Afraid to Eat

[AmiFey]

I haven't eaten anything since Friday unless you include a few cups of juice and water as food, and I've lost quite a bit of weight, but.. I'm physically hungry, but my mind doesn't seem to agree. It wants me to keep telling my family I'm not feeling well enough... I just want to be able to enjoy food again without the fear of gaining weight or thinking I'm a failure.

[~CourageousSurvivor~]

Hey there,

Sorry it has taken so long for you to get a reply. I hope everything is going good with you.

I really think you should reach out for help. It sounds like things are getting quite dangerous with your disordered eating. It is not good to go days without food. And it sounds like right now you have the will to get better but your unhealthy mind is too strong. It could really help you to reach out for help with all of this. Eating disorders feed off of the secrets we keep so the less secrets we keep the weaker ED gets.

I also suggest that you try (and I know this will be hard) to do the opposite of what you unhealthy mind is telling you to do. Your unhealthy mind is telling you not to eat so I suggest you try eating. If you feel like you absolutely cannot eat then I suggest you get a supplement drink something like ensure. This will provide your body with some of the lacking nutrients.

Do you know why you feel the urge to starve yourself? Have you been able to identify the reasons behind it? If not I suggest you try working on that as well. If you can identify the reason behind your desire to starve yourself you can slowly start to deal with it and get to a better place. One way you might be able to identify the underlying issues behind your need to starve yourself is journaling.

I really hope this helped and if you need anything please feel free to use teenhelps many resources.

Jenna

[Nicole!]

It sounds like you may be getting an eating disorder. I would make yourself eat, even if you brain is telling you your not hungry. Have some fruit or something healthy and light if that is all you can handle. I suggest speaking help as it seems you have some self-esteem issues. Remember that you are beautiful no matter what size you are. Best of luck!

[jduckie]

i agree with Nicole. force yourself to eat, because if you dont, its only going to get worse. and with an eating disorder it can get really bad. youre perfect just the way you are. dont let anyone ever tell you any differently (:

[AmiFey]

I ended up being forced by my mom to eat, and then since then I've been trying to make myself eat around my family's mealtimes. Thank you for the replies, and I think once I'm back in school I'll talk to Ms. Sheets about it again. (I mentioned it to my LifeGroup, but they didn't seem to pay much attention.) Do any of you have any tips for staying back on track, avoiding giving in to wanting to purge, or anything else? Any would be greatly appreciated. I'm honestly sick of being like this.

[~CourageousSurvivor~]

Hey there,

I would definitely suggest that you have scheduled meal times and do not stray from that. That will help keep you on track and on days when you are not feeling like eating it can help to know that you are scheduled to eat at a given time. When I was in treatment for my eating disorder the scheduled meals helped me a lot on the bad days.

As for your urge to purge I would suggest that you use distractions to avoid the urge to purge. Take a look at the alternatives to self harm and go from there. A lot of the things on that list can be used to help distract you from the urge to purge.

Here is the link:

http://www.teenhelp.org/forums/f12-self-harm/t9418-alternatives-self-harm/

Also, try journaling to avoid the urge to purge. When you get an urge to purge sit down and write down what you are feeling. If you can identify the emotions behind the urge you will be one step closer to avoiding it. And, journaling will give you a positive way to cope.

I hope this helped and if you need anything feel free to pm me.

Jenna