Im shocked — doctor said my anorexia is incurable
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Posted 14 March 2022 - 02:29 PM
I don't like that she encouraged fitness competitions, they're massively infamous for encouraging EDs, what the hell?
But, like. I don't disagree that AN is incurable. I view it like alcoholism - you're never not an alcoholic, just sober. You're never not anorexic, just recovered.
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Posted 14 March 2022 - 02:30 PM
I'm left quite speachless after your post. I can't believe a mental health professional actually said these things...
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Posted 14 March 2022 - 02:34 PM
taketwenty, on 14 Mar 2022 - 2:29 PM, said:
I don't like that she encouraged fitness competitions, they're massively infamous for encouraging EDs, what the hell?
But, like. I don't disagree that AN is incurable. I view it like alcoholism - you're never not an alcoholic, just sober. You're never not anorexic, just recovered.
Yeah, fitness competitions are a terrible idea and I 100% agree that's a red flag! Also, that's exactly how I view it as well, I will never not have AN
Daintygirltobe, on 14 Mar 2022 - 2:27 PM, said:
Hello darlings, I hope you are all alright.
Today I visited a psychiatrist. She diagnosed me with anorexia nervosa for the first time ever, before that I had atypical one due to my weight (I started with a higher bmi).
As we were talking about my situation, the way I see myself, and my destructive eating patters she said something that shocked me a little. She said “anorexia is something for a lifetime, it won’t ever leave you alone. Instead of trying to fight it, start learning how to live with it.”
Later she also told me that “some anorexics as they try to recover choose to participate in fitness competitions that require low body fat” she suggested maybe I could aim for fitness type of body with very little fat but healthy bmi as my way to love myself, have little fat, and be healthy. She said I could do it professionally with a dietitian.
I’m puzzled. Is that a great advice? I hardly see myself ever becoming normal and eating without calories in mind, as I’ve haven’t been able to do that for 7+ years now. But being told my mind will stay like that forever is… scary.
Let me know what you think and what were the opinions of your doctors!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I'm so sorry you had that experience, she sounds like a shitty psychiatrist. As someone who's had so many shitty mental health providers, that sucks!
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Posted 14 March 2022 - 02:42 PM
It's rather the fact that she told you..
That's unmotivating or even triggering for a person that plans to recover
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Posted 14 March 2022 - 02:43 PM
she's completely wrong and the whole "you will have to live with this for the rest of your life" narrative is incredibly harmful!
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Posted 14 March 2022 - 02:49 PM
Either way it seems like they were being extra dramatic and pessimistic rather than asking you what you want to do about it and educating you on the health effect and your options.
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Posted 14 March 2022 - 02:50 PM
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Posted 14 March 2022 - 02:55 PM
That’s terrible advice, your psychiatrist sounds irresponsible, unprofessional and ignorant. You should ask for a referral to an ED specialist who actually knows what they’re talking about. While the struggle CAN be life long for many people, recovery is definitely possible, and part of “learning to live with it” is learning to fight it. Also getting into bodybuilding is often just swapping one ED for another tbh, I’m kind of shocked she would suggest that.
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Posted 14 March 2022 - 03:25 PM
Unfortunately, anorexia is indeed a life-long disorder for many sufferers. Even some anorexics who HAVE managed to recover say they still battle ED thoughts regularly.
That said, I believe full recovery IS possible for some people, so don’t give up hope!
I can sort of see where your therapist is coming from with the fitness competition thing too: if your mind is going to be unhealthy regardless, at least your body can be healthy. Better to be mentally unhealthy and physically healthy than both mentally and physically unhealthy (I guess?).
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Posted 14 March 2022 - 03:41 PM
taketwenty, on 14 Mar 2022 - 2:29 PM, said:
I don't like that she encouraged fitness competitions, they're massively infamous for encouraging EDs, what the hell?
But, like. I don't disagree that AN is incurable. I view it like alcoholism - you're never not an alcoholic, just sober. You're never not anorexic, just recovered.
beat me to it
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Posted 14 March 2022 - 04:04 PM
I feel like her advice resonates with me. It would help me i believe. Msg me if you care what I think on this
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Posted 14 March 2022 - 04:21 PM
what a fucking idiot, that's not how you recover lol. shes probably not experienced with eds.
but when she said anorexia is a lifetime thing, she wasn't calling it incurable. she just meant that the ed voice never goes away, you just learn to deal with it and ignore it. i was fully recovered for a year and that ana voice never left, i just thought it was stupid and ignored it because i genuinely didn't care what it had to say.
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Posted 14 March 2022 - 04:28 PM
okay I think I have a good answer for this that will give you hope!!! My good friend and I both went to res a year ago and we've both been struggling since. I spoke to her yesterday after a couple months and was explaining how shitty I was doing and expected her to be like yeah same (her ed was always worse than mine. on NG tube many times, always fainting, osteoporosis. I didnt have any of that). BUT. she told me that she hit rock bottom in November and something clicked and she realized that she HAD to do this for HERSELF. she was talking about how great life was now and I explained that I feel like I could get rid of my eating disorder but depression would just replace it because I'm so insecure at a higher weight. She explained that its my eating disorder that feels that way about my body at a higher weight. when you work on getting rid of your ed you're working on getting rid of those toxic voices. you could have a life that wasn't driven by the toxic voices. you wouldn't be depressed because you were fat because you would be able to see yourself for what you really are: MUCH MORE THAN A BODY. anorexia is not forever. I thought this girl would die a couple months ago, and now she's never been happier. you CAN recover. <3
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Posted 14 March 2022 - 04:31 PM
Wow, fuck her. Most psychiatrists and even therapists don't know anything about eating disorders. Yes, lots of people do live with anorexia (or any ED) for life and only learn to manage, AND many people also recover. There are LOTS of people out there talking about how they no longer have ANY ED THOUGHTS and consider themselves FULLY RECOVERED. I have met these people. They said the ED feels like it happened to another person.
If you want to recover, it is possible and you can find people to support you to work towards that. If that isn't a goal for you and you want to practice harm reduction, that's okay too. It is not this persons place and super unprofessional and uninformed for her to tell you that EDs are a forever sentence.
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Posted 14 March 2022 - 04:42 PM
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Posted 15 March 2022 - 03:51 AM
pastafreak, on 14 Mar 2022 - 3:25 PM, said:
I can see where she’s coming from. To be honest, she seems to have a more realistic view on AN than many other therapists, who often think anorexics become cured as soon as they are weight restored.
Unfortunately, anorexia is indeed a life-long disorder for many sufferers. Even some anorexics who HAVE managed to recover say they still battle ED thoughts regularly.
That said, I believe full recovery IS possible for some people, so don’t give up hope!
I can sort of see where your therapist is coming from with the fitness competition thing too: if your mind is going to be unhealthy regardless, at least your body can be healthy. Better to be mentally unhealthy and physically healthy than both mentally and physically unhealthy (I guess?).
I can also kinda see where she’s coming from. She doesn’t sell me a dream of ever becoming fully “normal” mind wise, but she tries to encourage me to think of how I can turn the negative into the positive. Anyway, it was my first consultation about anorexia with someone, so I have nothing to compare it with nor an understanding what is proper and what’s not.
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Posted 15 March 2022 - 06:42 AM
Disordered version: Tbh I agree with her. I will always have AN, I will just learn to live with it. And that doesn’t mean my whole life will be miserable. There WILL (if I WORK on it) be periods of remission, and if you thoroughly, thoroughly work on it, I believe those periods can last a long time, if you learn to cope with what your disordered side tells you and do not follow it. This is how I view this disorder, but ofc I’m not a professional so what can I say, I’m probably saying this from my own disordered ass perspective.
The fitness competition advice tho? Screw that imo. No replacing of one obsession and unhealthy-ness with another.
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Posted 15 March 2022 - 06:56 AM
If you would start competing as a fitness model, I don’t think that would be a good idea, because most of them have periods of bulking and cutting, since that low body fat percentage just isn’t sustainable in the long run. So for competing you would constantly need to gain weight and build muscle, and then lose body fat but maintain muscle, to me that doesn’t sound much better than just having a full blown eating disorder.
If you genuinely want to recover as much as possible, and become in control of your ed, I definitely wouldn’t start competing, I would try to focus as little as possible on physique and food, but just focus on life outside of what your body looks like, how healthy or not certain foods are, and how strong and ‘fit’ you are. I would focus on building friendships, studying or working, exercising for fun. But I can also imagine a lot of people think differently about this.
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