Eating Disorder and Celiac Disease
After struggling with and completely recovering from an eating disorder in high school, I thought I was in the clear for the rest of my life. Four years later, I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease. Celiac disease involves completely removing gluten from your diet. The focus on what I'm putting into my body has brought back eating disordered thoughts and behaviors. Can anyone relate?
My anorexia story
When I was in 7th grade I weighed [edited for weight specifics/triggers by forum mentor] lbs and I was fat, so I started skipping meals. No one noticed because I wasn't the girl who got noticed. But my family started noticing that summer when I weighed [edited] lbs. they didn't do much about it but tell me I looked good, I loved the positive feedback so I kept going. And kept going.... But then I got to around [edited] lbs and I lost all of my energy, everyone looked at me differently, they all said they were disappointed in the life I was choosing for myself. My mom started forcing me to eat or shed send me away. I started forcing myself to throw up and I got deadly sick. I was rushed to the hospital around the same week, the fed me with a tube through my nose and put me In inpatient care for 14 days until I gained weight. I weighed [edited] lbs it was awful. Of course I relapsed over and over and over again.
@JustThoughts2018 - It sounds like you've had a long struggle already. How are you doing now? Have you been able to get a handle on recovery, or are you still relapsing? Are there things that have helped you with recovery in the past? If you ever need some extra support, feel free to reach out to a listener here and they will be happy to talk to you. Take care
@LoveByChristina - I can't relate directly, but I had a similar thing when I was in recovery and tried to go back to being a vegetarian (I was one for several years, but ultimately reintroduced meat for health reasons). I found that cutting out a food group from my diet like that made me start thinking a lot more about what I was eating and what else I should cut out and got me slipping pretty fast. I was lucky in that I could choose to stop being a vegetarian, where as you can't choose to start eating gluten again, but I guess I just wanted to say that I get where you're coming from.
As to how to deal with it, I think you just have to keep being vigilant about your thoughts and eating and keep being open and honest with yourself and others while you adjust fully to this new diet and get used to the new normal. You are strong and you can do this. And we're here to support you if you need us. Take care
Thank you so much for sharing your story and for your kind words. Dealing with dietary restrictions is always hard, and puting eating disordered throughts on top of that makes it a lot harder. It's so hard to figure out what is physically healthy compared to mentally healthy. On one side, it is important to eat healthy. But on the other, it's easy for that to become an obsession.
Thanks again for posting!
Oh no! What a nightmare! You are so strong for beating that eating disorder and now you MUST restrict your diet and watch food labels again. I'm so sorry, this must be very frustrating. Fortunately for you, the positive side to this is that you're probably well versed in reading food labels from the time of your eating disorder. You're a step ahead of most people in adopting the celiac diet!
I wanted to offer support because I work in clinical nutrition and I also beat an eating disorder years ago. My disordered eating stemmed from undiagnosed depression. But I can relate because I never ever want to go through that again, as I'm sure neither do you.
You are fortunate that the consumer world is much more aware of food allergies. There are more gluten free options available than ever. And a lot of new foods to try. I'm not sure how long you've been following the diet but it will become second nature to you in time. In the meanwhile, write me if you need ideas for meal planning or support! Best of luck, and here's to healthy living!