Topic : Anorexia

Being underwieght is fine if you are.  As long as you are seemingly healthy and not trying to deny yourself food-or having great bouts of depression.

Many people come in many shapes and sizes-I just happened to be destructive w/my eating disorder.

Please be assured if you are happy-healhy-and tiny-It sounds like you are fairly content-and don't have to worry about your habits.

PS; Anorexia is also a medical term-even if not intentional thru the patient.  Side-effect of other conditions

How do we prevent our kids from developing an eating disorder?  My 9 year old is starting to show the signs, hair loss, clothes are too big, not eating, fatigue, major mood swings, stealing, lying, etc.  She is in year round school, so while they are on break, we send her to a community center, with a nutrious lunch.  The lunch comes home uneaten.  She's always been bigger than the other girls her age, not fat, but taller with the appropriate weight.  She hasn't changed pants size in 1-2 years, but these same pants that were just starting to get snug on her are now coming off without unbuttoning them.  Any ideas on how I can stop this before it gets 'too far'??

Hi, my name is Alison.  After reading your quote, I couldn't help but be concerned because my daughter has been in the same position.  I went through the same fear you're describing and through a lot of counseling and support my daughter is finally overcoming her eating disorder.  I found a useful website called Addicted.com and it provided a lot of support, it even provided us with contact information with thousands of recovery and rehab centers in our area.  If it weren't for all the support, her eating disorder could've taken her life, I wish you all the best with your daughter!

Hi Everyone,

As a recovered :) bulimic, I feel like I should know the answer to my own question but I have agonized over this and need some help.

 

There is a woman in my office place that I believe is anorexic.  I have observed that she has lost an incredible amount of weight over the past year, she is constanty in the company kitchen (10+ times/day) always heating up tea but never eating, she exercises daily and walks everywhere but is no longer able to run as she apparently used to.  A lot of what I know about her comes from gossip and watching her since I work near the kitchen.  I've also heard that she has some health problems that others think are causing the weight loss but as a former bulimic I really think the health problems are the result of anorexia not vice versa.  If she was really sick she wouldn't be exercising in her emaciated state- she is clearly under 100 lbs. Also I finally saw her eat some whole grain oatmeal the other day but she was back with the same bowl an hour later, reheating it with barely a bite gone.  I also know she "loves to cook" and has a freezer full of decorated cookies that she only makes "for fun." 

 

My two questions are- do you all agree with me that this woman has a problem?  Next, what do I do?  I don't know her well and am very afraid of reinforcing her negative behaviors.  I have spoken to the two women that she knows best in the office- big surprise both of them are also underweight.  One believes she is thin due to her health problems and the other admires her "will-power."  Neither of these women are really good friends.  I don't think she has friends.  I only speak to her in the kitchen to say hi, how are you....

 

I would really appeciate advice about how to approach her.  Personally, I was first approached and helped by a close friend but I completely ignored the comments from strangers.  So will it even help to talk to her?  I just don't want to assume someone else is helping her. 

 

Thanks,

Sammie

 Here's my opinion - You are paying too much attention to this woman's kitchen habits. 
Assuming that she does have an anorexic-type eating disorder, it is not your place to confront this woman or fix her.

Unless you have direct knowlege of her eating habits interfering with office work,  I'd keep my concerns to myself.

I think you should also STOP gossiping with anyone else in the office about it.

No, nothing you say is likely to be of real service to this woman. 

  You need to be careful that any action or gossip you participate in isn't for your own sense of satisfaction, entertainment, or otherwise  self-serving purpose.

You're absolutely right that I shouldn't be involved in gossip around the office.  I actually haven't contributed to the gossip but haven't stopped it when others were talking.  I haven't said anything because hardly anyone knows about my disorder. But, you're right, as a person with an ED I can certainly get preoccupied with eating thoughts and no one else's eating is my business. 

 

My intentions are sincere and it was her appearance that first made me pay attention to her.  First her weight loss and then one day because she had a black eye and arm cast from falling out of her shower.  Perhaps I overthought it by assuming it was because she was so thin.  She's a really nice woman and I was hoping to help. But that's why I came here-to get the opinons of people who have had anorexia. 

 

Thanks for your input.

 

Sammie

where i live, there is a law stating that under certain requirements, there can be a manditory refferal under mental health legislation.  i had a severe eating disorder for a little over a year, and after a routine check up with my doctor, i had learned that i was under those requirements.  i was told that it was "manditory" for me to be hospitalized (even though i knew in the back of my mind that i could get around that and hide out away from the legislation)

 

i seriously was considering just not getting the help everyone was telling me i needed (and i mean everybody, my parents, teachers, everyone was commenting on how awful i looked).  suddenly i realized something:

 

you can't be anorexic forever. i was on the brink of losing everything.  my organs were damaged from starving, i was moody and irrate all the time, my concentration was completely off so my grades in school plummetted, i was cardiostatic (which means when i got up from lying down, or when i was going up stairs, my pulse would race).  worse, i had isolated myself from my friends, my family and my boyfriend and attacked them with no reason at all out of my own frustration with my disorder. i avoided social events, especially if they involved food and began to abuse diuretics and laxatives. 

 

i realized the best anorexics are dead.

 

so i went in for treatment with all faith in the professionals, and now, years later, i realized that in treatment i didn't just gain weight and health, i gained my life back. so my advice is give treatment a try and you'll find it is worth its weight in gold

I suffer from Degenerative disc disease and metal rods are in my back and leg. I also suffer from Anorexia as well. Right now I weight in at 120 but that is only cause it is winter time when it comes summer I go back down to 110 are so mabey skinnier . I can't stop this . I can't stop this problem I have it is driveing me carzy. I dont want to gain weight cause I feel I will be too fat. I hate fat the least site of it are what I think it is fat. I starved myself today I didn't eat a thing tonight it is about 1:00am here and I still have had nothing to eat only to drank water and coffee. I really dont know why I do this . Why dose every one els here a Anorexia person? I want to know cause mabey it will shed some light on to why I do it. My family hates me they dont have anything to do with me anymore cause I am in pain all the time and I am Anorexia they think I have just lost my mind are something . I have run off most of my friends as well they dont stand by you when you have something wrong. Again sorry for the grammer mistakes but I need some info on this why are you Anorexia and what makes it so addictive?

I KNOW I'M GOING TO DIE OF ANOREXIA, BUT I CANT STOP .   ALTHOUGH I'M 92 POUNDS AND I KNOW TOO SKINNY,  I LOVE WATCHING THE SCALE NUMBERS GO DOWN ANYWAY.

I JUST CANT STOP TAKING DIURETICS AND LAXATIVES .  I REFUSE TO EAT ANYTHING AFTER 2PM.  I REFUSE TO EAT ANYTHING BUT BAKED FISH AND SALADS.  I DONT GO OVER 500 CALORIES A DAY,  SOMETIMES EVEN THAT SEEMS TOO MUCH.  I HAVE ALOT OF DIZZY SPELLS AND MOST OF THE TIME I CANT TAKE A DEEP BREATH.  I KNOW I'M GOING TO DIE, BUT I JUST CANT HELP MYSELF.  I DONT EVEN THINK ANYONE CAN HELP ME BECAUSE THE ONLY THING THAT MAKES ME HAPPY IS THOSE SCALE NUMBERS GETTING SMALLER.

 

WHILE I'M HERE.......I WAS JUST CURIOUS AS I WATCH TOP MODEL,  DO ONLY US WHITE GIRLS GET ANOREXIA???

I NEVER SAW A BLACK GIRL WITH ANOREXIA.  IS IT BECAUSE THEY ARE RAISED WITH MORE SELF ESTEEM OR AM I TOTALLY WRONG IN MY ASSUMPTION?

 Some more recent research has indicated that there are better meds to treat the brain imbalance seen in women with anorexia nervoso that have been used in the past.  It seems anorexics, either from a genetic susceptibility triggered by "regular" dieting,  or as a result of the disease, have an imbalance of brain chemicals that make the desire to keep getting the rewards of losing weight a compulsive activity.  Medicine might help take away the compulsion to see those numbers keep dropping "perfectly",  and keep you from killing yourself as a side-effect of that perfection.

Funny you should bring up the race discrepancy.  It isn't true that only white girls get anorexia nervosa or other eating disorders, in fact, eating disorders are on the rise among blacks;  just check out xanga if you have any dougts asbout that. .  In very general terms,  having some "jelly" is more accepted or desireable in that culture,  and being too thin can make a person the object of fun or even insults. ("Some day some man might take you, skinny legs and all").

In fact,  I got giggled at by some ( and I'm not being sarcastic, here) charming young black women at  Express the other day.     When I came out to the three way in slim cut pants and checked out my rear,  the young women seated in the waiting area started to giggle, amazed at the skinny white girl (me) who thinks being a coat hanger is cute.  I looked pretty good, but to them my slim profile is a defect.  They weren't mean spirited about it,  but it was pretty clear that they were laughing because of the differences in culture of white and black.