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Post by Bex on Aug 26, 2013 15:24:40 GMT
This is something that Casey posted on one of the Facebook groups recently, about a friend of hers, and it made me wonder: I know that many people replied to the original post, but would be good to see what others with an ED thought about it? Do you think that an eating disorder should be categorised by your weight or can that effectively make it worse for people (as they would feel as though they have to lose that weight to even get help)?
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Post by Deleted on Aug 26, 2013 18:24:12 GMT
No, the anorexia criteria is ridiculous. If you went from BMI 25 to 23 in a short period of time by restriction of food intake - that's anorexia. However the same jump from, e.g. 19 to 17 would count because below 17.5 meets the criteria for Anorexia Nervosa. It's so stupid. I would talk to your therapist/psychiatrist/doctor etc ASAP. The mindset is definitely more dangerous.
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Post by klairebear on Aug 26, 2013 21:52:02 GMT
im in the same boat as casy. i havent been diagnoised with anorexia but been told basically "continue with support group for eatign disorder and wait for counciling". which makes me wonder is my eatign really bad? even thought i know it is!!!
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Post by esther on Aug 27, 2013 14:21:00 GMT
I think it's the attitude and mindset that determines whether or not someone has an eating disorder. Or rather it should be. Yes, there are physical effects because of the nature of eating disorders, and they should be used as an indicator but it isn't necessary to be underweight to be living with dangerous negative thoughts surrounding food. Perhaps it's more that it's easier to identify/spot when it's accompanied by weight loss. I know there's lots of discussion among doctors and specialists about changing the diagnostic criteria, for example most want to change the BMI criteria for men to being 18.5/19, because of the differences between male and female bodies/muscle/fat meaning it's more dangerous for a man to be at 17.5 than for a woman. From my experience, the emphasis on weight really didn't help, because I felt like the specialists wanted to focus on getting my weight back to normal, rather than helping me to overcome the mental barriers, so it was a downward spiral from there.
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Post by Bex on Aug 28, 2013 18:54:18 GMT
Thanks for all of the advice guys! It's really interesting to see what the different opinions are on eating disorders. The question wasn't for me personally, although I'm intrigued by the answers. It's never occurred to me that just getting into the wrong mind pattern could play such a big part in having an eating disorder. I guess the only things you really see about certain ED suffers are them being underweight, but obviously they have to have got to that point somehow first.
It's given me a few ideas for some videos on ED, so thanks a lot!
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Post by Michaela on Sept 1, 2013 20:38:44 GMT
The weight criterion for anorexia is a massive problem and to be honest, most of the professional community seem to disagree with it. The criterion for anorexia and bulimia are far to restrictive - did you know that (for girls) to be diagnosed with anorexia, you technically have to have lost your period? Most people believe that the boundaries need to be widened.
According to B-eat, of all eating disorder sufferers, only 10% are diagnosed with anorexia, 40% with bulimia and the remaining 50% fall into the EDNOS (Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified) catergory. The EDNOS is therefore catch-all and includes those who fit all anorexia criteria, but have not lost their period, or are not under a BMI of 18.5, those who fulfil all the Bulimia criteria, but don't binge and purge at least twice a week, those who suffer from Binge-Eating Disorder or Selective Eating Disorder and much more. Not a particularly helpful label then in terms of specific treatment outcomes.
One of the biggest problems with this is that people diagnosed with EDNOS don't see their illness as as serious or important, when it is. And the public as a whole seem to equate Eating Disorder with Anorexia, sometimes Bulimia too, which can be really damaging to sufferers. People too often judge how ill someone is on how ill they look and it just is not a reliable measure. An ED is a mental illness, hence it is in the mind and therefore largely invisible - yet people forget that.
I've probably got quite a lot I could say about this actually, I could write a fuller post if you think that would be helpful?
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Post by Rebecca92 on Sept 25, 2013 18:24:10 GMT
You can most definitely have an eating disorder without meeting the ridiculous weight criteria. In fact the DSM-V is likely to remove the weight criteria as there has been a consensus that it hinders more than it helps.
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Post by Rebecca92 on Sept 26, 2013 4:56:15 GMT
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