[TH Anonymous]

[SIZE="a"]Hello everyone,
I recently purchased a new scale to keep track of my weight as I had no way of doing so for years. My dad never replaced the battery in our old scale even though my mom asked him to do so several times.
I got it a few weeks ago, and have weighed myself a few times now. I’m doing this because it’s a new thing that I’m able to do all on my own, and also I want to keep track to make sure I’m in the healthy range for my hight and age.
I went to a support group tonight and told them how I freaked out because the scale said I gained several pounds in just a couple of days. However, it was an error. I was standing on the scale the wrong way.
A few people mentioned that maybe getting the scale wasn’t a good idea, as now I’m focusing too much on the numbers and weigh myself a lot more than when I did not have a scale, and had no way of knowing how much I weighed.
I mentioned how it has always been in the back of my mind, and how I’ve engaged in body checking behaviors before but didn’t want to mention it to them, as I didn’t want to trigger them. Someone said that maybe I should send the scale back, but my thinking is that I can’t hide from scales forever, and I need to learn to accept my weight.
I think after a few weeks, the novelty will wear off, and I won’t weigh myself as much as I am doing right now. I’m also trying to weigh myself to make sure my scale is accurate and not broken as when my nephew weighed himself, it said he weighed more than he weighed at the doctors office the day before.
My dad weighed himself and said that his weight was pretty accurate, and that maybe the doctor didn’t weigh my nephew correctly or did it too quickly and didn’t let the scale balance evenly.
I have been diagnosed with Anorexia in the past, but recently have been re-diagnosed with ARFID. I definitely have a lot of the criteria for avoidant restrictive food intake disorder, but I also struggle with body image and restricting behavior due to wait and shape size concerns.
I guess what I’m worried about is not having the scale and never knowing how healthy my weight is. I’m able to use this scale completely on my own without having to have someone assist me in doing the task. I am worried that if I give up this scale, I’m going to lose independence of being able to do this on my own.
My therapist wants me to keep track, to make sure I’m eating well and that I’m not losing weight. I am going to see her on August second and will discuss this with her then. I have until August 11th to send the scale back.[/size]