Thursday, January 26, 2012

Eating Disorder I Have

It has come to my attention that I am mentally ill.  I was always known I was neurotic for that matter who isn’t?  But it still comes as some thing of as a surprise to learn that I am suffering from an actual mental illness.  Others, perhaps, will not be surprised in the least.

The particular mental illness that afflicts me was added only recently to the so called “Bible of Psychiatry.”  Otherwise know as the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.  This is the humojungo reference book that officially catalogs all the mental illnesses recognized by modern psychiatry.  The latest edition is nearly 1,000 pages.  You would have to almost have to e pathologically normal to find nothing in there that applies to you.  Qualifying as sane does not get any easier when new disorders are regularly added to the already gigantic manual.  The goalpost of sanity now have been moved so close together that I can no longer squeeze through.  What afflicts me is one of the latest additions proposed for the diagnostic manual, something called avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder – or ARFID.  Until recently, people suffering form this disorder were dismissed as picky eaters.  Well now we suddenly are sic and need help.  ARFID is defined as an “eating or feeding disturbance” that includes avoiding foods of a particular taste, color, or texture.  That’s exactly what I do.  I avoid foods if the taste is bad, if the texture is lumpy or slimy and if the color is grey, green, or mottled beige.  If this makes me mentally ill, I plead not hungry by reason of insanity.  Consider oatmeal, a slimy, lumpy, grey food I have always found unspeakable horrible.  I always thought it was the people who liked oatmeal who were mentally ill.  And yet it clearly is not them but me whose symptoms are to be described in psychiatry’s foremost diagnostic text book.

Well, I don’t care what the doctors say, I still despise oatmeal.  For that matter I hate liver too!  If there was a religion that forbade eating liver, I would sign on as a missionary with the motto of “Eat not of Liver, for it is an unclean thing, and also slimy, with putrid taste and disgusting appearance.  Whosoever filleth thy mouth with liver shall be cast into a fiery pit, along with some friend onions.”  Yeah this sound like something of worth.  (Grinning)  This is somewhat by the way, but notices how easily mental illness is repurposed as theology.  It goes the other was as well when the mentally ill are afflicted with religious delusions.  If it was just liver and oatmeal that provoked my uncontrolable gag reflex, I probably would not need professional help.  There are many other foods, however I would rather wrap in a napkin and secretly lip into my pocket than eat.  Among them are broccoli, spinach and all the organ meets except baloney.  Heart, lungs, and tongue will be scrapped off my plate untouched, but I do so love that slice of baloney, in a sandwich with lettuce and a tad of mustard.  I also cannot eat anything in cream sauce.  Any food that could possibly be improved by immersion in cream sauce I would dispose of as a hazardous waste.  Asparagus likewise disgusts me.  Fish as well.  It doesn’t help when I am told that this fish dish has not fishy taste to it, nope that doesn’t seem to fix the situation/disorder I would surmise.  And I am supposed to be the crazy one!?  Now that picky eating has come to be a mental illness, we can perhaps look forward to a cure.  The big pharmaceutical companies probably are working even now on new drugs to treat the disorder.  Imagine a pill that could make me like liver! 

I kinda think that I would spit it out when no one was looking or hand it to the dog standing under the table mind you for some reason he doesn’t suffer from this disorder.

 

41 comments:

  1. I must have the same disorder. I'm a picky eater too. There are some things there's no way I will eat it.

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  2. lmao great blog Jack, its nice to see you so playful.........and to think you paaaaaaaaid that Dr. to tell you this!!!!....

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  3. I don't like peanuts - maybe there is a cure Sharon. :)

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  4. Gosh Jack, I love all those foods you hate. I love oatmeal, and liver and brocalli and fish. But it has to look appetizing for me to eat it...if its lumpy like mashed potatoes, then I dont like it, or if its grey or greenish looking like cheese gets after some time in the fridge then YUK....but usually I love all foods....no wonder I need to go on a diet...lol.

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  5. Hmmm, interesting that the head shrink people should qualify this as an illness. On the other hand there are those who will eat anything and everything.

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  6. o.k.amigo----i plead guilty-----i too suffer from green/slimy aversion and being a vegan i am sure that puts me into a whole new level of "mental illness------how is your blood work--are you eating enough to keep all the chemicals balanced? that's what is important

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  7. I just finished eating dinner and asparagus was one the plate. I would like to think
    I am a pretty rough guy Sharon. I getting my roughage each morning as I eat
    bran flakes. :)

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  8. Shhh lets keep it all here deal or no deal? :)

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  9. Marty everyone has there own preferencial things to eat. But according to this "Book" well I guess I could plead insanity. :)

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  10. Rodney it's those darn pharmaceutical companies as I might be picky but does that make picky eaters a disorder? :)

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  11. Si, I plead guilty as well as I have had all the tests and I feel great and aside from the above I do despise Oysters.
    I left that one out. Oh boy. :)

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  12. Too funny!
    Now that I eat less I am very picky about what I eat, so diagnose me with whatever, psychs, and keep your pharmaceuticals.

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  13. You got it Summer as it was a satire with the intention of pharmaceuticals and how new disorders are proclaimed.One has to ponder on why there are so many new disorders which are added. Whom isn't choosy? :)

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  14. I guess there training is to put a label on people..

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  15. Lisa .....labels I guess so I always thought label were of the sort like Campbell's Soup. :)

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  16. So said pharmaceutical companies can create and sell new drugs at exhorbitant costs to wallets and brain matter of course!

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  17. So true and yet so costly Summers. I ponder on how many new meds come on the market each given year.
    I would guess a few hundred at least. Now you take that and multiply it times the population and that is allot
    of money for ............FOOD. :)

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  18. What a bizarre concept, pharmaceutical companies feeding the needy...

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  19. Within any area of medicine there are the pros and cons. This was taken form www.ted.com

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  20. I think you have done a little service here, Jack, even if you tell your tale in a humorous way. There are a lot of people out there with eating disorders and other problems that really affect their lives. We may joke about it with you, but it can be a real burden--and if you're seeing a doctor about your health then I am guessing it can be rather serious. When it comes to health, no matter what we like to eat or hate to eat, we at least like to think we are doing the right thing for our body. It is hard to think we might be doing our best, and that isn't good enough.

    So I appreciate you bringing up the whole mental health aspect. Whether you or anybody else really wants to go ahead and have a label is entirely up to you and your doctor, but know there is a lot of support, understanding, and caring people to help. I wish more people were open about things that make them who they are--maybe we wouldn't have to rely on some huge book to tell us. ~ Blessings!

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  21. Kath, I don't really have a eating disorder but I do understand very well as my first degree was within Psychology but it was never something I practiced. Yet to be able to mesh humor along with one area which is of medicare there is some point to be made within a fashion which lends it
    self to enjoyment. There are many which have something or another yet I tend to see that we do live within a society whereby there are new
    diagnoses being made when at time there may not be a reason to do so. Sure there are foods which I don't like but would that make it a disorder?
    If so we have more than just a burden. We have enterprising medical as within any industry.

    Mind you I don't as like certain foods nor do many but that does not make it a disorder. This was just within the light side of things.

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  22. I am sorry to hear that you suffer from a mental illness.
    I have friends over so I can't talk now but I will come back to speak to you about mental illness.
    It is good to know that you are not alone.
    :)

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  23. I love food, well most everything. Great blog Jack :)

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  24. Theresa I could not resist as there is meaning as well as satire - why not. :)

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  25. As somebody said: "de perto ninguém é normal" :) I'll try a poor translation into english: "No one is normal when seen very near"
    I laughed within your writing, also hate oatmeal. Within 1000 pages somehow I'll find some mental illness for me.
    Have a sweet night, Jack! It's lovely your good mood.

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  26. We have some of the same food afflictions Jack. Asparagus is a crime!

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  27. This all said a good morning and pleasant Friday!

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  28. Doug have you ever ate carrots raw - now that I can bite into. :)

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  29. LOL I don't like some of those foods either. It snowed last eve :)

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  30. It's nearing 60F here Cinn it's unbelievable but the last thing on my mind is planting POTATOES. ewww :)

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  31. in that case am too is suffering from what they called as such. And am planning to have myself voluntarily submit to a mental doctor to see and find out what's bothering my eating disorders and my mental attitude! Good luck then Jack for both of us and for those peopl afflicted by these one of a kind disease. Lol. God bless everyone.

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  32. great blog Jack. I too am submitting myelf for totally neuro and eating dysfunctions that i think there's no cure. And for those people who are afflicted with these type of sickness or shall i say neurotic disturbance ... Come and joy the fun! Let's have party people. Lol. God bless everyone.

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  33. This is hilarious!

    Organ meats aren't good for you! Maybe your system knows this and is unattracted to it for that reason! I have learned to avoid some meats in the past year because I have a bad tooth and it hurts to eat them. Does that make me mentally ill? I've taken several psychology course and am familiar wih the maual. I've read several things in it that could be construed as applying to me. Of course, a lot of them could be liberally applied to most people. Not liking certain foods seems perfectly normal to me. There are many I don' eat. I avoid foods that incorporate peas. Now, I must confess and qualify that with this: I hate canned peas. I can tolerate frozen peas. I hate blackeyed peas...they taste like dirt! I love broccoli and cauliflower, but despise brussels sprouts. Cheese sauce is good, but for me, milk gravy should only be eaten with rice (it's a southern thing. Most southern kid are weaned using milk gravy as a gateway food.)

    Well, I'm glad to know that I, too, may be a little mentally ill! Well, actually I suspected it all along...just not about food. I would think that everyone on this planet could sit down and fill a spiral notebook with foods we don't like. The thought of snails disturbs me. I avoid French foods because I suspect they put ground snails in most of their dishes. Does that make me mentally ill or smart. In Missouri, we had an abundance of their cousins, the slug. We poured salt on them...not to eat them, but to kill them!

    Hang in there, Hon, I'm goig to go eat oatmeal...I like it. Hope that doesn't bother you.

    PS: Okra, anyone? (another southern thing! I like it friend or cooked into purple hull peas.) My husband was eating some in a restaurant once, thinking they were fried mushrooms. He was really enjoying it, til I pointed out that it was not mushrooms, but okra! What was in his mouth went into a napkin, and I finished it for him so it wouldn't go to waste after we paid for it. And I love asparagas. Applebees sometims servs grilled asparagas, and it is really good.

    Sorry this is so long. Since I haven't been around for a while, I'm making up for lost time!

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  34. I like oatmeal, but I'll pass on the liver. My mom has always thought me crazy because I dislike beets!

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  35. Yeah there was a dog tonight and I don't know why they call it, "Giving the Dog Scraps" as they are not yet he liked them
    and I ate 70 percent of what was on my plate. I do like tea don't ya know. :)

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  36. No worries Becky now yogurt I love and I have been eating a little more than I should. I mean I eat yogurt at every chance that I can.
    The doc said, "you have to ween yourself of this as there there is pros and cons to yogurt but many have been afflicted with yogurtitis.
    I never hear of such a thing. So right now I am down from 5 yogurts a day to just 3. And I don't need to take any medicine for it and
    it's not easy mind you but I have never ate Okra in my life. Outmeal is fine. I believe that all things (food) that we eat can be addicting.
    I am trying to find a site for this problem but have yet to. Lost time? Time is never lost, especially when (oh my gosh you mentioned
    ........................SNAILS. Perhaps there is a means and way to get over this affliction. :)

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  37. I like beets - It beats me why she would be so sour but maybe you mom has this Doctrine. Now I have been thinking
    of this Jenny Craig meals which are dilivered to your door. You know the one that is on commercials. If Valery Bertanali
    can do that. I think I can. Yet hold the oatmeal, esparious and the rest. :)

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  38. Your probably not home Erika but aside of all of this on this write ---------- HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

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