Anorexia and anxiety

[Katki]

I have been suffering with health anxiety severely for the past month. In this month, I have suffered stomach cramping and I have therefore associated feeling ill with eating. The sheer level of the anxiety has also meant that I haven't been able to relax enough to eat. I have gone from 11st4lbs to 9st13lbs in just over a month. I understand this is not an unhealthy weight for my height but it's more the reason and time frame in which I have lost it.

Although at first, I was depriving myself of food purposely, I would not class myself as anorexic as I am not purposely depriving myself of food anymore. I simply don't want to eat it because I feel so awful.

I wondered if this was classed as anorexia. I have an unhealthy relationship with food now, and do not want to eat. I enjoy the feeling of emptyness in my stomach as I relate that feeling to keeping stomach illness at bay.

Would like to know if anyone else has experienced something like this.

[MyNameIsTerry]

There are a couple of threads running on the GAD board where eating disorders are being discussed.

There could be other issues in play here that you are responding to with anxiety such as IBS so it might be worth posting on that board.

Also, things like gluten intolerance get discussed on the GAD board by members such as Shakey1961, so it's worth investigating things like that too.

[Sunflower2]

From my experience with eating disorders, the thing that defines anorexia is the restriction of food purposely to cope with emotional reasons. And with all the EDs, you use food (or not) to deal with how you're feeling in a way to feel better.

I have an unhealthy relationship with food, and I have a very lengthy thread on it as Terry mentioned! I was told I was not anorexic because I did not appear to have body issues and the reason for restricting food was only due to being anxious/not wanting to feel sick. That is how it started out with me, but since then its developed into something else which is more likely to be an eating disorder. I would recommend that you investigate the reasons for this as soon as you can so it doesn't get worse like me and you can more easily get past this issue. Good luck :)

[Katki]

My reasons for not eating are exactly the same. I have read your posts and feel like I can really relate. I am feeling a little better today (a very little!) and am trying natural ways to help reduce my anxiety. I hope you are doing OK.