Aspie women and weight

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I feel my body too big for me, I can't manage it all. I don't know what to do with so long legs and big hands, how to coordinate them. I should be 150-160 (5-5'2) tall, not 180 (6). Even when my weight was 60 (132) and I could be a model, I felt too big and clumsy.
Sometimes I feel like in Björk's song (this one):
Excuse me,
but I just have to explode.
Explode this body off me.

I'm about average now, 5'4 and 135 pounds. When I realized fully how poorly I fit in I figured if I was only pretty enough it would go better. So at 16 I was 115 pounds. Not anorexic, but with bad eating habits, starving two days then binging on ice cream.

My obsession was my body. I carefully charted every millimetric change and tried to calculate the perfect proportions. Not anymore though.

It's good for concerts, when I wear my platform-shoes, I'm two metres, two and half!
But think if you want to have all clothes too small (also tights!) and big shoe size.

I want to be 6ft. too!! !! !! ! I'm only 5ft. and am about 140lb. I've gotten down to 100 before but my family says I look anorexic and you can see my ribs. About 130 is right for me. I just recently went from a size 8 jean to size 10 and 12!! !! !! I need to change my eating habits before I get bigger! LOL!

I am 5 '7' and weight 136 lbs. I have an eating disorder. I also don't eat because I get so absorbed in my interests and let myself starve. I wish I were taller.

I'm 61" and 9 stone, a little smaller than average. Before age 11, I was really skinny. At age 10, I was 53" and 4 stone. But not so skinny I looked like a skeleton.

I've never had a weight problem except for when I had undertreated thyroid issues...and even then it was not severe (I'm between 5'4" and 5'5" and I never got much over 150 lb, but that's too much for me). Now that my thyroid has been treated properly I'm back in normal range, 125 or so.

~Kate

I don't have any eating disorders, and I am pretty normal sized.

I am underweight (mainly due to sensory issues and executive dysfunction) and require prescription supplements. It has long been known that autism is associated with eating difficulties, with suggestions it could be included in diagnostic criteria. Recent research indicates a link between autistic traits and anorexia. They share similar characteristics, such as obsessive attention to detail. A PubMed search will retrieve abstracts:


Empathy, systemizing, and autistic traits in anorexia nervosa: a pilot study
Hambrook D, Tchanturia K, Schmidt U, Russell T, Treasure J.
Br J Clin Psychol. 2008 Sep;47(Pt 3):335-9. Epub 2008 Jan 21

OBJECTIVES: This pilot study examined whether patients with anorexia nervosa (AN) would display an empathizing-systemizing psychometric profile similar to that found in autism spectrum disorders (ASD), and whether people with AN would score highly on a measure of autistic traits. METHOD: Self-report measures of empathy, systemizing, and autistic traits were administered to 22 female AN patients and 45 female healthy controls (HC). RESULTS: AN patients and HCs did not differ significantly in their self-reported empathy and systemizing. AN patients scored significantly higher than HCs on the autism-spectrum quotient. CONCLUSIONS: Replication of these findings is required with larger samples and more sensitive measures.


Aspects of social cognition in anorexia nervosa: Affective and cognitive theory of mind
Russell TA, Schmidt U, Doherty L, Young V, Tchanturia K.
Volume 168, Issue 3, Pages 181-185 (15 August 2009)

Abstract
Although social functioning is clearly impaired in anorexia nervosa (AN), there has been limited empirical assessment of this domain in this illness. This study assesses social cognition in AN by examining performance on two ‘theory of mind’ (ToM) tasks; Baron-Cohen's “Reading the mind in the Eyes” task (RME) and Happé's cartoon task. These tasks probe affective and cognitive ToM, respectively. Forty-four female participants were recruited (AN N=22; healthy controls N=22) and completed both tasks, with concurrent clinical and intellectual functioning assessment. Compared with healthy controls, AN performed significantly worse on both the RME and the Cartoon task (both conditions). The mental state condition did not facilitate performance in the AN group, as it did in the healthy controls. The findings broadly replicate limited previous work [Tchanturia, K., Happé, F., Godley, J., Bara-Carill, N., Treasure, J., Schmidt, U., 2004. Theory of mind in AN. European Eating Disorders Review 12, 361–366] but in addition demonstrate abnormalities on a task requiring affective ToM interpretation. More detailed information about the components of ToM and the ToM difficulties demonstrated in AN sufferers may inform our understanding of the disorder as well as future social–cognitive based treatments.


Perfectionism in anorexia nervosa: variation by clinical subtype, obsessionality, and pathological eating behavior
Halmi KA, Sunday SR, Strober M, Kaplan A, Woodside DB, Fichter M, Treasure J, Berrettini WH, Kaye WH.
Am J Psychiatry. 2000 Nov;157(11):1799-805

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to examine the role of perfectionism as a phenotypic trait in anorexia nervosa and its relevance across clinical subtypes of this illness. METHOD: The Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale and the perfectionism subscale of the Eating Disorder Inventory were administered to 322 women with a history of anorexia nervosa who were participating in an international, multicenter genetic study of anorexia nervosa. All participants were additionally interviewed with the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale and the Yale-Brown-Cornell Eating Disorder Scale. Mean differences on dependent measures among women with anorexia nervosa and comparison subjects were examined by using generalized estimating equations. RESULTS: Persons who had had anorexia nervosa had significantly higher total scores on the Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale than did the healthy comparison subjects. In addition, scores of the anorexia subjects on the Eating Disorder Inventory-2 perfectionism subscale exceeded Eating Disorder Inventory-2 normative data. For the anorexia nervosa participants, the total score on the Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale and the Eating Disorder Inventory-2 perfectionism subscale score were highly correlated. Total score on the Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale was also significantly related to the total score and the motivation-for-change subscale score of the Yale-Brown-Cornell Eating Disorder Scale. CONCLUSIONS: These data show that perfectionism is a robust, discriminating characteristic of anorexia nervosa.


The recognition of emotion in the faces and voice of anorexia nervosa
Kucharska-Pietura K, Nikolaou V, Masiak M, Treasure J.
Int J Eat Disord. 2002 Apr;31(3):290-9

Department of Psychological Medicine, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College, London, England.
OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to examine emotional recognition (prosodic and visual) in anorexia nervosa. METHODS: Thirty people with anorexia nervosa and a comparison group of 30 healthy women were tested with facial and vocal stimuli that expressed specific emotions and they were given a neutral task. RESULTS: The group of women with anorexia nervosa was poor at emotional recognition. This was most marked for negative emotions in faces and for both positive and negative emotions in voices. This decreased ability to recognize negative affect in faces remained even after adjustment for confounding variables such as age, education, and depression. DISCUSSION: People with anorexia nervosa have difficulty recognizing emotions from facial expression and vocal tone. This may contribute to poor interpersonal communication and a lack of empathy, both of which are associated with anorexia nervosa patients.


A systematic review and meta-analysis of set-shifting ability in eating disorders
Roberts ME, Tchanturia K, Stahl D, Southgate L, Treasure J.

BACKGROUND: The aim was to critically appraise and synthesize the literature relating to set-shifting ability in eating disorders. PsycINFO, Medline, and Web of Science databases were searched to December 2005. Hand searching of eating-disorder journals and relevant reference sections was also undertaken. METHOD: The 15 selected studies contained both eating disorder and healthy control groups, and employed at least one of the following six neuropsychological measures of set-shifting ability; Trail Making Test (TMT), Wisconsin Card Sort Test (WCST), Brixton task, Haptic Illusion, CatBat task, or the set-shifting subset of the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB). The outcome variable was performance on the set-shifting aspect of the task. Pooled standardized mean differences (effect sizes) were calculated. RESULTS: TMT, WCST, CatBat and Haptic tasks had sufficient sample sizes for meta-analysis. These four tasks yielded acceptable pooled standardized effect sizes (0.36; TMT -1.05; Haptic) with moderate variation within studies (as measured by confidence intervals). The Brixton task showed a small pooled mean difference, and displayed more variation between sample results. The effect size for CANTAB set shifting was 0.17. CONCLUSION: Problems in set shifting as measured by a variety of neuropsychological tasks are present in people with eating disorders.


Weak central coherence in eating disorders: a step towards looking for an endophenotype of eating disorders
Lopez C, Tchanturia K, Stahl D, Treasure J.

Previous work has found that women with anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa have weak coherence. The aim of this study was to examine whether women who had recovered from an eating disorder (ED) also had weak coherence. A total of 42 recovered ED women and 42 healthy women were assessed with a battery of five neuropsychological tests that measure aspects of global or local functioning. The recovered ED group showed superior local processing and poorer global processing than the healthy group. These results are indicative of weak coherence. The finding that weak coherence is a stable characteristic rather than a state effect suggests that it may be an endophenotype for ED.

I would sell my eyes for some extra height.

I was abnormally tall in early adolescence, and I wanted to be a model, but then I never grew much.

And now I'm slightly obsessed with height, though not so severely as I was aged 14/15, where I talked about it nonstop and tried to talk my mom into letting me get human growth hormone injections. Which a doctor probably wouldn't have done on me anyway, because I was a normal height for my age.

i used to have an eating disorder, and sometimes it comes back. I get obsessed with counting calories, restricting calories and exercise. I am 5"7" and I used to weighed as little as 104 lbs. I know that is clinically not anorexic weight, but it is frightfully thin on someone my height. I typically maintained 120-125 lbs during my adult years. After I quit smoking 7 years ago I ballooned to 140 and then I went back to around 125 by extreme calorie counting and a lot of working out. Now I am at 144, and I would like to lose 10 lbs, but my way of losing weight tends to go too far. It starts consuming my whole day like other "special interests" do. I have maintained this weight for 3 years so I think it is the weight my body wants to be. I hate it though. I am not unfit- just bigger than I like to be. I feel more "special" when I am thin- I dont know why.