Worried I might be falling into an eating disorder, but I’m not sure if it’s severe enough that its worth getting help or if I even have one

[cmw9719]

I’m about 140ish pounds and 5’10.5 female. Over the last year I’ve lost 30 pounds (goal is 130) , by calorie counting, intermittent fasting, and eating a plant based diet. I started gaining weight a couple years ago when I started college and gained the freshman and hit my highest weight (technically I was on the “healthy” B M I category, but on the high end, now I’m on the low end). I really hated my body and felt really fat, and a couple people in my family noticed that I gained weight. I kept trying to lose it by transitioning to a plant based diet, which helped, but on its own wasn’t enough. Then I started intermittent fasting and calorie counting and that was when I started to notice weight coming off. I feel like intermittent fasting though has been super stressful for me. I’ve always been a breakfast person and I get really hungry in the morning so when I first started, I gave up breakfast, but it got too exhausting for me, so I changed to skipping dinner, which I found to be a little easier. It still can be stressful though because whenever I have to eat dinner at a social event, it can be anxiety inducing. At the beginning of this year in January I started losing my period, and I didn’t get it back until the end of April so went 4 full months without a period. I think it had something to do with me not eating as much and I noticed that when I got it back, it was about a week and a half after Easter, where I started to eat more, especially since Lent was over, and I was attempting to fast a lot more during lent. So far my periods have been really irregular (I had it May and June but had 2 periods in August and none in September/July). , but I’m still working on trying to lose weight and still calorie counting and intermittent fasting. I feel so abnormal with my eating patterns. Whenever I hear people say they don’t eat breakfast I automatically feel insecure about the fact that I do and like there’s something wrong with me for eating in the morning. Some mornings I’ll eat a huge amount of food so it will essentially force me to not eat anything else for the rest of the day so I won’t go above my calories for the day. I kinda just want to be normal and skinny but not worry at every moment that I’m going to gain weight. I also will occasionally throw up if I feel really guilty about eating something, especially if it is a dessert or something. This isn’t too frequent, but I’ve been noticing it more.

[Audash]

My dear, Yes you exactly descibre what an eating disorder look like... But it's "early enough" to stop this right now !! Don't wait like me, i knew that i had a problem but not ready to recover. I ended up very severly underweight, i almost died from an heart failure. The things is, my body "revenge" was awfull and i end up overweight (my weight starts to reajust but soo slowly)

1) lack of period : that's the first sign your body is telling you "ok, now we need to put all the energy in a survive mode"

2) the binge eating in the morning it's when your body feel that there is food so feed me feed me before it's too late and before there is a New starvation

3) impossible to enjoy a social event when food is involve --> i know it well and i finished well alone because i would always say no to such event...

Wake up before it's to late. It's better to live beeing curvy than survive beeing skinny trust me...

[crazycrossstitcher]

Time to do something about things - a trip to the GP and ask for a referral to an ED specialist - or give ABC a ring on their helpline and chat. If you've started to vomit you certainly need to get things sorted as this can have a real affect on your health and do long term damage. Its really important to get help asap before things spiral out of control and the patterns of eating become even more ingrained and the fasting more severe. Your body needs correct nourishment and the sooner you sort it the better. Please seek professional help.

[56artist_]

As me anorexia since 14. 40 yrs of this most fatal mental illness only started treatment 7 yrs ago recovered but daily I do you start out becoming anorexic just ad you describe I lived that prison 40 yrs get help or it will take forever to recover like me some never recover or live mentally ill forever or die but I am a survivor and fight the road to recovery is no walk in park but worth every bit of the step,you did not ask for anorexia it takes lives just like cancer does I hate anorexia so much and all those 40 yrs of its lies it has a voice and now after 7 yrs treatment so do I I won it lost and I spoke back to it just as it did me but it was lies and mine is truth so anorexia you,lost and now you are the weak one I have much more power over it now than it ever had on me fight no one can recover without help professional u can chat anytime I do not want anorexia to take another life I know that life and experience is the best teacher