the use of BMI to stratify patients in ED services has been really tricky for me in terms of getting help for suspected ARFID. i almost received help last year because my BMI was low enough for referral. i was originally offered further assessment (presumably to disentangle -

the relapse with AN behaviours from ARFID(?) issues) but the pandemic meant they had to apply a blanket approach. i was offered CBT-E, which wasn’t appropriate for my case at all (body image module when i had no body image issues? https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="😅" title="Lächelndes Gesicht mit offenem Mund und Angstschweiß" aria-label="Emoji: Lächelndes Gesicht mit offenem Mund und Angstschweiß">) so i had to self discharge.

i’ve put off another referral because i intended to try and manage things myself as there’s other issues i want to focus on psychologically (BPD) but i also don’t want to force myself to lose weight. i’ve struggled with it more recently but all i can do is grin and bare it.

people with ARFID fall anywhere on the BMI scale but sufferers are often presumed to have AN, which means only those who are ‘underweight’ stand a chance at getting a referral for help (not accounting for the obvious barrier that most NHS services don’t offer treatment for it).

the most frustrating thing out of all of this is that i don’t know what is actually wrong with me (i don’t know if it’s actually ARFID) but BMI criteria limits my chances of figuring that out. this overall also highlights the wider issue of awareness of and treatment for ARFID.