Young Adults with ARFID has pioneered some research into thoughts behind ARFID on a global scale. Research on the eating disorder is limited and therefore having some research (even if it isn't perfect) available to the general public is super important. Research in Project Globus has also been included in our new companion course for The Picky Eaters Recovery book.

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Project Globus (Latin for Global) is our first attempt at looking at the global perspective of ARFID from our audience of young adults. We collected data from 42 people from across the world. But what did we find?

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From our sample, 54.8% are diagnosed by a medical professional whilst 45.2% are self-diagnosed. Our research looked into the three common words used to describe living with ARFID and participants described feeling scary, guilt and annoying - with some of the highest ranking words being a feeling of frustration, isolation and difficulty (we anticipate this being in the sense of coming to terms with the disorder and finding others with the disorders).

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We discovered that 38.1% of respondents also struggle consuming fruit and vegetables as part of their regular intake with a further 28.6% lacking energy, We know that eating can be enjoyable for some but it can be particularly difficult for others - specifically, 57% have a severe lack of interest with food.

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Since the pandemic began, the idea of going out for food at a restaurant became a novel idea. But 24.1% of correspondents struggle to eat outside of their own home. We saw this statistic increase to 42.9% as the large majority of our correspondents (and others outside of our research) are scared of what people may think about them. This is a heightened anxiety, amplified by the various issues that COVID-19 posed around the world.

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You are not a percentage. You told us your stories, your struggles and how ARFID has really impacted you. This is just the start.