Is this an ED?
Thank you for taking the time to read this!
I am a 30-ish y.o. female and have been mostly underweight and frail I think due to (i think) growing in a stressful home. I don't live with my parents but family remains a huge stressor in my life. When my anxiety is seriously acting up (like now) i can't eat, i feel nauseous and my throat closes up.. which is giving me even more anxiety because I know that without food I'm even weaker and can't take the correct actions due to lack of energy (+overwhelm). And then when things start to calm down (on a "normal" day) I will be anxious when I start to feel hungry thinking that If sometimes bad happens it will catch me off guard (in a weak state). My days are not very structured tbh.. actually they're a mess. I try to take my vitamins daily at least. But overall there is a lot of stress around not being able to eat properly, losing weight very fast in stressing times.. is it a specific ED that I can read on? any thoughts are appreciated! Thanks
@forwardCircle an ED involves trying to control what you eat in one way or another this just sounds like your worried that your not getting enough nutrients that your body needs because you lose your appetite when your feeling anxious and even though your taking a daily vitamin your still not sure. Maybe go to the doctor and get a test done so that you can know for sure if there are any deficiencies and get any nutritional support if needed could help your anxiety about it.
while there is no way for any of us to diagnose you, this sounds more like a side effect of anxiety than an ED. Keep in mind they are often comorbid. I have bulimia, so let me tell you how my anxiety affects my ED. When I am stressed, worrying, or having high levels of anxiety, I will either get the urge to binge eat, purge, or restrict (not typically part of bulimia, but it’s common for EDs to change over time). During these times, my brain tells me that part of the reason for my stress is I am a fat, greedy piggy and my stress can be better managed without food. My brain may also tell me that I don’t deserve food because no one else is eating so I don’t deserve to eat, either. My brain may also tell me that I deserve to be hungry.
The binge eating is a compulsive feeling, and my brain will add that I should eat something because I can’t think straight if I am hungry. The purging is also compulsive but my brain adds that the food I ate is poisonous and needs to be expelled.
So these behaviors worsen during stressful times, but they are accompanied by these irrational thoughts. I don’t know if you’re having those thoughts.
Either way, our bodies need proper nutrition to get our brain chemistry functioning as well as it can, so it can help to focus on getting small bits of food during those high anxiety times. I use protein shakes and juice when this happens.