Hi. My name is Jillian and I am new to all this Message Board stuff. I was wondering what really leads everyone to hurt their bodys, does it really make you feel good to be as thin as a tooth pick? I mean really how many calories do you eat in a day? I know this kind of stuff is hard but I have a feeling that soon I am going to be an anorexic and I would just like to talk. thanks!

Hi Jillian!! and welcome to the boards!!

Wow, there are a lot of newbies around here lately, huh? anyway...i'm glad you found these boards and had the courage to post. It really does take courage to start to admidt to yourself that you (may) have a problem.

As to your question about what leads someone into an ED...there are so many millions of answers. Maybe it's different for everyone. For me, I guess, it started off as a diet...and then one day I decided to purge...and then it gave me a sense of control...and then I couldn't stop. And now I'm here...months and months and months later, ruining my body, ruining my life, ruining my relationships with the people I love the most.

Also, you should know that not everybody with ED's are "skinny as a rail," I, myself, have struggled with bulimia on and off for years and I am "normal" weight. And as for the calories, you don't have to eat a certain number of calories a day to be considered "anorexic" or "bulimic" it's a mental game.

I am curiuos as to what you mean about "I have a feeling that soon I am going to be an anorexic." Please let us know how you're doing, tell us about yourself if you want. We're here to talk all the time, you'll see that I spend a lot of my time on these boards, and I try to reply to everyone's posts...hehe, everybody is prolly sick of reading my random thoughts and messages http://www.healthboards.com/ubb/tongue.gif

Please let us know how you're doing. It's a great board for support, you'll see that!

NEVER GIVE UP
~sarah~

Hi Jillian! I am also new to this board but I can assure you it is a great source of support! In answer to your question, I am no expert but I think that there are many different reasons that people develop eating disorders.The thing about people with eating disorders is that they have a very distorted view of their bodies. So when everyone else sees them as tooth pick thin, they still think that they are "fat". They are never satisfied with their body. When you said that you think you are going to be anorexic soon, I don't know if you have already started restricting food from yourself or not, but you need to realise that this is very serious and you could be putting your health at risk! Do you think there is anyone that you could talk to about this? Please be careful and keep posting here! There are lots of really nice people here who can relate to what you are going through. I hope this helped!
~Jen~

Hi Jillian http://www.healthboards.com/ubb/wave.gif

I'm real tired right now, but I wanted to respond to your post......don't know if I'm doing this right so bear with me, I cut & pasted my response to an ealier similar question .......here it is

QUOTE]Originally posted by catgirl:
Princess,

It start's out with a weight loss plan because all of us at some point & time were heavyier than we wanted to be.

But then it turns into a controll issue because of other factors in our life that we cannot control & this seems to be the only one we can.

Most of us are depressed for some reason or other and felt we had little power to change the things that depressed us. So we turned it inward, because losing weight made us happy.

Then the mind took over and gave us dellusions, thus the ED disorder. Now we not only have to fight our depression but the ED disorder as well. It is a mind control thing or mindset that we must turn around and tell the mind "no" what we see in the mirror is not true. We are no longer heavy and we have a problem. We must eat in order to survive. It's a very tough psychological problem to overcome.

Hope this helps you understand. Cat[/QUOTE]