jflower
Posted 4.25PM
Fri 9 Feb 2007
Hi everyone,
My name's James and I'm a 22 year-old "fussy eater" (I HATE that term, btw - as has already been said, IT'S NOT A CHOICE). I've been watching the programme with great interest and whilst I think the "pyschologist" (hehe) hasn't been particularly useful, have found it very heartening to see people like me on television. I could emphathise with everyone on the show, and found watching it a very galvanising experience. I've no interest in appearing on television but greatly envied the opportunity they all had. Whilst looking online I discovered the term "sitophobia", or food aversion, which sounds similar to the symptoms we suffer from, though I think it might be designed to apply to mental patients.
My story is basically the same as all of yours - as far back as I can remember, I have had a limited diet that for years revolved mostly around Marmite on toast, as well as junk food (chocolate, crisps, sweets) and a small number of healthier foods, such as apples, bananas and cereal (though nowhere near as much I should). This eventually culminated in me contracting scurvy (vitamin C deficiency) just before my 19th birthday, which vanished almost instantly once I started taking vitamin supplements. It was the most painful, awful experience of my life - worse than any amount of school bullying about my diet - and a huge wake-up call to the health dangers people like us potentially face.
Though there have been a few breakthroughs since (particularly the introduction of margherita pizza last summer), and I have an absolutely amazing girlfriend who has been extremely patient and very very helpful, it is still a terrifying problem and there is a long way to go. Like everyone else here, I am deathly afraid of unfamiliar tastes and textures, going to the lengths of lying non-stop to avoid it, and am unable to swallow strange foods when tried. (You should have seen me try to eat a brussel sprout Christmas before last!)
The thing that angers me most about all this - aside from the terribly ignorant responses of some, who call us "ungrateful" etc. and assume we have a choice in this - is just how obscure the condition is. The fact that doctors have never heard of it (it was months before my family discovered on our own that I had scurvy), that there isn't even a major website we could be referred to for information (www.fussyeaters.com?), and most importantly, that it's taken us all so long to realise we're not alone. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has applied to an eating disorder clinic only to be rejected because it's not a more "common" problem like anorexia or bulimia.
But I am confident that solving it is possible - in fact, more than ever since watching the programme. I am working on a program with my girlfriend to gradually introduce unfamiliar foods to my repertoire. I have been seeing a therapist for about six months, and whilst it hasn't helped directly diet-wise, it has assisted in me understanding the problem and my responses to food. One theory we came up was that this was an accidental outgrowth of the normal "picky eating" phase a child goes through, where they focus on certain foods until they are ready to see the big picture, and that by accident we latched onto a routine that grew and grew until we could not control it. I've no idea whether there's any psychological worth in it, but I found it an interesting idea.
Thanks for reading my little essay guys, and have hope - we've all got a difficult journey ahead of us, but not an impossible one. We can beat this!!!
P.S. This is to connie40 - interesting to hear that your son has developed a similar fixation on Marmite to the one I had/have. I remember reading a story in a tabloid newspaper many years ago about another young boy who was a "Marmite addict", if you will. I wonder what it is in it that makes it so "friendly" to us as opposed to everything else?
Could a mod tell me why it isn't showing up?
