heard, I turned it around and found the benefits to everything, because you really do need a little of everything to be healthy. So take a food you're afraid of and find what it will do that will be good for you emotionally and for your health. Examples: fats. This is a major fear for a lot of us, but your body really really needs them, especially during recovery and there are good fats. "fat" in foods does not equate to the fat on our bodies. They really should be given two different names because they are very different things. YOu need the good fats for brain function, to get your period, for healthy skin and hair, for your organs to function properly etc. Good sources are avocados, nuts, nut butters, and oil. Ice cream has good sat fats (yes there are even good sat fats!) and calcium that is also crucial for you. Carbs= energy, and grains are a good source of this plus other essential nutrients, so bread is ok!! etc etc, you can do this with all foods.

Also, find someone you admire who you think looks good and eats well, and try to follow their example. Most likely they eat cake and french fries, whatever it may be, and still live through it and enjoy themselves. If it's ok for them, i promise its ok for you too.

And most importantly, you just have to DO it!!! It will be horribly scary at first, an dprobably the first several times you eat it, but make yourself do it anyways and it will get easier each time. Message me if you have any questions or just need to talk. Good luck! :)

Hey Zmarsh! I remember you from the Health & Support forums from quite a while back! Welcome to the boards, once again.

I have found that one simple and effective way to overcome my "fears" is to simply just face them. Even if you have to force yourself at first, pretty soon it won't feel forceful anymore and you will realise that your previous "fear" was not something to be afraid of after all. I've overcome many of my fear foods (and am still working on a few), and that is pretty much the most effective means of getting over my problems - for me anyway.

I wrote recently about what foods you were scarfed of and was happy with the answers i got,  you should find it here it helped me see some of mine were so irrational but also that some other people have the same.  like even after recovering and trying to be happy  i refuse to drink fruit juice and eat dried fruit,  i just cannot do it.  i challenged myself yesterday and bought prunes....i usta like them.  have not had the currage to open the pack yet.

one funny thing about me is i am not so scarfed of fat at all, i will eat avacados,  peanutbutter, cheese...as long as it fits in my calories for the day, but i am scared of sandwhiches and almost all reastraunt food. so ed is strange

see the post titled "cog beh therapy"

hi guys-

so have you heard of this, im sure you have.  basically, the belief is that in order to get over certain fears you need to confront them.  so lets say you have a fear of eating a certain food, chocolate, oil, whatever, the only way to get over it is by eating it.  so, what you do is make a plan, for instance the oil, plan the night before that you will have scrambled eggs for breakfast and that youll use oil, thats the plan and no straying allowed.  you may feel discomfort at first but then 2 days later or so youll do it again, and the more you confront your fear the less discomfort youll feel each time and the sooner you can overcome that!

to get over a fear you can not avoid it.  you need to do it!  the more you do it the easier it will become until it is no longer an issue.  then you will get closer and closer to living life. 

the way to change your thoughts (cognition), is through action.  the more you do these actions (confront your fears) the easier it will become to do these things and your thoughts about these fears will subside.  through doing the actual action over and over, your thoughts will change!  (a good thing!)

The 'cures' for phobias (not just food) splits roughly into two... 'gradual exposure' and  'total immerson'.   For gradual exposure you'd start with a picture of the food and work your way up through sitting with a plateful, then picking it up, smelling it, licking it until finally.... you're eating it.  At each stage there's an initial panic feeling but as the exposure continues, the panic subsides and you move on to the next step.

Total immersion is more wham-bam, shock and awe.   Literally diving in head-first and surrounding yourself with the thing you're frightened of so that the panic starts off the scale but reduces rapidly.  Like ripping off a sticking plaster, it's more painful but it's quick!

I can see both of these techniques above in people's experience.  Best of luck with whichever you decide to go with.

Prove ED wrong. ED thinks that by having fear foods, you'll balloon up and the world will come to an end. ED thinks the worst of everything. **** ED, treat yourself. You deserve it.

Tell a friend/family member all of the foods that you're afraid of. Make a list if you'd even like. Have them hold you accountable for reintroducing these foods into your diet, moderatly. People don't eat treats every day, but once in a while :)

The first time is scary, but the first time of ANYTHING is scary. Just stay hopeful and strong. Remember how much you enjoyed the particular food before ED came along and messed everything up. Best of luck, you will feel SO accomplished after eating these things!

I have some killer fears. Lately carbs.
Though i never understood nor even cared about 'calories/carbs' all i knew is avocado and chicken sandwiches after a night at the pub was the BEST thing to come home to. We use to find crusts and crumbs in bed and be like 'what HAPPENED' but avocados were simply declious then.. not '** number of calories'.

I wanna see food as being food, exciting, naughty, tasty, treats, yum, fuel, eats, nibbles, party, girls nights in, dates... not numbers numbers numbers numbers..

it's all i think about. I think to face them head on would be the best. But i am terrified. I make plans then break them.

Because i don'tknow if it's the healthy side of me saying no.. or the ED.

He messes with me so much tonight.

Original Post by ladydanger_:

I wanna see food as being food, exciting, naughty, tasty, treats, yum, fuel, eats, nibbles, party, girls nights in, dates... not numbers numbers numbers numbers..

I don't think I've ever heard it said better.  Thank you so much for that, Ladydanger_!  You are 100% right.  :)

Come to think of it.

All my food fears are things that are branded 'unhealthy' .. or 'ALL IN MODERATION'... i don't know what moderation is, ED doesn't know what moderation is. And i am attempting to not look at a nutrional panel, it is ALL i see when i see food. So then i don't know if i'm just trying ot be TOO healthy or if it's ED being a *****

Ice Cream
Chocolate
Butter
Chippies/Crisps
Easy Mac!!
Those pre bought chicken kiev things with the broc and cheese filling
PIZZA(CHEEEEEEEEEESE.. homemade are yum but i WANT to indulge in the unhealthiest cheesey pizza.. the whole thing.. :()
Pasta (with cream based sauce!!)
Pumpkin soup witha dollop of cream and bread for dipping with butter!!
Beef Madras mmm
Deep fried Chicken Dim Sim!
Fish and Chips!
KEBAB!
Donut with cream and jam
i want cheeseburger.
I want Hungry Jacks Vege Burger with the nice sauce.
I want a Vanilla Chiller from Gloria Jeans and not know that it has like 30 grams of fat and 4958230 cals.
(or coffee that ISN'T black. but i love black coffee.. or does ed?)



So i don't want to make my own.. because i want it to be sooooo good if i'm gonna do i wanna go all out.. but look how unhealthy that list is. I don't CARE if they hold no nutrients. i don't plan on eating it everyday/every meal! 

i know.. face them... but they;'re all so incredibly naughty naughty.

i love the i love black coffee or ed does, statment,  i love this i hate that,  i dont even know anyomre because i told myself for so so long that i hate butter, curries ect.. and i love carrots,  really i do, or is it like the above and ed does? humm made me think

Yeah, thats the pickle i'm in. How long was ED hanging about for before i/ED evolved into this one person who hates things i USE to love? Was it for health/nutrition reasons? Or is that ED?

Seriously, ED's a bitch.

x