Discussion how many of us have eating disorders?

[yamiyams]

I had "ARFID" (avoidant restrictive food intake disorder) bc i have ibs and i was very scared to eat for about 3 years but i managed to get it under control thanks to a very nice dietitian.... I also have some anorexic thoughts sometimes but they don't really stop me from eating these days.

 

[lotus11]

I've had extreme eating disorders around 15 years now, nobody understands what it's like

 

[SNastablesalt]

i have what was diagnosed as ednos. i mainly have bulimia symptoms, and have been purging for about a year now. i never lost enough weight for me to be hospitalised, never made it out of bmi 20s. i hate it. i feel so invalid one of my many reasons to ctb

 

[Lady Laudanum]

I've had an eating disorder since I was in elementary school. At this point I've experienced the full spectrum of eating disorder presentations. I've been at all weights between emaciated and lower end of healthy range. I'm currently in the process of weight restoration (yes I somehow made it happen) after being diagnosed with osteoporosis and realizing that I don't want to lose my career in healthcare permanently. I don't know how it's going to go and how it'll affect other aspects of my mental health, but I can't believe I actually consciously chose my passion over my ED. I never thought I'd ever be able to do that in my lifetime.

 

[Alexei_Kirillov]

I'm genuinely curious and empathetic here, is it mostly just putting on weight and an image thing? Sending love

For a lot of people it's also just biological, ie. after entering into a calorie deficit, whether intentionally or not, their body starts running a script telling them to move as much as possible and eat as little as possible, likely as a migratory response aiming to find new land where there's no famine. This was the case for me; when I first developed anorexia I was actually pretty satisfied with my life, including with my body (I even liked my body), and had no prior mental health issues or trauma. But I had a heavy workload at the time though and eventually the stress led to the accidental restriction of calories. My body flipped the switch and started running the anorexia script, and six years later, with my ED having taken just about everything from me (and being one of the major reasons why I ended up on this site), I am still in the throes of its death grip.

TLDR: for some of us, it's just an evolutionary mechanism maladapted to modern circumstances.

 

[PaperStar]

I'm pretty sure I've had ARFID for years? I've struggled with eating for so so long. I think it was worse when I was younger though, since I would forget to eat and then when it was time to go to bed I wouldn't mention how I was hungry because then I'd get in trouble (my mom got really upset if I started getting food when we were supposed to be going to sleep? She thought it was irresponsible because I should've just eaten before bed time). So then, there was several times I'd wake up so hungry and nauseous and sick that I'd end up throwing. It sucked man. Also, concerning thought— my mom never noticed?? What the hell???

I haven't thrown up from hunger in years, but I'm not sure if it's because I'm older or if it's because my relationship with food isn't as bad. I've never really had an issue with my body (until recently), I genuinely just forgot to eat lmao. Sucks though, because now it isn't just forgetfulness. I rarely have much of an appetite. Also, I'm starting to have issues with my self image? It's funky, because I'm a healthy weight but I look at myself and I hate how I look too skinny? I think that's strange. I've eaten to the point of nausea a few times to sort of redeem myself for eating too little, but I haven't been able to gain much weight and it's so upsetting ugh. Oh well.

 

[yomander369]

i was anorexic in high school. I would have been 6 foot if I hadn't smh