Why do people always say something about finding out the "real" problem behind an eating disorder? Why can't the "real" problem be that I am overweight and I don't want to be?
Gail

Hey Gail! As you already know, I am anorexic and I can tell you right now that the real problem with eating disorders isn't just physical. Yeah, you might be overweight and just want to loose weight, but anorexia is almost all in the mind. Heck, I am 89 lbs. (5'5) and I think I am fat! My mind tells me not to eat things because they are high in fat or calories. I feel guilty for just eating. But I can totally understand what you're say...good luck!

Thanks for replying Running Queen. I know that there is the problem with seeing oneself as fat even when not. When I weighed 120lbs. I still thought I was fat. But, I guess what I don't understand is where the control issue comes in or any of the other many "real" problems I have heard about.
Gail

There are other "real" problems besides control issues. For instance, my weight does not define me as a person, right? Well, it shouldn't, but why is it that if I gain 2 lbs and go up to 126lbs I don't have as much confidence? Why does gaining 2 lbs make me feel like a lazy, useless, undisciplined slacker? Why do I berate myself for chewing a piece of Juicy Fruit gum? These are my issues that go way beyond weight. (I don't mean to be airing dirty laundry or anything, I just figured who better to use as an example than myself). I haven't starved myself, or binged/purged in 2 yrs, but I still think about it. It never goes away.

There is a difference between wanting to be healthy and attractive, and always wanting to be thinner and thinner. I don't have all the answers. I'm not sure where these issues come from, or how they get into our heads. I think that some of it is from society, some of it may be upbringing, but a lot of it has to do with an individual's personality.

Someone who wants to be healthy eats 3-4 balanced meals/day and gets regular excercise. Someone with an eating disorder harms her own body day in and day out to be skinny. She can't get better until she realizes and faces the reasons why she is hurting herself. If it were just about food, we could all become "normal" over night.

Thanks Tricky for your reply. I guess I just don't understand why I do what I do. Why am I so desperate to be thin? I wish I knew why it is so important to me.

Gail

It;s obvious, thin is what society portrays as beautiful, do you ever really see overweight people on tv or in magazines being portrayed as beautiful, no way! If being unhealthy and thin is beautiful then there is something wrong there, but everyone fails to see it.