Do eating disorders affect you?

Eating disorders are a bit catagorized here. My disorder is not eating when I am stressed. I tend to eat more sugary things because they taste good, and are more abundant. I doubt I will gain more wieght because I will be extremely stressed and won't eat very much. It is easier for me to walk away from a table full of food than to gag it down.

I don't know, I've never had an eating disorder.

No. I have a weak appetite. I don't get hungry very often, and I get full fast.

No. I don't oink out just because there's a bunch of food.

I know that just looking at wheat, corn products causes weight gain with me. In essence, the only foods I can eat without gaining is....meat, vegetables, and fruit. I've studied the Blood type diet, and it matches me completely. I am a blood type O.

I happen to watch Montel today, and it talked of rare diseases, hereditary diseases. This, to me, narrows it down again to blood types, and foods. The one little girl said she could not tolerate wheat, corn, dairy, peanuts and more....all foods type O's can't tolerate. They didn't discuss blood types, but it sounds so familiar. Of course, emotions play a big part in eating too. Many people may think they're not allergic because they were able to eat certain foods as a child....but what happens is the body is still being damaged, and the problems occur at a later time. What we do before we're 40 years old, determines what we'll be after we're 40 years old.

The "Eat Right For (4) Your Type" book by Dr. Peter D'Adamo.....look it up. There are also individual blood type books, according to each type, by the same author. .

Potatoe chips , cookies , yum chocolate cake and all I can eat on Thanksgiving till my tummy splits open

> No. I don't oink out just because there's a bunch of food.

But it is soo much fun' to oink out that chocolate cake and cookies

Holidays are a time for increased vigilance, but, no, I don't fear holidays.

No

I eat more around the Christmas and New Years holidays and more crap; candy, deserts, alcohol etc. I don't think that's very unusual at all. Certainly not in my culture. I don't think there is anything "disordered" about it though. I don't binge and purge or anything...

no

No. That is one thing I don't have. Unless you consider my mostly fast food diet an eating disorder.

No. My need to eat/not eat fluctuates with my hormonal level, but I wouldn't call that eating disorder.
Now sleeping disorders...

No.

Uhm. I probably won't eat for a few days before Thanksgiving so I can pig out.

No I'm not afraid of eating disorders.

Yes, they affect me in that there is all that comfort food around. I'm not afraid of getting fat.... I already am!

No.

No.
Maybe.
No

I was, in the past, a bulimic and a compulsive eater. I am still wary about the types of food I have around the house because there are some foods I just plain tend to overeat. A series of books by Geneen Roth and her "Breaking Free From Compulsive Eating" program were key to helping me face and handle my issues.

nope

I occasionally have relapses of bulemia. I never did totally get over that.

Nope.

I try to watch my diet by eating healthy most of the time. When you get into a good habit, it's easier to stay focused on the reasoning... I like how I look at my normal weight.

Took me a long time getting here and I'm not going to go far astray at any time of year.

I have none

Currently, no.

Nope!

Not at all. I think it occurs in a very small part of the population, with coexisting factors, as well.

But I am sure that other factors were affecting your life, as well. Bulimia can cause a lot of damage to the stomach and esophagus with all the hydrochloric acid that is being forced into our feeding tube. How did you finally stop? And did it happen with more of a food type than another? I have a 12 year old daughter who is conscious of being pencil thin (at 12!!!), so you can see my concern.

Sometimes a healthy diet can be expensive, I have found.

no

No

No

I was actively compulsively eating and bulimic from about 14 to about 22. (At no point during that time was I ever skinny, though.) I intermittently continued until I was 28. The "Breaking Free" materials and other books by Geneen Roth helped me to understand the underlying emotional needs that were driving me to eat. Once those needs were addressed in healthier ways, I was able to follow the "Breaking Free" program (I think she also does seminars in person if you're not the "book" type). The challenge was two-fold - filling the emotional needs with something other than food, and removing the "magic powers" I had given special foods around which I could not seem to control myself. There are still some foods I choose not to have around the house because they tempt me to overindulge, or if I do have them around I have them around in limited quantities so I can choose to do so safely. I read once somewhere that being addicted to food is different from alcohol or drug addiction in one vital way - with those addictions your job is to cage the tiger permanently, but with a food addiction you still have to take the tiger out for a walk three times a day. I am by no means intending to minimize any form of addiction, but the power and severity food addictions are often overlooked by people.

Yes, we need food to survive, so those with eating disorders have to do a little more work. On the bright side of that, healthy eating habits are only conducive to a healthy life so the end product isn't abstinence but health (at least physical) and acceptance. I know that it is more than just an image issue. Eating can be a way of stuffing emotions and purging, a way to control that. Maybe purging up emotions in an attempt to eliminate them....which is imposable with an active eating disorder. I would be interested to know the day that you connected food to your psyche. The period of time that it no longer became nourishment but became a tool. What are these magical powers? What did you believe that food of a certain kind would do for you? And you started so young. Your addiction must have come from high school and peer pressure, but then evolved into a coping mechanism. Probably your only coping mechanism. But it seems that you have broken through to the other side and are able to communicate your experience so very well. Do you try to lend support to others who are in your past situation? You would do volumes of good, Jody.

Thanks very much for the input...it's very helpful, and I wish you the best of luck in life!

I volunteer support and encouragement to whoever I know seems to need it. In high school, I was the uber-nerd at a vocational school, with two parents who worked long hours and a sister who got excellent grades and shone at extracurriculars. I think mostly the feelings were loneliness and self-doubt. Really I think food was a form of self-validation, of self-care, and of anesthetization. I did begin compulsively eating at around the same age I began dieting, so there was an image issue, definitely.

Thank God you have been able to work through it. Jody, I stand at the check-out lines and look at the celebrity papers and I see the young female stars (I really have no idea what they appear in) looking horrible at 88 lbs. Ribs and shoulders sticking out. And just just isn't one girl, it is page after page after page. Why do you suppose this is such a trend in Hollywood? Did you associate exclusively with others who shared your habits? Would you give each other support in this? And how is your body image now? Again, I'm glad that you made it through the other side.

My body image is healthier, but I still want to lose weight (and probably should, but am not making myself crazy over it). There's a great book by Kim Chernin called "The Obsession: Reflections on the Tyranny of Slenderness" which traces the history of the "desirable" feminine shape throughout the ages, and focuses particularly on our current obsession with an ever-thinner figure. Another very helpful book I found was "Transforming Body Image" by Marcia Hutchinson. I didn't associate with anyone who shared my habits - I didn't know anybody who shared them. Eating disorders are often, by their nature, cloaked in secrecy and shame.

I will look at both books. Yes, body images of women. The 1950's, it was desirable to have a Marilyn Monroe body, and then the Mod Looks out of London, in the 1960's had models pencil then, though not as prevalent as today. Actually, heavier women with hour glass figures were usually norm through-out the ages. Only recent has celebrities been affected. Karen Carpenter was alone in her class, at the time. Then, years later, Tracy Gold....now, look at them all. How tall are you and how much do you way? Thanks for the book suggestions, as I said...my younger daughters appetite has changed and she won't tell me why. A mother is really, sometimes, last to know...everything! It's maddening!

I don't really care to discuss my height and weight....the whole weight thing is pretty convoluted to me even now. I'm a size 16, for what it's worth. If you are worried about your daughter, another book you might want to look up is "The Golden Cage" by Hilda Bruch. And you're right, it is maddening. And deadly.

I will check the book out today. Does it talk about young children? God, they know so much due to the media and they aren't very young for very long anymore. Please, I do not care about height or weight, either. To be healthy is a goal that I strive for, and that is difficult with all of the running around I do. Eating well and living well. If you have those down, it makes a lot of other issues seem tolerable.

I am not fat. I am not afraid of getting fat because I eat a good diet. I am not too thin. I am not afraid of becoming too thin.

I'm already a porker. Mmm give me the food.

You know, from your pics you don't look like a porker.

The camera lies

It's impossible for me to became fat because I've got a lightning metabolism.

Except for becoming around 30 lbs overweight after moving out on my own for the first time. I've never had anything remotely like an eating disorder. I turned to a vegetarian diet while trying to lose the weight and decided to stay with it because I like the way my diet makes me feel. The reason I put on the weight in the first place was that since I didn't have my mom making sure I ate a balanced diet, I started overindulging in fast food and snacks.

Oh yeah. For more than half my life, I've had eating disorders. And I've ended up in the hospital, but that didn't stop me. I'm also like Oprah, in one way. My weight has done crazy things. Overweight. Underweight. Sickly. Of course, my metabolism suffered. At my highest, my BMI was 32. At my lowest, only 17. Right now, it's stuck at 24.8 :(