Learning more about how Eating Disorders interact with Depression

I would be willing to help if you knew of a way for a teen listener and an adult listener to PM. Unfortunately, I don't think that's possible unless you're a teen mentor. However if you do know of a way I'm open to help!

For me how my depression and eating disorder went hand and hand is I was always consumed with the guilt and thought of never being good enough or even looking good enough to the point I wasn't even happy. The constant need to be better and look better started off with trying to exercise and eating right, but I became to impatient for that so I resulted in making myself sick which I ended up becoming addicted for being in control of it and developing Bulimia. I think it may depend on different people but that's how my depression went hand and hand with me.

I am personally a picky eater and it can definitely go hand-in-hand with my depression at times. I'm severely limited in what I feel I can eat, as anything else put near me makes me want to gag. Even if I want to eat things, I can not physically force myself without feeling completely disgusted.

This also leads into my unhealthy diet, because my pickiness doesn't allow me to eat what I should. I tend to eat only one big meal a day with snacks, so all of this kind of leads into my self-image with depression. I can shut down sometimes and occasionally cry when people force me to chose where we should go out to eat because "I have to chose so I can eat." I hate having that pressure put on me and it links with my anxiety.

I've had to excuse myself from family dinners/eating out because there was nothing on the menu for me to eat (one place was literally out of stock of everything I could possibly eat there) and I cried in the bathroom. In those moments, I'm so upset because I just can't be normal or eat what I want to and it puts a strain on other people as well. (We eventually left and went somewhere else entirely just because of me. Though my family was supportive about it, and not mean.)

I hope this helps you out a little. You can always ask me more about it if you want. It's a daily struggle for me--any time I get hungry I have to wonder if I'm just going to feel upset again because there's "nothing to eat in the house."

@Batman94 - I'm not entirely sure what you're looking to learn, but I'd be happy to answer any questions you have. I think you're absolutely right that there is a lot of comorbidity between depression and eating disorders, and that going into psychology, it's important to understand as much as you can.

Feel free to either PM me with any questions I can answer or to set up time to chat, or to just ask questions here and I'll answer them to the best of my ability. Take care

I believe that my depression and eatingdisorder go hand in hand absolutely. Myterrible low self worth with mydepression feeds into the disorder and I don't think that I am worth recovery or food because of the things that I've done and what has been done to me. When I am in a depression episode I either eat too much or not enough. Lately it has been not eating much at all and I don't really care because I don't have to energy to make myself something that I would want anyway.

Hello! I would like to share my experience... I am a very depressed girl. I've been battling it for years without medicine and I still do. I've lost a lot over it. I developed bulimia a few years ago and it has become a habit when I get upset. It's a weird feeling I fill myself up to just throw it all away. But I also feel in control of myself. Which I rarely ever feel anymore.

Not sure if this will help you with your study, but here's my story. My cycle goes like this: I get depressed. I feel hollow. I binge eat because I want to not feel empty inside. Eating something that tastes good makes me feel better, but once I'm full I feel worse. I feel guilty for eating because I'm overweight and that makes me want to eat more. I've never tried to explain it before. This is harder to try and explain then I thought.

Hey there :) Here's my story :

Things were pretty normal, I was never the athletic type, but I was active and ate healtier than most of my friends. A little over two years ago, my father had a stroke that left him half paralyzed. He spen almost four months in intensive care and I (together with my mum) were spending most of our time in the hospital. When I wasn't there, I was basically hiding indoors, avoiding all my friends. I hated answering to their (normal, I have to admit, and kind) questions regarding his condition and how I was coping with it. That is why I wasn't eating anything all day long, barely dinking a cup or two of water; my mind was a mess and I was in a rather dark place, where I didn't matter and I kept having vivid dreams of going to sleep and never waking up. As you can imagine, after a whole day (or even two or three) of eating nothing or barely touching food, I would go out at night to ease my mind, realise how weak I was feeling and how painful being angry was, so I was binge-eating fast foods at night. Even if I didn't enjoy them, I was convinced I deserved such low-quality food - don't ask me why, such an explanation is unknown even to myself. This bevahior became a habit and I ended up even more sad, depressed and - of course!- overweight.

Now I do my best to get back on track, after realising how distructive I was towards myself and how very real my depression was (a thing I have denied for the last two years); I do my best to eat right and simply live my life as I used to. It's not easy and I still depend on others to help me stay focused and motivated, but I am convinced that being set on changing something is a huge step forward from where I was not even six months ago.

Hope you find my short info useful. I'd be happy to give you any other details if needed :)