#(bc dismissing them is a form of ablemism)

[actualaster]

I think some people genuinely don't grasp the concept of "sensory issues" when it comes to things like food.

A food sensory issue is not "I don't want to eat that because it isn't my preferred flavor"

A food sensory issue is "something about the taste/texture/smell of this is incompatible with my brain and it makes me gag and if you try to force that into me I will choke on it and/or throw up"

A food sensory issue is "something set me off and now I can't eat for hours because I feel sick to my stomach and there isn't a way to fix that especially if the sensory trigger is lingering like a smell"

A food sensory issue is "you might as well have asked me to eat a bowl full of rocks because this is about as edible to me, no matter how much I wish that weren't the case"

A food sensory issue is "I haven't eaten anything decent in 3 days because I haven't had a chance to go to the store and I don't have anything left I'm physically capable of eating"

A food sensory issue is "I'm super fucking hungry but I took one bite and no matter how hard I tried to eat it I automatically gagged it back out because my body completely rejects it because of the taste/texture/smell"

A food sensory issue is "struggling to maintain a passable diet so you don't have a bunch of deficiencies because what you can eat is restricted"

Quite frankly, food sensory issues should really be treated similarly to food allergies in that you cannot safely try to trick or force a person to eat them.

#sensory issues #autism #legit when something sets mine off it 100% shuts down my ability to eat no matter how hungry i am #it makes me feel sick to my stomach if i don't immediately remove the trigger (or myself if its a smell) #there's plenty of stuff that i dont really *like* but i *can* eat in a pinch i just opt not to if avoidable #but there's other things that if the choice was between eating them or starving to death there's #a real high chance I'd just die because i physically cannot force my body to accept them as food #some things have gotten better over the years and i can either manage to eat them or at least the smell doesn't prevent me eating #but there are others that i simply cannot handle and the mere thought of eating them makes me feel sick #ableism #(bc dismissing them is a form of ablemism)