Mental Health Eating disorders support thread v.2

I'm not going to say too much for now i'm just poppin in to say i'm really glad this thread exists. I've struggled with having an ED for a long time now and I was just wondering the other day if yall had any support threads here. :) stay safe everyone and keep your heads up I know it's hard to do. <3
 
glitter_kiss: BMI is easily one of the most useless, and in many cases outright harmful, metrics ever developed in medicine. The assumptions that it makes apply for a relatively minor part of the population, but the main thing that it doesn't consider is the difference in density between muscle and fat tissues.

The one thing that it is useful though, IME at least, is finding out whether a doctor is worth listening to. If they mention BMI in anything other than a historical or derisive context, then you know that their opinion is of little worth in that matter. BMI is a lazy metric for lazy doctors-- body composition analysis, of which there are several different kinds, and several different metrics, is far more useful. BMI just makes you feel fat, even when you're not.
 
BMI is the biggest load of bull ever you cannot judge muscle mass. When I was training I was classed as obese even though I was a uk size 10 and lean as he'll lmao.

Ignore it, it will only make you feel worse.


Love to you @glitter kiss xxx
 
Glitter, regardless of BMI not being useful, it is clear you are at the low end of normal/healthy weight even according to their system. I have an ED/IN Recovery myself and it's very useful for me to just know what size clothes I wear. ED likes to argue that I am GIGANTIC but my clothes all read small. That has been very helpful in the dialogue between myself and the devil ;)

To help your partner...help them eat...it is hard for anyone to be in their healthy state of mind without proper nutrients.
 
^^ So true hun, thank you for your post. I hope you're keeping on top of your ED these days <3



glitter_kiss I have to reiterate what Dave and Doomed said about the BMI, the BMI scale is complete bullshit!! Right now I am the weight I am supposed to be, I have been this weight for a few years now and regardless of how much exercise I do or how much shitty food I eat I still weigh the same. According to the BMI I am on the cusp of being overweight, and trust me, I am NOT overweight! :D Not even close.

Now, a few years ago when my ED was really bad, I hadn't eaten for weeks and had been using a lot of MDMA and my weight plummeted to its absolute lowest, according to the BMI I was 21, i.e. right in the middle of a "normal/healthy" weight range. And believe me, I was NOT healthy and I looked very unwell. But of course it just made me believe that I needed to lose more weight because the stupid BMI told me I wasn't skinny enough!!

So yeah, in my opinion it's a load of crap and should NOT be taken seriously.
 
thank you, for all the response
i know on one had that the bmi charts are bullshit, but i have a hard time keeping myself from judging my selfwoth based off these numbers.
i went so long without weighing myslef but know that i have its brought that whole obsession back
 
^glitter_kiss, -hugs-

tl;don'tfeellikeyouhavetoread,
ahh i'm so over this whole twack out for a week and not eat the entire time and then come home and binge the fuck out until I can't take it anymore. I eat until I feel like I'm going to explode and I don't purge. :( I just smoke pot which keeps the cycle going and going. I started my ED when I was around 11 years old, growing up my dad criticized my weight until we both went on a diet around said time (tucking me in @ age 5, grabbing my thigh, "it's not supposed to be this big", age 7 I don't like wearing winter coats cause they make me look too big and I don't like to sit down in chairs for the way my thighs look esp. when wearing shorts, "you don't want to be fat like mommy",) ^ and was diagnosed with Reflex Sympathetic Nerve Dystrophy until it was re-categorized in Chronic Reginal Pain Syndrome > Chronic Fatigue x Fibromyalgia x Osteopenia (very close to Osteoporosis) x vit. D deficiency x Hypothyroidism. thus even at an 11yo-chunky state that was NORMAL, my doc's also put in my head (although understandably so and it wasn't un-called for, if they knew what was going on at home they probably wouldn't have said as much as they did) that it was a good idea to diet. so I started obsessing at 13 and was purging at 14, with over 10 trips to the bathroom a day I scheduled my day around those trips and it became my life. if you add up the times I regurgitated within those trips it equals up to being over 100 regurgitation's(for lack of a better word) a day. at 15 I believe it was, I remember laying on the toilet, tired, and depressed, thinking if I was going to live like this I wasn't going to live long - so if I wanted to continue, I would simply kill myself, or I would get help. I knew this was the right way to go, so I did the screening process to get into a children's psych hospital I had already been to a few previous times for short stays within past suicide attempts. I was there for 3 months and I, with a few backslides shortly after being released, overcame bulimia but with that came an addiction to oxycontin/valium/xanax and shortly thereafter relapsing on meth a few months after coming out of a month-long rehab I went to, (started at age 14, stopped @ 15, relapse on 17th birthday) & this was when I got released from a 6-month-long stay at a PRTF (for the oxycontin, suicide attempt coming off..). and it seems as though when I look at it, it didn't just start with food and end somewhere..that it still plays a part. I had it in my head that it was drugs for the past few years after combating bulimia but I think I've just not looked at it the right way. maybe I'm wrong, and it's just that I have an addictive personality in general and I've switched addictions entirely and it DOESN'T have to do with such a baseline of food. but it only makes sense with the meth use, and the point I've taken it to - a lot of my meth using friends, even the ones that IV [with me], comment on my grotesque eating habits and how I take not eating to an extreme when I'm twacking. I don't fucking know, I'm just tired tired tired of it already and I'm so young and my body feels so old and I feel so fucking wimpy and whiny and UGH
 
Hey, Blurrrxx, you are not being whiny and certainly not wimpy and with what you are putting your body through I can imagine how it must feel. You are just being besieged from all directions and I think looking underneath under all the food and drug issues to the source of all the pain is where you need to go. You are amazingly strong if you really look at what you are dealing with so don't be afraid of tackling the voices in there that keep derailing you.
 
Hello fellow forum folks, I am known as Anka and I am new in these parts. Reading through this thread, several thoughts came to mind that I would appreciate a wide-range of input on if people are interested. I work in the fashion industry and there is simply no way maintain a job as public representative of such a company without obsessing over your look and figure. Being directly involved in the process of selling flawless skin and this seasons' hot look, I find not only do I obsesses constantly about my weight and calorie intake but also fear that by doing my job I am somehow helping enforce people's dissatisfaction with themselves for not mirroring what the they see in glossies or on the television. The more I consider that probability, the angrier I become at myself. I am far from a role-model, I fell for the same sales pitch by haute couture and I maintain a height of 5'7" and a weight of 118lbs. An aspect of my job I adore is traveling but it has caused me to become so isolated that I have no friends to eat with at meal times and I spend those breaks either exercising if my hotel has a gym or working on statements, sales orders and the like. The individuals in charge of managing my peer co-workers and I use me constantly as an example of "achieving in every aspect" but what they really are indicating is that I get all my business finished well before deadlines while maintaining a timely, slender and chic look. Certainly there is no better way to make your peers hate you. Additionally, a top executive took me aside during out last big corporate soiree and mumbled to me conspiratorially that the "Heroin Chic" look is quickly going to make a resurgence and I better drop, and I quote, "all the extra lard you are saving in your ass," since those in the know are already describing the Kardashian/Jersey Shore look as old, cheap and trailer park. Since that night, I have been running ten miles on whatever kind of equipment my hotel gym provides and eating 300 calories or less a day. The lack of eating is making my insomnia industrial strength and the Ambien and Xanax I have relied on for years for sleep are no longer allowing me the rest in desperately need. The less sleep I can get, the more hysterical I feel about the weight I need to loose. It is a vicious cycle. My appreciation once more for reading my insane rant to all you ladies and gentlemen... I just have no one in my life I can trust.
 
countess I am SO sorry I didn't see this post until now. How are you doing today?? <3
I have always imagined that it would be really tough working in the fashion industry, for the exact reasons you've described. Especially when you get such intense positive feedback for looking thin, losing even more weight, and working yourself too hard. Then not even to mention that an executive member of staff would blatently tell you that you need to lose the "extra lard in your ass"??? This really upsets me to hear :(
If you weren't in the fashion industry, do you think you would still have an issue with body image/disordered eating? Are you at a point now where you want to do something about this?
Hope you're doing okay hun, let us know how you are. Please take care of your beautiful self <3
 
I recall hearing somewhere that high-fashion designers prefer ultra-skinny models because they distort the clothes less than real women. In other words: they can't get hangers to walk down a runway, and at that echelon the only thing that matters are the clothes-- the model is only a carrier, and it doesn't matter in the slightest whether the clothes make her look better or worse, so long as she doesn't interfere with what the clothes look like.

That's a total aside, I know. The fact that you're being harassed by your employers to lose weight is completely reprehensible.
 
I recently discovered BED after a friend pointed it out. Sometimes, I am okay as long as my weight is down but as soon as it starts creeping up, the worst my binging is. For me it is often related to my decreased self esteem. The lower it is, the more likely I will binge. I have this stinky thinking that I am already out of control so why not go out of control.

It is frustrating...losing and gaining the same weight. I think I already know the core reason for using food to comfort myself. But that only goes so far for me...
I just want to fix it and not go back and forth. I will have issues, I will have stressors...it seems like I know my triggers but I keep going back and forth on this cycle.

I joined the forum tonight to find a legal drug / herbal supplement to help with craving / binging. Because I am going down that path again, and I don't want to go so far again. So, if you have any suggestion, please let us know. Sorry for the long post, I had to vent. Thanks.
 
I was diagnosed with anorexia when I was 14, went into treatment, kinda got "normal-ish" Now I think I have some sort of bulimia, I binge eat, I don't purge like throwing up but I starve and abuse stimulants in a way to purge. I'm not sure if this is bulimia, I don't want it to be, at least anorexia showed some self control and dignity, bulimia just says fail. To me, I hope I don't offend anyone with bulimia, this is just how I feel about it for myself, like it's a defeat. Apparently 50% of people diagnosed with anorexia go on to develop bulimia so I'm probably not alone with this here?
 
Sounds like binge eating to me. I was in that ugly cycle for far too long and so grateful I am in positive control of my thoughts, emotions, and actions. All eating disorders are FAIL. Anorexia makes you think you have self control and dignity but you don't. Eating disorders strip everything away but the rationalization makes you think/feel otherwise <3
 
Libby - I agree with Perpetual. It sounds like bulimia.

Perpetual - Can you share how you got better? I have identified my triggers, plan of actions but sometimes, it just don't work. And I go back in this crazy cycle over and over again. I am looking at 5HTP or even 5HTP to see if that will help. Nothing significant really going on. I also realized that sometimes during the summer, it triggers some of my emotions and have more pressure of staying in shape because I feel I have to look good in summer clothes. I can't hide my body in winter clothes.

Thanks so much.
 
About 7 months of therapy with an amazing woman about 5 years ago.
I had been a binge eater for at least 17 years and was so sick of it I was ready to put in the work.
I had a lot of internal shit I was not dealing with and not really knowing my issues, triggers etc. I figured food was better than becoming a drug addict or alcoholic. Yeah overeating won't kill you but the ramifications of a food addiction are just as intense I bet.
 
^^ True, ANY addiction is unhealthy and counter-productive. I'm glad you're still on top of things PI :)



Time for me to come clean, I think....
I have had a TERRIBLE time with food this year.
I've been in therapy for alcoholism and depression/anxiety since December 2011, and it's going really really well.
My therapist warned me quite early on in our sessions that my eating disorders would probably rear their ugly heads once my brain had gotten control over the drinking and anxiety.
How right she was!!!

I'm still yet to bring this up with my therapist, because, well, I've tackled the drinking. I've tackled the depression and anxiety. I feel like I've stripped away all these destructive "coping mechanisms" that I've fallen back on my whole life. If I tackle the EDs as well...what else do I have left to hide behind?? I feel like I need SOMETHING that is totally within my control. So I want to keep this one thing.

Sounds fucking crazy when I type it out, but I'm sure a lot of people in this thread can empathise....

I know I need to bring this up with my therapist. But I really really just do.not.want to do that...
 
Last edited:
(((((<3))))) n3o. You said it very clearly: it is your last coping mechanism. Of course that is terrifying to even think of giving it up. And it is such a complicated one! Unlike a drug, which simply gives you relief by numbing you or distracting you with temporary euphoria, the craziness of food disorders is that they masquerade as control (which we desperately want) when they are actually the ultimate lack of control. And so the cycle goes--we feel more out of control so we get even more vigilant/obsessed with calories, intake, etc--something we can control. As scary as it is, go for it. You are strong and being open about it here can give you momentum to let your therapist in the room. Stuff like this is so isolating. I think that your relief will be immense. xoxoxoxoxoxoxox.
 
Damn it!!! I was just coming in here to delete all of that cos I was chickening out! :D

I appreciate the love, thank you so much ladies <3
I'm seeing my therapist in 2 weeks, so I will bring it up with her then. In the meantime this has given me the kick up the bum to try and figure this out on my own.
Much love PI and herby, thanks again <3
 
Top