A brief transcript excerpt from a video discussing how anxiety can present in children—particularly around food-related tasks—and how behaviors like distraction, angry outbursts, and seeming composure in public but 'losing it' at home can signal underlying anxiety. The speaker links these presentations to clients with avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID) while noting ARFID is classified in DSM-5 as a feeding/eating disturbance, not an anxiety disorder.
Chapters
So how did food homework go this week? You know, the big smile and he just looks up at the ceiling and he goes, mom, how did my food homework go this week? And he isn't even looking in the camera. That can be anxiety. Yeah. I don't want to look at you because I didn't do my food homework. And if I have to think about the fact that you wanted me to try cheese this week, I think I might just gag right here on screen. Like, those are the thoughts that are going through their head, right? Those very anxious, what if. What if she asked me to try that now and I didn't really practice at all? Weed. What if I have to talk about that food and it literally makes me break out and hive to just talk about it? Yeah. So it can look like distraction. It can also look like angry outbursts. We all know that kids tend to shout at their parents or their loved one because that's a safe place to let those emotions out. Yes. And they will sometimes do that with me. But they often try very hard to be that good kid in the classroom who just seems like the perfect kid, but then loses it when they get home because they've been holding it all together. That's an anxious kid. But I do also want to take it one more step further to say one of the things that I see in my clients with avoidant restrictive food and take disorder are true anxiety disorders. Now, keep in mind, ARFID is not an anxiety disorder. It's a feeding or eating disturbance in the DSM 5.
