It's time we had a chat.

From me and the past

Hello 👋 It's been a little while since anything has really happened around here on Young Adults with ARFID. I thought I would take the time to write a blog post to explain what is going on, what's happening in the now and the future.

In 2023, my life became a lot more hectic. I started my second year of teaching, co-ordinated my move of classroom (which as a teacher is really scary), ran my first trip and got interrogated by border control in the USA - the latter is perhaps a story for another day. That was fine. But last year something major happened. I lost my nan on my dad's side of the family, had my first (and second) major relapses in mental health and my passion behind YAWA vanished. 2025 started fresh - I received "therapy" (it really wasn't therapy... more just me talking to someone on the NHS), travelled to Europe and found myself again in a country I absolutely adore. There is darkness on the horizon but I can concentrate on that later down the line. Yesterday (1st August) I found my love for YAWA again and that takes me to...

The Present

Yesterday I released a new upgraded version of our famous "resource hub" and if you haven't checked it out, it's wonderful.

New Resource Hub

You can filter by resource, supports widescreen and new resources can be added in as little as two minutes flat on the YAWA side rather than taking down the page and breaking the formatting!

Instagram keeps growing - there's 1,404 of you now following the page. Thank you. There's even more of you joining the Facebook groups too - thank you for that too. However, there's a slight problem. We're based in the UK - anyone heard of the Online Safety Act. Yup - it's the legislation that is designed to protect children and adults from harm or illegal content online from pornography or "content that encourages, promotes, or provides instructions for either: self-harm, eating disorders or suicide" (GOV.UK, 2025). YAWA was created for the intention to support recovery from what was an otherwise not-spoken-about eating disorder and that still continues. Our stance still stands that sharing any content that encourages, promotes or provides instructions for any of the above is strictly forbidden. That has left us wondering: what if someone used our services to communicate instructions to other service users? Is our information clear so it cannot be misinterpreted?

I think the better question is: Where does Young Adults with ARFID sit in 2025?

The future

Let's be honest - our information we have delivered over the years has been hit or miss. But in our changing world, we've also not been posting as much and sharing information that could be life-changing. I was looking at the Facebook group earlier today (2nd August 2025) and saw the most beautiful reminder: "ARFID, or any ED or mental illness, does not make you unloveable!" and it reminded me that one of us in our community probably (if not definitely) needed to hear that today. So our mission from this point onwards is simple: share what works, what people need to hear but share what is unmissable to change your life - that's a big task. So how are we going to do it?

Phase 1 focuses on what does not work - specifically with our website. So here's a breakdown of what's changing.

• We're upgrading the Young Adults with ARFID website with a fresh new design. This has begun in the works and will aim to release in the new year. Our layout does not make sense so we will be combining a lot of our "spaces" to provide you with information you need to hear, rather than the usual bits of rubbish.

• We will not be accepting new member joins on our website from Sunday 31st August 2025 to comply with the Online Safety Act and as an additional preventative barrier. The following services will not be impacted;

  • Facebook Groups - Parents and Young Adults

  • Discord server

• In addition to the above, we will also be permanently deleting all accounts on Sunday 31st August 2025 as they are simply not useful to you.

• Our "Connect" program will close next Sunday (9th August 2025) with any data collected being permanently deleted in accordance with our Privacy Policy & GDPR.

• Due to accounts becoming unavailable, we will also be suspending our courses for review.

• We're also going to investigate a way of exploring topics by "feeling in the moment"

Weekly Google Meet Calls

Following from low usage, we have decided to suspend Weekly Google Meet Calls for the remainder of 2025. This means any invites for the 9th August and beyond will be revoked and a cancellation email will be sent. We will be reviewing this in 2026.

Phase 2 will focus on our social platforms - this phase is currently tbd.

I hope this has given you some light on the future of Young Adults with ARFID. We're going to be changing soon... that's scary but - this will allow YAWA to become something truly useful and supportive for you. If you have any questions, concerns or even suggestions, please drop me a line at hello@youngadultsafrid.com.

Forever yours,

Jay

Founder of Young Adults with ARFID

PS: ARFID or any Eating Disorder or mental illness, does not make you unlovable.