Anorexia

[CuddlyPanda]

I just joined because I suffer from anorexia and figured I can't go my whole life without seeking help. For the longest time I've been trying to ignore the symptoms and ignored friends when they were concerned about my weight and saying I'm way too skinny and need to eat more, and genuinely wondering if I'm anorexic. So I have finally decided to do my research, and It's so accurate to my life that it shocked me, and I finally put two and two together. But I cant tell my parents. So I have come to you guys.

[Karnataka23]

Hello CP and welcome. By admitting to yourself that you have anorexia, you have already made the first, biggest and most important step and I hope that you are able to find the help you need.

BTW, my wife has been dealing with anorexia for the last 11 years and still is so I have a considerable amount of insight into the secretive and delusional behaviour of anorexics.

There are certain characteristics that nearly all anorexics share and "trying to ignore the symptoms and ignore friends when they were concerned about my weight and saying I'm way too skinny and need to eat more, and genuinely wondering if I'm anorexic " is one of the most basic but there are a great many as you have already discovered from your research . When my wife was first diagnosed, I started to read up on the subject and, like you, discovered that it was "so accurate to her life that it shocked me" too and I thought they must surely have met her at some time!

You have also taken the second step which is admitting to yourself that you need help. It's important that you do this soon because if you let your weight continue to drop further, at some point you will start to lose mental capacity after which your judgement will be impaired when you need to make rational and important decisions about things like getting help but the problem is, because your judgement is impaired, you won't know that your judgement is impaired.

Nobody can face anorexia alone and it's important to remember that you are not alone, there are a lot of people in the same boat and SWEDA can give you better advice than I can, but you do need help and you should start by finding the phone number of your local mental health crisis team. I don't think you need to tell your parents YET as I'm sure that prospect is scary, but as soon as you have made contact with your local mental health services, I would strongly advise that you do as so at least when you break the news, you can add that you are already getting professional help and you're going to need as many people as possible on your side. The problem for parents is that, as soon as they know, they go into panic mode and asking "what are we going to do?" If you've already done it, it can greatly mitigate their fears and panics.

I wish you well. Anorexia is a very strong demon that is difficult to defeat but, as I said, you appear to have already taken some important steps.

Good luck

David