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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Oct 2011
    Location
    Manhattan
    Posts
    9

    Unhappy Losing weight, help.

    I'm normally a pretty small person to begin with, but recently my fear has gotten really bad to the point where I'm not or barely eating. It's been since June that I've been scared to eat, and when I do, it's only a little bit, and if I have left overs I always say I'll heat it up later, or the next day but I never do for fear of getting s*. My anxiety in general has gotten pretty bad over the summer, and I'm not sure why, or what to do about it.
    But every time I eat, I get scared that it made me s*, and sometimes I have symptoms, but I never actually get s*. My friend says it's my body reacting out of hunger/starvation. But, I started to get really worried two weeks ago when I almost fainted going to my car for lack of eating. Ever since then, I've felt very faint every day unless I eat as soon as I wake up. Today, I finally decided to weigh myself, and I only weigh 97lbs. Normally, I weight anywhere between 110 and 115. My mom says I look anorexic. In my opinion, emetophobia is sort of like an eating disorder, because the thought of eating scares me. But unlike something like anorexia, it's not because I think I'm fat, it's because I'm afraid to get s* or v*. I've been trying to do better about eating, but I can't seem to do good enough. I've had some scary moments that feel like starvation. I'm tired of being this way, and I really want to get over this, eat, and be healthy again (because it's not healthy to be 97lbs). Help! What should I do?

  2. #2

    Default Re: Losing weight, help.

    If you have health insurance, therapy and/or short-term meds could help with the anxiety. I'm not an MD, or any healthcare professional, so this is not medical advice - just advice from experience. I lost a lot of weight (about 10lbs) for the same reason a few years ago - but I was still in the healthy bracket. Or try a self-help program; before I could afford therapy, I found a program called The Linden Method to be very helpful. I was able to change some behaviors (like taking Rx amti-emetics many days each week) with it.

    Good luck!

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Aug 2011
    Location
    pennsylvania
    Posts
    722

    Default Re: Losing weight, help.

    How old are you ? And i am the same way I go weeks barely eating a thing, but then i have a spree of binging and that always ends bad... i have lost 40 pounds so far from this fear :/

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Oct 2011
    Location
    Manhattan
    Posts
    9

    Default Re: Losing weight, help.

    I'm 22.
    I don't have any health insurance right now, because my parents' insurance doesn't cover children over 18 (and I don't have a job, so no insurance that way, either). I might have to try self help. Did the Linden Method help a lot? How long did it take for you to start eating normally again?

  5. #5

    Default Re: Losing weight, help.

    The linden method did help me a lot - of course, it was not not a magic cure, and required me to out in effort. But it made a huge difference in my life when I had no access to therapy.

    I began to eat less when i was mid-way through exposure therapy (with a therapist, not on my own). When I began to eat less, I didn't realize it as first - I had been doing some exposures that could cause vomiting (sticking my finger down my throat to feel the gagging sensation), and over time I ate less and less, because I really didn't want to vomit during the exposure (very counter-productive).

    I, like you, figured if there was less in me, less would come up and the possibility of v* would be reduced. Once I realized this though, I informed my therapist and we moved away from the gagging, to a lower part of my hierearchy. It took only a few weeks for me to start eating completely normally again (I was lucky in this respect, I think).

    If you are in the US, if you meet the income requirements, you might be able to get Medicaid, if your interested in it.

 

 

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