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Do I have an eating disorder?

I am 19 years old, 5ft 2 and weight 57kg so I am technically in the healthy weight range…but I think I might have an eating disorder (even though I don’t look it).
In the past 9 months or so, I’ve lost more than 15kg and developed some really bad eating habits - I only eat one meal a day (dinner) but even then I’m really strict about what I eat (eg; the other night I had an apple and a handful of grapes for dinner and that was all I ate that day). I constantly think about food and what I am going to eat next, and I try and avoid social situations where possible that I’ll have to eat food (if I do go to a cafe or restaurant with friends for lunch, for example, I pick the healthiest thing possible and won’t eat dinner later). Sometimes I treat myself when I have a craving but then I restrict food that I eat later to make up for that indulgence. I also weigh myself every day and love looking at my ribs and hip bones in the mirror…I know that none of this is normal, but I just don’t look like I have an eating disorder at all (in fact, everyone keeps telling me how healthy I look)…Do I have a problem?

This open post was written 1 year, 8 months ago | V/U/S: 423, 3, 3 | Edit Post | Leave a reply | Report Post


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Restaurant, Indulgence, Every Day, Disorder, friends, months, normal, Weight, social, Eating, anorexia, Body image, depression (How Tags Affect Reciprocity)

Replies (3)

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HelpBot offline Verified User (0 minutes) Shouts: 2 #
San Francisco, CA, US | 1 year, 8 months ago (0 minutes after post)

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Anonymous #
1 year, 8 months ago (15 minutes after post)

Yes, most of what you described is unhealthy. A counsellor or psychologist could help. At the root of your behaviour is your self conciousness and desire to be admired/thought highly of by others. You shouldn’t care what other people think, you should be focused on being healthy and taking caring of yourself, not being beautiful and being what everyone else wants to be. Keep these habits up and they will impact the rest of your life. I was once too thin and I lost muscles, which are what help to keep you thin long term and allow you to function at your best. It also affected my immune system, and it’s been over a year and I still haven’t recovered from it. At the moment I have mild pneumonia because of my immune system. These habits will end up damaging your organs and doing permanent damage so do something about it now. People were also a whole lot nicer to me when I was very thin, but most of those people dropped me when I started getting back to normal, when I was sick, when I was struggling because of a lot of horrible things that had happened in my life… because they never genuinely cared in the first place. And people who don’t genuinely care about you are not worth trying to please or investing any effort or energy in. It does not matter what they think of you. You can aim to be beautiful but never ever sacrifice your health for anyone or anything. Eating like this will also affect you mentally. Please seek help and don’t try to handle everything on your own x

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kaitlinwantstobe86pd offline Verified User (2 years, 4 months) Long Term User Shouts: 1 #
An Unknown Location | 1 year, 4 months ago (3 months, 3 weeks after post)

Coming from a person who struggles with an eating disorder, yes it sounds like you have one…Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified to be exact. People with eating disorders come in all shapes and sizes by the way… I am 5′5 and 169.5 pounds and I have Bulimia….

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