So I have a friend we have known each other for awhile and she is really nice too.she has bulimia and told me that she binged eat sometimes.But she is in her recovering journey and doing really well

But last week , she asked our gym trainer about the calorie deficit of how much calorie she should eat or not.She was deeply into it.

it worries me alot and I don't know how to respond if she told me the fact that she binge eat.I want to reassure her and tell her not to do too much.I also would like to know what to say Or not say when it comes to food.How to I help secretly without triggering her?

I have had an ED for about four years now and for the past two actively trying to recover. While I am glad about all the achievements and things that I learned to enjoy again, there is one thing that I miss which is stressing about things other than my body.

Three years ago in high school I was always very calm when it came to tests and exams. My thoughts 80 percent of the time only evolved around food, my body and sports. There was just not much space to worry about other things.

Now I think about food when I am hungry or generally just talk about it, maybe 8 percent of the day. My main concern has become University and exams. It's a different stress and I just don't know how to deal with it. I feel nauseous just to think about my exam tomorrow. I paused my workouts for two weeks to study, something I would have never done back then.

I don't miss my ED overall, I am happy to not have panic attacks over eating dessert anymore, but this one part particularly bothers me. Does anyone else have similar experiences?

I am trying to recover from bulimia and get really triggered when I eat super heavy foods early in the day. Carbs are something I get really stressed eating because I often feel sluggish afterwards. Today I ate a bagel with cream cheese, then they had pizza for lunch. I feel so physically uncomfortable in my skin and bloated, I want to purge. I work a desk job (intern) so what are potential ways to reduce these physical symptoms and overall bad emotions?

So, my family has a plethora of health issues, and I myself seem to be very heavily affected to what I put into my body (not allergies but just feeling good/bad in terms of energy, skin and bloating depending on what I ate during the day.

So, my mom out of concern has converted our daily diet to whole foods but my diet used to consist of just carbs and sugar and now whenever she goes out for a bit, I binge on just spoonfuls of honey and butter and just downing anything that is sweet (fruit, sweet potato, maple syrup, honey, etc)

The thing is, if I actually go ahead and eat a piece of cake or a cookie, my stomach feels horrid afterwards so it actually is better off that I don’t eat it but I can’t stop.

Any tips?

Some months ago I realized I had a ED. I didn’t think I did because of the large meals I ate and I guess it just didn’t look like any stereotypical ed. I have been working on it since I realized it. A few months ago I started going through the baby hair hell I guess you could say lol. Now that they are long enough I have noticed most are brittle about a inch from the scalp. That inch looks healthy and normal. Is it normal for it to grow out brittle at first or do I need more vitamins or what? They are breaking and looking like baby hair hell again.

My body jerks and pictures random stuff in my head constantly, every time I try to sleep… idk what’s goin on, I didn’t get any sleep last night!!! I tried napping just now and same thing. Or is this just unrelated???

I'm currently recovering and I bought this book I think it's really popular so if someone knows how triggering it can be please tell me

For the past 6 years i maintained pretty healthy relationship with food, but have been diagnosed with other mental conditions (BPD, recurrent depression). I also came out as a trans man. The last thing made it harder to accept my body since i have kinda wide hips even for an averege woman. But I still didn‘t relapse.

This summer I met my now boyfrind (let‘s call him M). He also is trans and also had a history of ED. Once in a while he could say something like „i need to lose weight“ or „i have too much fat“. But really doesn‘t, he has averege masculine build and I kinda envy him. So I asked him to not talk about losing weight or other weight/body image related things.

He continues to say this stuff though, sometimes even commenting my body („before you i only liked twinks, but i‘m into your dad bod“, „did you get a bbl as a baby?“) and just doesn‘t realise that it triggers me a lot. So I relapsed around 2 weeks ago and feel just miserable since.

I know that he doesn’t mean anything mean, he always apologizes a lot after sayng these things. But I can‘t forgive him, I can‘t stop thinking that my relapse is his fault. I don‘t know if I will continue dating him, I love him very much apart from this though.

Does anyone here have any advice about what should I do?

P.S. Excuse me for any grammar mistakes, English isn‘t my first language

So i’ve been diagnosed with anorexia since coming off prednisolone 7 years ago. My appetite is so bad i throw up trying to eat a bowl of cereal. And every time, the doctor just says “you’re depressed, have some anti depressants”.

Anyway i’ve been on mirt a few times now, and each time it really has helped with my appetite initially. But this eventually fades, and then i also get unwanted mood side effects (at first hypomania and then emotional blunting/apathy)

I explained to my GP that it’s my lack of eating that’s causing the symptoms of depression, not the other way around, since i very very quickly felt better as soon as i was eating more. Literally within days. I asked if cypro would be more effective for my use case and she said she’d never heard of cyproheptadine? what?!

I feel so lost and failed by the NHS right now. It’s been a long and tiring 7 years and i’m wondering if you guys have any anecdotes with these 2 drugs for appetite stimulation.

I have issues with food

My longstanding issues have been the texture of certain foods like cheese, mashed potato, peas etc and I know that’s common with autism but my problem area is that certain food makes me anxious. Chocolate for example. I’m hyper focussed on weight loss right now but was offered chocolate and it caused me to shut down. Prawns cause whole body shudders Eating outside of set breakfast lunch and dinner schedules- I just won’t do! Dunno if it’s related to my autism. My case is currently being discussed at MDT but I’m incredibly nervous so wanted to check in here- if anyone can help was hoping you could redditors.

Not asking for advise on which is which I just more wondering if anyone can relate

Hi ! I don’t know if I have an ED or not but, I figured the ED community would be the best placed to answer my concerns. So I used to enjoy food, like really enjoy it, and find much comfort from it. But because of poor management, I spent a lot of time without eating and when I ate, I ate something cheap I could buy at a grocery store (not the tastiest) but this only happened like, for three days. And since, eating disgust me. Eating doesn’t stop my hunger and it just feels like a chore. Even my comfort food taste bland and boring. How can my appetite and liking of food change so much in the space of three days ? It’s really an hassle because I feel so hungry but food can come to disgust me ? Like how am I supposed to eat :/

Hey everyone, earlier this week I made the first steps and talked to my gp about having an ED, they said that I’d need to have a blood test done (today eek scary) as well as an ECG (next week) before I’m able to be referred then it will take 1-2 weeks to hear back from them.

I’m not meaning to be impatient my thoughts at the moments are trying to look and find whether there is any interim support I could access in the meantime to help?

I am based in the UK if that potentially helps with location based help.

Thank you

im really trying to commit to recovery rn, im on the waiting list for an inpatient program. one kf my biggest anxieties is that if i get better ill have nothing that makes me interesting and different. not hobby or skill i can imagine replaces the strange sort of pride i have in my ED and SH addiction. how can i be ok with being "normal"??

me (19f) and my gf’s (20f) 6 month anniversary is coming up and i still havent told her i have an eating disorder. when we’re together, i dont eat. ive gone 24 hours straight with her without eating anything. i know she notices but she’s only commented on it a few times. i always brush it off. i hate that i’m still not comfortable enough to eat around her — like she’s my girlfriend and it’s been 6 months?? but i just cant do it. i dont have an appetite with her. my anxiety is too bad. the few times i have tried eating with her i have to resist gagging. we’ve never gone out to eat for a date. the thought of us alone face to face at a restaurant, me having to order and eat while she watches — it makes me cry and feel sick. i lie and make excuses to avoid eating with her. i avoid topics of food and eating as much as possible, i can’t even talk about it its so bad.

i only realized i had an ed shortly after we started dating. i still don’t know what i have (i suspect arfid and/or anorexia), but i’m going to get help soon. i’ve had it for years and have just been in denial. i have a handful of disabilities and mental health issues — she knows this at least. im really bad at letting walls down and being vulnerable, so i seldom mention my struggles with her. i know she notices it though. i just can’t make myself talk to her about it.

im so ashamed of my ed. its vile and disgusting and embarrassing. she’s going to worry even more about me when she knows. i want to keep it a secret so i can control it and hide it. i dont want to lose the control i have. i dont want her to be able to see through me. i dont want her to notice when im starving myself and try to make me eat. i feel like she wont understand. but she can tell i’m hiding and lying. it’s putting a distance between us and i dont want it to interfere with our relationship. i love her so much and i know she loves me too but my problems and hiding are putting a rift between us and i dont know how to stop it.

i have crippling anxiety, which makes this all so much harder. i cant tell her in person. i know i wont be able to make myself say it and even if i do i’ll start sobbing and shaking uncontrollably. ive tried to text her (i have the whole text written out, i just cant hit send). i dont even know how to talk about it. if anyone has tips or insight or encouragment or anything, i’d really appreciate it. i just need to get out of my head. how do i do this?

tldr i’ve been avoiding telling my gf about my ed but i don’t want to keep her in the dark. i have other disabilities and mental health issues. crippling anxiety makes it impossible to “stop hiding.” i can’t eat around her or talk about food. how do i tell her?

when my boyfriend was younger, he developed an eating disorder and he's carried it with him ever since. i became aware of this early on into our relationship, but it's gotten pretty bad. he tells me how he doesnt feel comfortable eating with me anymore because i dont eat as much as he does/can and he always tells me how much him and his friends eat when they hang out and it always makes me so sad. he doesnt like me exercising because he feels like he has to compensate and not eat and/or force himself to exercise. i try to eat more than him to make him feel comfortable around me again but it doesnt work. ive been gaining weight trying to make him feel better and i physically feel awful. i know how much hes struggling and weve talked about it a lot; he constantly gains and loses motivation to recover and its hurting us both. now he doesnt have the motivation to try and recover anymore. hes been to therapy, but he stopped going after two sessions and doesnt plan on going back. i want him to recover but i know that i cant force it upon him and he has to want it for himself.

i love him very much and i always do my best to remind him that, but this constant cycle of both of us being hurt over and over again just hurts and i feel stuck. i dont plan on leaving him because of any of this and id appreciate any advice that can be given from people who've been through something similar.

Hi… looking for advice and help me (f 24) and my girlfriend ( f 24) live together and have a great relationship, she’s struggled with an ED and it’s getting to the point where she’s looking at residential programs. Almost every place I read about has awful reviews and seems downright scary. What can she (and I) expect? Any advice or recommendations for someone going through this for the first time?

She’s most scared about strict rules, mean staff, and not being able to contact loved ones ect. We are located in Chicago but looking at programs all around the midwest.

Thank you so much in advance ❤️

I had some super minor hair thinning from lack of vitamins but now that it’s coming back in it’s super blond and curly? I have straight brown hair for reference. Had this happened to anyone else or is it something to worry about?

My girlfriend has severe orthorexia and it is destroying her self-image and the entirety of her life. She has finally gotten to the point where she knows she needs help (which is saying a lot) but we can’t find any programs that would work for her. Does anyone know of any inpatient or intensive outpatient programs that are around a week or so? All the ones we have found are minimum 6-8 weeks. Thank you to anyone who can help. We’re desperate.

i've had bulimia for a while, and i've struggled with it in varying degrees throughout my life, but recently i've found the habits are getting more compulsive? it used to be "don't eat that burger you'll get fat" and it's turned into "if i eat more than two pieces of cheese i'll die" and i would love advice on how to handle these kind of thoughts. thank you!

ok guys, call me crazy, but even though DBT is seen as the gold standard for ED recovery, it just doesn't do the trick for me. I have zero problems with impulsivity, emotional outbursts, or lack of insight; rather, I have a tendency to overthink, severely intellectualize, completely push away my emotions, and be perfectionistic. So, although I totally see the value in DBT, since it is heavily based on emotional regulation, I don't particularly benefit from it. what usually drives me to use behaviors is my deep-seated, disordered thoughts about doing what is "right", wanting to be "perfect", needing to take up less space, etc. Typical DBT skills (STOP, mindfulness, etc) don't do much to help me work through those core beliefs. Can anyone relate to this??? Am I just doing DBT wrong or is there a valid case to be made that it might not work for people like me???

Hi. I’m a 39-yo female who has struggled with multiple eating disorders since I was 21. I went to treatment in 2014 and recovered but not fully. I have ED but not to the point of being fully classified by the DSM. Anyway, I also have Hashimoto’s and the MTHFR gene mutation which means I can’t methylate b vitamins. I have polycystic ovarian syndrome so I have insulin resistance.

All of this illness means restriction for me. I can’t eat rice. I can’t eat flour. I can’t eat all the delicious glutens. Or have sodas. Or candy. The world is suddenly full of restriction and control again. I’m having such a hard time and it’s bothering me deeply. Every day I have self sabotaged, since before Thanksgiving. Something in me broke since then. I have an exceedingly difficult time living under any sort of control. So I’ve been eating whatever I want, to my own detriment. I feel horrible. I feel self-loathing. I feel so controlled yet so out of control. And what the hell kind of therapist would know how to help me? So on top of everything, I feel trapped and alone and ashamed. I’ve been throwing up. I’ve been bingeing. I’m a normal weight but it’s not about weight. I want to love myself enough to choose healing foods for myself. Why can’t I escape this prison?!!! Help!

been in recovery for about three weeks now, first 2 i had extreme hunger but for the past couple of days now i’ve such a small appetite, i’ve been trying to stick to my meal plan but i literally can’t because i’m getting full so easily, does anyone have any advice or been through something similar? i also didn’t quit exercising (surprisingly the doctors said i can once it’s low impact) so i thought id havé more of an appetite

So, for some backstory, my best friend and I are both girls and 15 years old. We became friends in 7th grade and we are now in 9th. She has been struggling with an eating disorder since like 6th grade, but I haven't. I just recently feel sick. I’m not diagnosed so I know I’m not valid, but my best friend knows I've been kind of struggling for a while. The thing is, while she said she 'doesn't want me to fall into that trap' it's like she's always subtly competing with me about who is more sick. She is into forced recovery and I’m not even noticeably sick, no one really knows how I struggle. Most of the things she talks about 24/7, is literally consequences of her ED. She complains allll day about how cold she is, how she has frostbites, how she had bald spots, and talks to anyone that will listen about them. It's like she wants attention so bad, except from her parents that are trying to help her recover. I know for a fact that she eats a fulfilling breakfast every day, but then at school she's acting all dizzy and shit, and when the teachers ask her if she has eaten anything, she'll say no. just for them to be worried. whenever I say I’m cold or anything like that, she always doubles down on me trying to act like she has it worse. she's showing me her frostbites at least 7 times a day and keeps bringing up every single consequence of an ED that apparently she has in a 'you could never struggle like me' manner, and I feel like she knows that I know its a side effect of anorexia. am I just delusional and the competence is one-sided or what?

I never used to care what I put into my body. I was naturally on the smaller side and my family does have ED history and everyone is generally smaller. I used to be known as the girl who could eat whatever and never gain weight. In 2022 I started working out for the first time and eating less /healthier overall. The reason for this was two fold, I started working out and being more mindful of my diet because I had a girls trip to cancun planned so I wanted to look "good". I also had broken up with my ex and he was extremely overweight and we would kinda eat like trash together so naturally my diet changed. I got much smaller and that summer will always stand out to me as my dream body!

by the end of that year i graduated my grad school, was single for the first time since i was 16, and became pretty depressed. I think i started to obsess about if i had gained weight or not. I would always ask all my friends if i was fat. i would try and limit what i was eating because i knew i was not as small as i was over summer and i felt ashamed that i got lazy. i was totally depressed at this time because of my life and trying to find a job. i lost my period and gained a face of acene which i never had before. i didn't think it was my diet because in my head i was bigger than i was over summer so how could i have an ed. if i had one i would be thinner. i feel this way now, how can i have a problem if im not small enough to have one because if i did have one i would look how i want to look. i think once i got a job in 2023, my hormones and mental state balanced out a bit and my period came back and my acne lessened.

flash forward to now, since 2023 i have continued working i found a wonderful man who loves me and got married. i try to limit what i eat during the day, my husband works late and i like to have dinner with him. the problem is he likes to cook, ik he cooks with alot of oil. i try to explain this to him but he really has no concept of eating with weight in mind (he is totally fit and can eat whatever and never gain weight). i work out every day and if i eat too much with him at dinner i'll feel stressed the whole day. usually during the day i will have my low cal matcha, sparkling water, an apple, a protein drink. maybe seaweed. then i have dinner with him. i feel like this is alot of food but i also feel so hungry all the time. my problem is i know if i start eating i can eat anything, and all of it. i dont get people who are like "im full" i really barely ever feel full so i am scared to really let myself pig out because ik ill get out of hand.

the thing is though, i have never gone back to that body 2022 (im 25 now i was 22 then so maybe its that), and i was eating more then. it makes me so sad to see me then because i hate her cuz she makes me feel so jealous and ashamed. i always wonder if people think that i have gained . i dont know if i have an issue or if i want to think i have an issue so i give myself a reason to be lazy and eat more. i also don't think i have a problem because it is very weird but on the weekends i will let myself have one meal that is out to eat, knowing it will have alot of calories. i try to not eat much during the day on these days. i almost feel like i have to make it known i know what i am doing is bad everytime i eat something off my normal diet. like idk i feel like everyone thinks i gained weight. i dont let myself get on the scale because anytime i accidentally get the number at a doctors or whatever ill cry and cry and cry all day. it is awk at work when people non stop bring treats into the office.

tldr: how do you know if you have a problem when you don't feel thin enough to be allowed to?

I've been struggling with very bad bulimia for 3 years now, I'm trying to recover and I keep freaking out seeing the scale go up. I'm working out eating in moderation, (it's a deficit based on my tdee?) and I'm still gaining weight... Is it normal? How do I stop freaking out every single day???

I’ve been in recovery from anorexia/bulimia for a little while now. I keep having slips where I go back into it, then crack and go in eek long binges. I’m so disgusted with myself and I feel physically awful, all the carbs, salt and sugar are making me bloated me greasy me it’s like I can feel every soft bit of my body? I’m exhausted and just can’t take this, I’m cancelling appointments and avoiding the office because I can’t bear to have anyone see me. I just don’t know how to get out of this and I feel really alone. I just want to be able to eat normally with no ED behaviours

on my way to inpatient for the second time rn. so scared. does anyone have any tips to help me?

looking for a residential ed program, preferably close to panhandle florida. mainly looking for a place that allows smoking/vaping (even just at designated times) and allows technology/phone time as i currently go to zoom meetings for NA and don’t want to have to compromise my “90 in 90”. willing to go anywhere in the US for the best place, but i do live in panhandle florida. TIA.

Hi everyone.

I wanted to ask for advice. I struggle with obsessive thoughts regarding "healthy" eating. For example today I keep freaking out about eating what I deem too much protein and possible health consequences. Do any of you have solutions for such spirals?

Hope you're all doing well today <3

Please don't lock this...I had a breakfast sandwich and a chocolate milk earlier. I am ok with this...but I'm looking at all these food places on the Mall and while I'm truly not feeling hunger at the moment I feel like I want to eat SOMETHING else here ... And that is the problem. I need encouragement to say IT IS OK TO HAVE ANOTHER LITTLE SNACK AT THE MALL! I'm struggling to eat more but foods make me GAG...even my faves.

Can y'all tell me it's ok to eat and that I won't turn into a fat pig if I eat? God the brain (ED) chatter is loud today. Thank you all!

This post IS made in a recovery mindset! I need to eat more bc of my illness (the main one)...😳😩😭 I am just having a hard time. ♥️