hungry for change

A lot of people paint it as if we don’t recognize our behavior is wrong. Quite frequently, we do. We just don’t care.

It’s not just anorexia and bulimia and binge-eating disorder. There are a million ways to suffer without fulfilling strict criteria.

The stigma against bulimics & other EDs within ourselves; Regardless of what disorder you have, if you can’t starve yourself enough, you see yourself as less than other people with EDs.

The desire to take drastically dangerous measures to lose weight like poisoning yourself to purge or actually cutting off your fat, even if you don’t actually partake in those methods.

How you can know a tip won’t actually help you lose weight but you do it anyways on the chance it can burn at least one extra calorie.

We love food. We LOVE it. We don’t want to not eat, we just can’t.

It’s not like those shitty fake movies where the anorexic doesn’t eat anything but popcorn for a month. You may fast for a few hours-a few days, you immediately binge, then you fast for a few days and binge again. It’s a cycle that repeats itself constantly, not a stagnant diet.

Purging is hard as fucking hell and is not always as easy as just putting one finger down your throat a few times to vomit.

You never lose weight exactly where you want to; You’ll become flat chested in a few days but it will take you months to trim down your thighs.

Noticing our behavior is a compliment; Sometimes we want you to see what we are doing to lose so much weight, we just don’t want you to stop us.

The sheer panic attacks you suffer from because even when you perfectly measure out your portions, you’re afraid of upsetting your intake by one single calorie because there is no way to be 100% sure.

• When you’re purging and there’s blood but you keep going because you’re scared to digest anything in fear of weight gain

• Damaging your organs because of lack of nutrients, electrolytes etc in general. Sometimes even permanently e.g rupturing your oesophagus.

• I cannot even begin to explain how mentally damaging it is to think that you could have even been 0.1 kg skinner if you had eaten nothing rather than one grape or a brownie.

• Can we talk about the frustration? When you’re so sick of having an ED you just break down and cry, wanting to scream?

• Having scabs/wounds on your knuckles from purging.

• Passing out/feeling mega dizzy because you’re literally starving your body of the nutrients it needs.

• Seeing everything as a number of calories, literally. The mucus in your nose, the sugar free gum, calcium in milk, a straw berry, a cookie- everything is just numbers now.

• The stigma that it’s easy to recover?? ‘Just eat’-no, it’s so hard when we live in a world where everything is telling us skinner is prettier (diet pills, photoshop, family meetings, literally everywhere you go)

• Having headaches all the time, literally.

Even if you fall into that demographic, you still should be taken seriously because anorexia is deadly

Lower income households are more likely to suffer from binge eating disorder

On the topic of race, anyone from any race can have an eating disorder

Disordered eating does NOT mean eating disorder, many people are pathological dieters but don’t have an ED

Confusing the two means that people think diet = ED but it’s not that simple

The genuine fear of realizing you can’t shit without some kind of stimulant whether it be laxatives or caffeine or something else

You can abuse laxatives to the point that your ass essentially atrophies and you need to remove it and replace it with a bag that fills with waste outside your body that you have to dump

You can be freezing, lose hair, pass out, have heart palpitations, and many other health consequences and NOT be anywhere NEAR underweight. You can be obese and have the same physical consequences of malnutrition as someone who is a threshold anorexic if you restrict

Self harming because of calories and weight gain

Sometimes it’s “vanity” or the quest to adhere to beauty standards that causes eating disorders, especially in the west, but people forget that it can also be a desire for control, can be triggered by trauma, a divorce or break up, a major rejection, pregnancy, bullying, genetics—it’s not always “I want to feel pretty” and even if it is, it’s just as serious

“But the starving children in Africa!!1!1!!” The guilt of eating overrides the guilt of ungratefulness, you’re not helping

Eating disorder rituals and thoughts are similar to OCD. The two disorders are actually highly co-morbid. Hence why the whole “just eat” doesn’t work. It’s like saying to an OCD sufferer who compulsively washes their hands to “just stop washing your hands”

If you have an eating disorder, you likely have other mental health problems

It’s not like the movies where you become anorexic and then get tube fed and recover and are fine. Very few people get tube fed and there are very limited treatment centres, and limited beds. By the time they consider admitting you into residential or inpatient, it could be too late. Not to mention the fact that your insurance can run out.

MANY people cross-over between eating disorders, often multiple times. (Example: you can swap anorexia for BED or bulimia for atypical anorexia, etc etc)

Your social life, self-image, family, school and work, and pretty much every single area of life is negatively impacted

If you have an eating disorder (especially anorexia or atypical anorexia) when you’re younger, you CAN ACTUALLY stunt your growth—and I’m living proof, because I did. I should be at least an inch taller.

Binging and starving cycles are the WORST and so painful because you feel powerless if you’re starving and powerless if you’re binging

Purging isn’t limited to vomiting: other compensatory methods include over-exercising, abusing laxatives and diuretics, as well as abusing other medications

Lying to your doctors is common

Flying under the radar because you don’t look sick enough and then one day your heart gives out and everyone wonders why you’re dead until the autopsy reveals your insides were a mess and we don’t talk about this enough

OSFED makes up 38% of all eating disorders, and includes atypical anorexia, short duration or low frequency bulimia/BED, night feeding syndrome, and purging disorder AND THEYRE JUST AS DANGEROUS AND EQUALLY SERIOUS. Used to be EDNOS. It’s not all anorexia/bulimia/BED, as was pointed out above.

Non-fatal car crashes can kill people with EDs because our hearts and bodies aren’t strong enough to withstand the impact that an otherwise healthy person could get through with a few bruises or fractures

THOUSANDS of dollars going towards fixing the damage you do to your body that could be used for school, rent, retirement savings, etc etc etc. (Do you still think it’s a choice???)

Also money going towards buying binge foods. Food can be very expensive, especially if you buy it in very large quantities. People drain their accounts and go into credit card debt because of binge eating.

MEN HAVE EATING DISORDERS TOO

Gay men and bisexual men/women are more likely to have an eating disorder compared to straight men/women and lesbians

You can recover from an eating disorder and relapse and it is still an eating disorder regardless of whether you were in recovery for 2 days, 3 weeks, 6 months, or 10 years. It is still an eating disorder and it is still valid. You are not faking your eating disorder because of a previous recovery. 

^On that note ^