Do I have an eating disorder?

[thais]

sorry to bother everyone... i just need to know if i have an eating disorder...
i have been, (for the past 2 years) drastically loosing and gaining weight. I am 16 years old and currently 20 pounds overweight (i think that that is about 10 kilos, or so). I am always trying to get on a diet but at the end of the day i am always loosing control over myself and i start binging, eating excessive amounts of food. The thing is, i dont always do this, but sometimes when im feeling too gulity and no one's around i make myself vomit. But this only occurs once in a while, like twice or three times a month. Binging, though, occurs nearly daily. I just want to know if what i have is considered as compulsive eating or bulimia. Could someone please help me? I can't really ask anyone else because i dont want people to find out...

 

[David Baxter PhD]

do i have an eating disorder?

Thais, eating disorders come in different formats but essentially an eating disorder is a pattern of eating that is unhealthy (and/or may be a threat to your health), compulsive, to a greater or lesser degree out of control, and/or causes you distress.

What you describe does sound like an eating disorder, even though you may not meet the full criteria for a spcific disorder like bulimia. If you read through the posts on this subject in this forum, you'll probably find a lot of descriptions of problem eating that may resonate with you as well as suggestions for trying to get the urges under better control. Of course, individual sessions with a counsellor would be the best and most effective way to determine whether you have an eating disorder and to change your eating patterns.

 

[Eunoia]

do i have an eating disorder?

hi Thais! you're not bothering anyone by asking a simple question... I would agree w/ David that ed's come in all kind of different shapes and forms. Just b/c you may not meet the specific criteria outlined for bulimia or compulsive eating etc. does not mean that your way of eating is healthy and that there is not a problem. Think about it this way, if someone else were to throw up for no particular reason except for to stop gaining weight, even if only a couple of times a week, you wouldn't think that that's normal, right? Throwing up is not something your body should be doing under normal conditions... not to speak of the emotional and mental implications.
Drastically loosing and gaining weight again is a really bad sign... b/c as great as it can be to loose the weight (if you are overweight.... and btw, did a doctor tell you? or is that just your perception?), if you loose it by restricting yourself from foods or doing massive amounts of exercise, it won't be a permanent solution. Dieting never works in the long run. Eating and living healthy (ie. normal exercise), which means not restricting your food during the day and not binging at night, will make you be able to become healthier...and lose the weight if you need to.

Don't play the game of not qualifiying for this or that ed and therefore, nothing is wrong.... b/c binging and purging (no matter how often) is not healthy.... and I think you know that by writing this post. In think the reason why binging later on the day occurs is b/c by trying to restricting your food so much during the day (ie. dieting) it's inevitable.... b/c your body NEEDS proper nutrition and eventually your mind will just take over and binging occurs... Thus in order not to binge you can't go on these crazy diets during the day... b/c it will always fall back to binging at night, b/c your body is struggling to get what it wants (energy).

Please try to get some help w/ this. You don't want to go down the road of an ed. It's not going to get better and breaking the cycle early will only help you.... it doesn't mean you have to stay overweight (if you are)... b/c there's other, much much better and healthier ways..... if you want more info you could also check out some books, websites, journal articles etc.... if you can't ask anyone... but do consider to go talk to someone...