My Recipe for Life
Understanding · Safety · Nourishment · Compassion · Support
Everyone's recovery recipe is different. This interactive activity helps you explore what may support you when sensory experiences, fear, low appetite or difficulties with eating affect everyday life.
There is no requirement to try unfamiliar foods, change your safe foods or complete every question. Your recipe belongs to you.
Understanding ARFID
Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID) is an eating disorder in which eating is restricted or avoided for reasons that are not primarily driven by concerns about body weight or shape.
ARFID can involve strong sensory sensitivities to food, fear of consequences such as choking or vomiting, or limited interest in eating and difficulty recognising hunger. These experiences can overlap.
Someone with ARFID may rely on a small number of safe foods, experience intense anxiety around meals, struggle to eat in unfamiliar places or find that eating requires considerable effort.
ARFID can affect children and adults, including autistic and other neurodivergent people. It is not simply picky eating or a lack of willingness to try.
Recovery should be individualised. Safe foods can provide important nourishment and predictability while appropriate support addresses nutritional, sensory, emotional and practical needs.
Step 1 — Choose Your Ingredients
Select the ingredients you would like to add to your personal recovery bowl. You can choose one, several or all five.
0 of 5 ingredients added
Step 2 — Make It Your Own
Every ingredient means something different to different people. Use these questions to explore what feels helpful to you. You can leave any question blank.
Step 3 — My Personal Recipe
You can add your own ingredients too. There is no perfect recipe, and nothing has to be completed in a particular order.
My Recovery Recipe
My Recipe for Life — ARFID
My chosen ingredients
Understanding
Safety
Nourishment
Compassion
Support
My extra ingredients
My next gentle step
My reminder
This is a personal reflection activity, not a treatment plan or a requirement to try unfamiliar foods.
Recovery and professional support
ARFID can affect nutritional intake, physical health, growth, energy, relationships and daily life. Some people may need medical monitoring, nutritional support, psychological treatment or help with sensory and practical barriers to eating.
There is no single approach that works for everyone. Treatment may involve a GP, registered dietitian, specialist eating-disorder clinician, paediatrician or other appropriately trained professionals.
Food exploration, when appropriate, should be collaborative and tailored to the individual's needs. Pressure, shame, deception or removing safe foods can undermine trust and increase distress.
If eating or drinking becomes severely restricted, or you experience dehydration, fainting, marked weakness or rapid deterioration, seek prompt medical advice. Call 999 for a life-threatening emergency.
You deserve support that takes your experiences seriously and respects both your nutritional needs and your sense of safety.
Your reflections are saved locally in this browser on this device where storage is available. They are not sent to Space to Breathe Therapy by this activity. Browser data can be cleared, so download a copy if you wish to keep it. Avoid entering sensitive personal information on shared devices.
