Anorexia Help

Hi, I have been told by family and friends that I have Anorexia. This time last year, I was overweight at 11.7 stone (28.8 BMI) and now I am 7.4 stone (18.3 BMI) and 159cm. Most of the weight was lost in the first three months by eating less than 500 calories per day. Every time I eat I feel so guilty and I feel like I don't deserve food as I'm too fat.

Yesterday my parents made me eat at a restaurant with then and I had a whole pizza!!! As soon as I got home I looked up the calories and it was 1040!! I feel really guilty now and I wish I had the courage to have thrown it up. Now, because I ate that yesterday I am not having breakfast or lunch today, and I will only eat a low calorie (Around 200) ready meal for dinner because my parents will make me. I really want to be normal and be able to enjoy food again, but every time I eat I feel guilty and get really bloated. I also feel cold and hungry all the time. Last week my mum took me to a Chinese buffet and because I wanted to recover, I ate the same amount as her. Now I fell like I binged and because of that I will get fat and no one will like me. Plus that day I had agonising stomach pains and threw up (naturally, not self induced). Every time I eat I feel like I am binging and wasting all my effort. I used to love sweets, now I never allow myself any treats.

Because my BMI is only 18.3, I am seen as too fat to receive help from the NHS for anorexia. Does anyone know how to self recover from anorexia? I heard that you are meant to eat over 3000 calories a day, but to me that seems like binging and then surely I will become obese?! Also if I ate sweets everyday surely everyone would see me as a pig as no one else in my house eats junk food daily?!

Reply 1

esjae

Original post by Anonymous

Have you tried getting counseling? I did through my college when I was suffering - I wasn't as bad as you though my BMI was just below average. And it helped me greatly because I was able to talk about what was making me feel so ****ty that I would not eat etc

Try eating larger amounts of what you normally do - but don't over do it because your stomach has shrunk due to the anorexia. Try eating healthily instead of 'binging' on sweets and junk food yanno? They're healthy for you and they can be sweet due to the natural sugars in them, if that makes sense?

Reply 2

doodle_333

there's no level where you aren't sick enough... you've lost 4 stone, would you think someone who'd lost 1 stone and was a lower BMI was sicker? why? some of the danger comes from low weight but plenty comes from starvation and malnutrition which will be affecting you regardless of your weight, you have also put your body under a huge strain by losing so much weight and a BMI of 18 could be well below your natural body weight

I would go to your doctor now and get a referral, you can start to try and self recover at home but it's really really hard and the waiting lists for treatment tend to be very long (I waited 4 months as an 'urgent' case due to staffing problems) so get yourself a referral and if in the 3-6 months it takes to get therapy you have recovered and feel 100% then don't go, there's no harm done, but leave yourself that option because eating disorders rarely get better by themselves and you don't want to wait until you're desperate for help and then go through the waiting list

for now, yes, you need to increase your food intake, personally I don't think you need to be eating 3000+ calories unless you're doing a lot of exercise (which you should stop doing for now anyway until you are better nourished)... increase gradually, maybe 250 calories every few days until you reach 2500... try and gain to a BMI of around 22 as you were a little heavier before and this will give you a bit of cushioning against relapse... while you're gaining try and face challenges like pizza and take out and chocolate and so on and remember that if you over eat one day it really doesn't matter, you're trying to gain weight and it is very normal to have some binges during anorexia recovery - it will be very difficult but try and think as little as possible about food/body size and remember that once you are healthy some of the obsessiveness and preoccupation will fade and you will be able to live your life normally without feeling awful all the time

Reply 3

Resiewdub

You can get help for this, the NHS do have guidelines on how they diagnose people... you're right. But if you go to your GP and explain, they can refer you to an eating disorder service who can then assess if and what help you need. It's scary at first but once you do it, you'll be thankful you did. Get a hold of it now before it consumes your entire life, friendships and relationships too.

You can do it :smile:

Anorexia Help

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