Asperger's and anorexia?

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I would say there is definitely a connection here… I think there's been research done on it.

I’m not going to self-diagnose myself as anorexic but I’ve developed major issues with food over the past couple years which resemble those of an anorexic/bulimic and they are getting worse. I starve myself for days and then binge. Food is a stim for me and has become a near-obsession. I love it, and I eat and eat until I’m so full I feel like I’m going to throw up. I’m really bored with my life right now and uncertain of the future, and these binges are something I look forward to and start thinking about before I’m even finished with the current one. I’m feeling lots of anxiety about what’s been going on in the world, and how the economy could collapse within a matter of months and foil my plans for the future, and that’s making it even worse.
But I’ve been steadily losing weight and I want to keep losing weight even though from a medical standpoint I know it’s getting too low (110 pounds, BMI about 17). It’s never good enough, because every time I binge I put on like two pounds, and I feel like I’m getting fat, so I starve myself a little bit more, and my weight drops a little bit more. The past month for the first time it went all the way down to about 106 for a little while.

Is this anorexia or bulimia? I dunno, I’m not a doctor.

BTW I’m 29-year-old male, heterosexual.

Check out my IMDB page!

To all who bring up body image and self-esteem: You don't know a person until you walk a mile in his shoes.

I have dealt with anorexia myself, and, to be honest, it snuck up on me. Slowly I formed a passion to do everything just right due to some crazy idea I had developed from looking through all of the mom-magazines in our rack (I was 15 at the time and preferred "Redbook" to "Girls Life"...go figure). The idea was basically that maintaining a healthy weight actually required a lot of effort and attention. I had NEVER had to even think about how I ate before, but I soon decided that I was "supposed" to watch portions and avoid fried foods and yada yada. So I did, and, lo and behold, became a 5'4", 86 pound picture of sadness. When I first found out about where my weight actually was (I actually thought it would be 'vain' to weigh myself and hadn't checked for a long time), I was stunned and scared. Admittedly, in the beginning, I thought I had love handles where there weren't any, but I was smart enough to figure out that logically, if the rest of me was emaciated, then this had to be skin and not fat.

Gaining back the weight I needed was incredibly difficult and, despite popular belief, it had NOTHING to do with movie stars and models. I had the worst form of cognitive dissonance imaginable; I would feel so self-conscious about my thinness that I would come to the point of crying, but some WALL...I can't even describe it or put my finger on exactly what it WAS...just wouldn't let me break my routines and eat more.

I've said this before, but I have a theory that there are two kinds of anorexia: the autistic kind and the non-autistic kind.(???) If you actually think that you're fat the whole time and struggle with body image, it's the non-autistic (and much better known) kind. But if you're just locked in something you can't explain and it's eating you, it's the autistic kind. (???) ...I don't know; I can't speak from any experience but my own. Maybe every anorexic is like this and people just jump to conclusions. But after my counselor tried tirelessly and fruitlessly to find some traumatic catalyst in my perfect past and amazing family, she finally admitted that "you do have a lot of the traits of Asperger's syndrome."

I dont know much about it in general, Im not nor ever have been anorexic. But there was a couple of girls who I suspected were aspie in HS who were super skinny. Very anorexic looking. I dont know for sure if they were either aspie or anorexic for sure.

I only speak for myself and it was with body image and thinking I was fat and about control. Sometimes I still look fat to my eye view but I know I am not fat because I weigh too light to be fat. I wonder if I will always look fat in my view and I just have to live on thinking that isn't true? Just like how John Nash in the movie had to learn to live with his hallucinations and ignore them because he knew they were not real.

I'm not at all anorexic, but I'm naturally very thin. Is anorexia a group of mental disorders, or being extremely underweight?

http://www.eatingdisorders.org.nz/index.php?id=764


The DSM-IV criteria for Anorexia Nervosa is as follows:

A. A refusal to maintain body weight at or above a minimally normal weight for age and height (e.g. weight loss leading to a maintenance of body weight less than 85% of that expected, or failure to make expected weight gain during period of growth, leading to body weight less than 85% of that expected).

B. Intense fear of gaining weight or becoming fat, even though underweight.

C. Disturbance in the way in which one's body weight or shape is experienced, undue influence of body weight or shape on self-evaluation, or denial of the seriousness of the current low body weight.
Specify type:

Restricting Type: During the current episode of Anorexia Nervosa, the person has not regularly engaged in binge-eating or purging behaviour (i.e. self-induced vomiting or the misuse of laxatives, diuretics or enemas)

Binge-Eating/Purging Type: During the current episode of Anorexia Nervosa, the person has regularly engaged in binge-eating or purging behaviour (i.e. self induced vomiting or the misuse of laxatives, diuretics or enemas).



So according to this criteria, you have to be underweight to have this condition. So what happens if you are normal weight or over weight and are starving yourself? Eating disorder NOS?

It's never been a problem for me. I eat when I am stressed and depressed sometimes.

OCD and restrictive disorders are far more common with spectrumites than among their NT peers, so I'm not sure why the concept is such a mind-boggler.

I have disordered eating habits, myself.

It is stated that girls prone to anorexia nervosa are highly intelligent and perfectionists. Both these traits are very common in aspie people. Therefore yes, I wouldn't be surprised it a girl with anorexia had Aspergers too.

For the record, I must say I have been called anorexic for years, while this is not true. I'm NATURALLY very skinny, but healthy. I eat a lot, only my metabolism makes me thin. If I were an anorexic, I would strongly believe I'm fat. But I know I'm not. I wish I had a curvier body shape, though. But I can't get fatter. It's just how my body works!

Does anyone else think that it's a bit suspect that the advertisment at the bottom of the page is for a particular diet? It says someone lost a stone in 15 days O.O This makes me sad.

I suspect that Ray Davies is an aspie and he might be anorexic. There is no way that members of either sex that are his height could be that small without having that disorder. Either that or he has a very fast metabolism.

Well I might have Aspergers and be underweight, but that does not make me anorexic.......I am not self concious at all about my weight and i do try to eat an adequate amount. Yet I still end up underweight due to having a lack of appetite and sometimes even just forgetting to eat.