Eating disorder

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I eat fairly well and I don't have any sort of eating problems.

I was on an anorexia ward once. They didn't know where else to put me. But I wasn't anorexic. I was the only one on the ward who was not anorexic, with the exception of a guy who had cystic fibrosis. I guess they didn't know where to put him either.

If you want to know why some people in those places are "rowdy", Asylums by Erving Goffman is a decent read. It explains different reactions to confinement. I was, at times, one of the rowdy ones. From the point of view of a "compliant patient," it can look like disrespect or selfishness or getting in the way of the "program." But from the point of view of the person being "rowdy," it can be a matter of survival.

Oh, forgot to mention, I later on think I had orthorexia.

I eat very healthy most of the time. But once in a while, when my Mom buys herself goodies, than I'm on a See-food diet for a few days.

I'm not too picky about food. I have my likes and dislikes, and I eat only what I like when it's up to me, but I'll eat nearly anything to keep the peace in a family or other group setting.

My son Jonathon is very picky. He eats nearly every kind of fruit and veggie - raw - but won't touch potatoes in any form. (He gets apple slices at McDonald's instead of fries.) He eats chicken and turkey like it's going out of style, but won't touch beef. He doesn't like spicy or seasoned foods. The plainer the better.

It's very frustrating when daddy is home and decides he's going to do the cooking on weekends, because he invariably makes one meal after another than Jonathon simply will not eat. And then he gets pissed off because when HE was growing up "we ate what was set before us or we didn't eat, period."

This weekend so far...

Dinner last night: chicken fajitas - Jon at the chicken, even though it was seasoned, wrapped in a flour tortilla, but picked off the peppers and onions.
Dessert: apple cobbler (cooked apples). He ate the topping and handed me the apples.
Breakfast this morning: hashbrowned potatoes with chopped peppers and onions, and scrambled eggs. I talked my husband out of making sausage links. Jon ate some scrambled eggs. Daddy griped about all the potatoes that were left over.
Lunch: not a problem. Deli-sliced turkey and American cheese roll-ups, and homemade trail mix (peanuts, sunflower nuts, raisins).
Dinner tonight: sloppy joes made with venison sausage <gag, but I ate it>, and broccoli-cheddar-cornbread muffins (which I made). Jon ate two muffins and, after a minor argument with dad, had a few pieces of deli-sliced turkey left from lunch.
Daddy was in a bad mood the rest of the evening.

Ugh.

That doesn't sound so bad to me Cindy. Being picky about what I ate was like a war with my family. They told me "take it or leave it", and I left it day after day. Sometimes I only ate one meal a day. I got used to eating so little and eventually dropped down to 68 lbs. (I was 5' 3" at the time). My parents finally gave in when the doctor said that they could either let me pick my own dinner or end up having to take me to the hospital (regular one, I think) for malnutrition. Sometimes I wonder if my Mom's aversion to cooking dinner is really a mild form of PTSD.

If that pic is of you, Sean, you look nice and healthy now.

My troubles were when I lived on my own.
I'd eat breakfast, have fruit or a muesli bar for lunch, then be tired from the stresses at work, so when I came home I would just have a shower and go to bed without any dinner.
Just the thought of getting it ready would stress me out further, so I could never be bothered.
T.V dinners are alright but expensive, I couln't afford to buy them all the time.
Now I'm at Mum's and I eat so many vegetables...but I still haven't gained any weight. She wonders why, and I just tell her that this is the way I'm meant to be for now

Yikes, Sean. I'm a picky eater, but the only minor horror story I've got is when my brother and I would refuse to eat when we visited my grandparents', because they regularly let food spoil and then served it anyway. (I tried to bake a cake at their house once and found the flour infested with bugs; their respose: "Just sift them out.") But that was never for more than a few days, and I've never had an eating disorder.

Yeah, I'm an unhealthily picky eater. In high school I had a bit of a slight anorexia thing going on because a bully in grade school used to tease me about being chubby so I grew up fearing fat and of course that fear coupled with eating only a few different things, and many times the same thing day in day out, I got a little too thin. Not thin enough to qualify for anorexia, which if I remember correctly is 20% below one's expected body weight for height and bone mass, but I was getting close. And then I started over-exercising, too. Especially for the small amount of food I was taking in at the time. I really got hooked up on low-fat beef jerky, yellow corn, and baked beans for quite a while.

I've kinda noticed that for Aspies who might be at the 20% below weight, it might not be due to a focus on "weight" issues but that we can have such an incredibly difficult time with eating and not enjoying it-- or refusing to eat because what's put before us makes us feel sick or something of the like.

It's almost like a Sensory Eating Disorder.

During high school in a rough period (well, it was all rough periods but) I went into out-patient day hospital. I went to one that basically catered to those with eating disorders, not because I had an eating disorder of that nature but because my ex-psychiatrist (who happens to be the resident eating disorder specialist in St. Louis) ran the place. So it was easier for her to just put me there.

It was very sad watching them. It was all teenagers and kids, all females. There were never more than about four other patients there with me. I felt the odd one out. But I made friends with a girl named Emily and she had anorexia and it was so difficult for her. She would never allow anyone to watch her eat. And she ate incredibly slowly because she hated it so much. I offered her a Skittle one time and she said she couldn't eat it because it had too many calories.

She was incredibly thin, too. She wore size 0 in pants (for a long time I didn't even know there was such a size). I felt very sorry for her. I could see how painful it all was. Needless to say, while I was at that out-patient place, I ate better than I had been eating before because I started getting into the habit of "showing them how it was done". Rather silly to have thought it was that easy.

Oh. And I always felt soooo sorry for those girls because most of them were forced to drink Ensure. That stuff is god-aweful. Eck! Not only are they forced to eat, but they're forced to drink that s**t. It almost seemed sadistic on the part of the psychiatrists ordering that. I would have liked to seen them try and take a swig of it.

Sophist, did they consider someone like Mary-Kate Olsen, for example. Granted, she is a sweet young lady, but I think at that point in time, she must not have known what to do.

"Full House" is an excellent show, don't get me wrong. Mary-Kate was cute. She was normal, then she was abnormal, and look at her now! She is a Freshmen at NYU! That goes to show you that you can get on with your life and overcome such a problem.

Sophist, case in point, did they even consider any of these success stories, and how long ago did this situation occur?

I'm not well up on Eating Disorders but I believe most (and correct me if I'm wrong) anorexics and bulemics encur a lifelong struggle. I think success stories would have less sway with them often times simply because it's a matter of learning to see themselves as anything but fat and not always "hope".

It was almost painful to watch how much they hated themselves.

Oh, so people like Mary-Kate Olsen and Brandy (sorry, I forgot about her,) persevered, and now they are alive and doing well. They should be very happy.

It's hard to say, but from what little I've seen, it's more than likely they still battle with those urges every day. From what I've been told, you don't really get over it. You just fight it. And keep fighting it.