Eating Disorder Assessment

I have an assessment coming up with the eating disorder team and I wanted to ask if I'm allowed to refuse to be weighed? They can't force me, right?

I haven't let my GP weigh me since then very start of the year and have never let my nurse from the CMHT weigh me.

But yeah, I really really don't want to be weighed and I think it's kind of a compromise - I'll go to their stupid assessment as long as they don't make me get on the scales?

You probably feel like you'e been judged enough about this, but going along with this attitude isn't going to help you. Do you want to get better? Are you going because you want to, or because you've been made to?

No-one can force you to be weighed, as such. But assessing your current weight is an important part of a full assessment of your current health. It worries me that you describe it as a 'stupid' assessment - this makes me rather think that you're an unwilling participant in all this.

How do you feel about the whole process so far? Where are you at with it?

Deep down there's a tiny part of me that can realise that something needs to change, although I don't know or understand what that is.

I'm only really going (or considering going) because my CPN, GP, uni and parents all tell me that I should. I used to want it... to get better but a few weeks ago someone made a comment that has set me back, and made me re-evaluate everything. The professionals are all lying to me, they want to catch me out :/

I don't think I'm strong enough to commit to it at the moment... maybe one day, but not now.

I totally understand this viewpoint - and you're not alone in having it. Part of being effectively treated for this is being able to understand what it is that's 'going on' in your head and how you can develop strategies to deal with it. I'm really sorry to hear that some comment has set you back - I understand that it doesn't take much sometimes. And that doesn't mean you're being oversensitive or anything - it's just how it works.

If you want any further help or support then feel free to either reply here or PM me. Happy to help if possible.

Thank you so much

I went along and, albeit very nervously, let them weigh me. I was shaking the whole way through the assessment, which is quite unlike me - I can usually hold it together!

They've said that I fulfil the criteria for atypical anorexia, which I wasn't expecting - I guess it goes to show that my perception has become disorted although I'm still struggling to come to terms with some of the things that they said - for example, she told me I'm at high risk of having a heart attack and I think that really hit home... I'm only 19, I shouldn't be at risk of that

To begin with I'm having 2 months of sessions working on pro's and con's of recovery and motivation to change etc, then we'll review things and I'll probably move on to have CBT or something similar

OMG - I'm actually so proud of you, and we haven't even met

That's such a big step forward. Will you keep me up to date with how you're doing?Only if you want to. And I"m always happy to help you or support you if I can

I'm so pleased for you - not that you've been diagnosed with it, but that you've taken such a positive first step towards recovery

Just reading this and I'm really glad you managed to go to the assessment - however difficult it was. I was that person who refused to get weighed and they pretty much refused to work with me until I did and at that point I'd already been hospitalised because I was on the brink of a heart attack so it was all really badly handled on my part when I look back on it. I wish at the time I would have committed to the therapy because I just got worse left to my own devices. I ended up finding a private therapist after that because it all got very complex and at least in a sense I got to work with someone I chose as suitable.

I'll be honest with you I think recovery is a lifelong process. I'm about 15 years from my initial diagnosis of anorexia, spent about 10 years of that time unwell and the last 4/5 seriously working on beating this. I'm weight restored but I still hold on to a lot of my old habits because it feels 'safe' but if I hadn't have completed the recovery I have up until this point I never would have attended University or have the life I have now, so there has been a lot of positives even if it's not always 'perfect'. Hopefully the therapy over the coming months can help you cement your commitment to recovery, I made a couple of half hearted recovery attempts before I got serious about it and actually decided it was what I wanted to do, better to be a willing and active participant in your own recovery to get the most out of it.