When ARFID Meets Binge Eating: Navigating Food, Fear & Overflow

 Most people think you can’t have two “opposite” eating disorders at the same time.

They’re wrong.

I’m autistic. I’ve lived with ARFID (Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder) for over 35 years. My food world is small: it’s built from safe foods — the ones that feel predictable in texture, taste, and smell. ARFID isn’t “just picky eating;” it’s fear, sensory overload, and the daily work of making food feel possible.

But what most people don’t see is that I also live with binge eating disorder (BED).

Yeah, it confuses people:

> “How can you binge if you hardly eat anything?”

The answer: I binge my safe foods.

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🧩 Why it happens:

ARFID keeps my food world tight, but my emotions don’t stay tight. Anxiety, depression, sensory overload — they build. Bingeing becomes a way to self‑soothe. But because I can’t just eat “anything,” I turn to what feels safe: bread, pasta, fried chicken patties, sandwiches.

It’s not about hunger or indulgence.

It’s about needing relief, comfort, repetition — all inside the narrow space ARFID gives me.

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⚔️ Living in the contradiction:

It feels like living on the edge of two cliffs:

One side is restriction: fear, sensory overwhelm, nausea, shame when I can’t eat what everyone else eats.

The other side is overflow: guilt, stomach pain, and shame when I eat too much of what I can eat.

Neither side feels safe. And society doesn’t know what to do with people like me.

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🪞 What people don’t see:

Most think ARFID is something only kids have, or that it’s “just part of autism.”

It’s not.

ARFID can follow you into adulthood and shape your whole relationship with food.

Most think binge eating means you must have an endless variety of foods you can eat.

It doesn’t.

You can binge the same two or three safe foods over and over. It’s still bingeing. It’s still real.

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🩵 Why I’m sharing this:

I’m writing this for anyone who:

Feels stuck between “can’t eat enough” and “can’t stop eating.”

Is told by doctors or family, “that doesn’t make sense.”

Feels invisible because your story doesn’t fit the boxes people understand.

Your experience is valid — even if it sounds contradictory to everyone else.

It doesn’t cancel itself out. It makes your fight twice as hard. And it makes your survival twice as brave.

✨ I’m Caleb. I’m autistic, living with both ARFID and BED.

I’m still here, still fighting — and you’re not alone, either. 🦊🖤

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📢 Share your story:

> Have you ever felt stuck between “can’t eat enough” and “can’t stop eating”?

Share your story in the comments below — or DM me.

Let’s show the world these struggles don’t cancel each other out. 🖤🦊