Anorexics can be fat too.

[Guest Placebo1113]

I hate the stigma that you only have anorexia if you're super skinny. I am 6'1" and 260 pounds (not obese, but definitely not thin around the middle). Half the time, I literally cannot get myself to eat anything and I barely feel the hunger pains or feel proud of the pain, because some sick part of me feels like I'm accomplish

[Guest Placebo1113]

ing something.

[tracy_j]

I think there are a lot of uncertaintites regarding anorexics and a lot of myths and fallacies. I would not have thought I would ever have issues being male and, although slim, not underweight but a year and a half ago I started to loose weight, thinking I was looking better. Before I knew it I was beginning to reduce food intake greatly and felt physically sick after every meal (I was not sick but the feeling was very real). I got very scared as I realised what was happening. Even though logically I knew I still found it very hard to break out of. Luckily although a few pounds heavier than I would wish I am 'back to normal'.

Perhaps the danger is to change things too rapidly. Seek advice from a doctor if you feel there is a problem or your bodily functions change in an unexplained way. Things are always easier to sort in the early stages. The mind may also react to physiological changes to compensate.

Tracy

[Guest Amelia]

I quite agree with Tracy. Seeking a doctor is a priority, especially when dealing with life-threatening issues like eating disorders.

Talking to a therapist is very important as well. The past four years of my life I've been going up and down in weight by about 50 lbs. Each year I would reach that high and low. This year I've gotten a handle on things a bit better and can maintain my weight for the most part. When i would reach those extremes I was self-conscious about people perceiving me as being to large or too skinny to be considered bulimic, a binge-eater, or anorexic (I've been around the world with my ED). That held me back for the longest time in effectively tackling my disorder.

And yes, our perceptions about our body and our disorder itself face tremendous prejudice in this world. Don't ever let the gross idea that you don't fit exactly like "how an anorexic should look"hold you back from seeking treatment. Even the most mild ED symptoms should be treated with utmost urgency and care-- regardless of how sickly or unsickly you appear.

Best regards in your treatment,

Mia

[Guest Isabel1991]

Omg I know what you mean I'm 205 in rehab for

Drugs and all the food they serve us is carb loaded and nothing right now makes me feel prettier than being hungry I know that's bad but I just want to be smaller faster

[Guest Ky_Ki]

Kira here. I'm one of the newest kids on the block. I'm not positive I've suffered from anorexia in the past, though I strongly suspect I have (though I deal with the exact opposite problem now), but I know how maddening and hopeless it can feel. If it's any consolation, having come from the exact weight you are (and a couple inches shorter to boot) I can say from personal experience that it is possible to loose weight while still eating a relatively healthy amount (something I personally still have trouble believing sometimes). Granted my own journey was pretty rocky, hence my suspicions about anorexia, but the majority of that period was spent eating healthily than not and at one point I was 100 pounds lighter and still am at a much less dangerous place than I was before. So there is hope there.

There's all sorts of preconceived notions about eating disorders that I'm not fond of. And I think it often causes others in our lives to turn a completely blind eye to what's in front of them. I personally don't like society's apparent opinion that eating disorders are practically only possible in teenage biologic girls to the exclusion of all other groups. Or that the images the media shoots out at us are the main or only reason people develop them. I know to me personally, my desire to look a certain way and the more significant eating problems that it eventually caused have very little to do with media exposure, if only because the stereotypical image they perpetuate and how I see myself have very little in common besides thinness. People assume all sorts of things, especially when they have no personal experience to back up on, then just go on whatever the story is they've heard in the media, and there the media is partially to blame.

Hope that helps a bit.