Eating Disorders due to anxiety

[Amy.x]

Has anybody suffered an eating disorder as a result of anxiety?
I suffered from anorexia for years which the doctors put down to anxiety. I have recovered now but still have small relapses and have been having a hard time with it lately.
It does goes up and down but this week has been a big downfall for me, I haven't been able to finish a meal and threw away a bunch of food I had because I just couldn't have it in the house.

It is the simplest things that are such a struggle sometimes :(

[Rosalind141085]

I have had similar things. I find it very difficult to eat when I'm feeling anxious (which is a lot of the time) and have lost weight as a result. I have also found myself binge eating and throwing up, just to focus on something else other than my anxiety for a change!
It's very difficult sometimes, but I am booked in for some councelling that I got through my GP, which I hope helps.

You are not alone though, and it's nice to know I'm not either.

[Vixki]

Erm.. I'm not entirely sure what you mean by 'eating disorder' here. Do you mean the anxiety causes you to be scared of being fat, therefore you don't eat? Or is it the anxiety which causes you to have no appetite?
I was hospitalized due to what the doctors thought was anorexia, actually it was because I was scared that eating was going to make me ill. I suppose it was a sort of 'eating disorder' because Iwas not eating right, but I didn't have the whole body image stuff which comes with anorexia type things.

[Rosalind141085]

Hi Vixki,

I do not consider mine an 'eating disorder', I have no fear of being fat or anything like that, the anxiety just causes me to have absolutely no appetite at all, and if I throw up it is usually because I feel sick, the anxiety churning my stomach

[tnt808]

I absolutely had/and still struggle with one. I was having horrible anxiety in 07' got put on meds- felt better and I really feel that I shifted all of the energy that I once put into my anxiety onto my eating habits. I ended up being really sick- won't go into the icky details.

But yes, I do blame it on my anxiety, as I still had the need to try and be in control of something- because everything else was so out of control.

[Lissy43]

When my anxiety hits I struggle to eat, even putting food in my mouth can make me feel sick. I hate it, and I told my GP years ago about it and he said not to worry, it isn't an eating disorder, it is just that that the anxiety makes me feel sickly therefore I can't eat, where as some people eat more and comfort eat when they are anxious.

I rarely get like this now, but my anxiety doesn't last as long now, I do have the odd day in recent months where I can't eat.

[Ronaldo10]

I suffer eating problems when i have my anxiety problems few years back. When you are in anxiety period it affects your taste to food and also your appetite. Day by day your appetite will loss gradually which result to weight loss. But it differs from people, my friend suffers from anxiety but because of that he gain weight because he just eat and eat and eat.

[BabyRachel]

Hi there.. I've been reading this thread recently and there are a few things I'd like to say. I've had actual eating disorders AND lack of appetite due to medication for anxiety and no appetite from anxiety. I'd really like to distinguish there is a MASSIVE difference between not eating and loosing weight due to anxiety and having a full blown eating disorder.

I have also found that when you call something like this an eating disorder it makes it a bigger problem mentally. I have found this out because I have depressive low moods and I labelled this as depression which caused me to feel more depressed and have more frequent worse low moods. When I labelled it - low moods things got a bit easier.

Anorexia - literally means lack of appetite.
Anorexia Nervosa - is the actual eating disorder.

Rosalind - what your doing is extremely harmful. I can understand the need of a break from anxiety but your doing something very destructive. Why don't you try shifting that energy into something more positive that will benefit you and your health? Like exercise or knitting, writing or painting. These things are also good for anxiety (especially exercise, releases andrenaline caused by anxiety and writing/painting are expressive very calming).. Throwing up your food is very harmful, it disturbs the stomach, the acid eats away at your throat and rots your teeth, causes bad breath and if left untreated it could cause you to actually develop bulimia. You do not want this ontop of anxiety. Anxiety is enough to deal with, let alone an eating disorder ontop of it.

I am a former and current anorexic. I know what I'm talking about.. I really don't want to jump down anyones throat or make anyone feel bad at all, not my intention..