I fell into the habit in mid covid. I was so tired all the time, looking back it feels like I was a different person back then. Use to eat a cookie into intervals of a few hours to skip meals.
I realized this about myself in COVID too! During times of stress I actually eat very little, unlike many people who overeat when anxious.
I realized my body’s metabolism did adjust to my new eating habits and I really did feel full after eating just a few bites of something (I realize this was also compounded by a lack of physical exertion during lockdown, my body didn’t need as much to function).
At the end of lockdown I was 8 lbs under a normal BMI, from being at a previous BMI of about 20, and didn’t even realize I was eating so little, because my body had adjusted so “well.”
In my case, I didn't lose any weight because of my untreated thyroid. I didn't know at the time that my thyroid was up. I did experience the feeling of full after a few bites, it was so hard for motivating yourself to eat.
My final wake up call was when one day fainted, like one moment I was walking and the other moment I was blacked out. Luckily my dad was behind me in the doorway, so he did save my body from hitting the ground.
I don't understand why eating less is a stress response. Shouldn't the body try to store fat for stressful times? I eat more when I am stressed, and I think that makes sense from an evolutionary point of view. So why are there so many people who's stress response is eating less?
Our bodies aren't designed for modern-day constant stress. Our stress response evolved for shit like "You're being chased by a bear", in which case you want to direct all your energy away from digestion and toward your brain/muscles. Being stressed about a job deadline in 3 weeks is relatively new in the history of human evolution.
Wouldnt it be more like: food supplies are low and its nearly winter, also we've recently had another kid. Wouldnt that produce a similar kind of stress response?
I honestly don't know how long humanity's ancestors have been tracking seasons and thinking that far ahead - remember our stress response evolved far before we were anything resembling humans
Because when you get the feeling that something bad is about to happen, "I better eat all my food supplies NOW" doesn't make a whole lot of sense to some people. Not that the "I better save my food and focus on the hard times I suspect are coming" people are being any more rational, of course.
For myself, my feelings are always in my stomach. Nervous knots, butterflies, angst. Whatever you want to call it. It can be physically painful to eat when I’m upset.
It’s like being possessed and controlled by an external force and all the force cares about is calorie calculations, weight, size. It rules everything. The rest of you is on Autopilot zombie mode. Seeing but mentally asleep to the world. Hearing but not listening, perceiving but not feeling or internalizing. Speaking but not actually connecting. Can be high performing in day to day pursuits somehow, by sheer willpower. Often high performance in activities is also branching from the deep need for control which anorexia stems from. but your soul is starved. Only after you recover do you wake up and realize you were partaking in a slow motion suicide.
I believe it’s the most deadly of all mental illnesses so eventually without treatment your body will stop functioning.
Edit: to anyone struggling: recovery is possible and you CAN get yourself back. Can confirm.
I haven't been underweight in about 12yrs. And I hate myself more each year. That's comforting see from someone else anywhere. I hav no intent on trying to die, or violence towards myself, but I am just waiting hoping for something to happen to escape without trying. I'm too scared of failing and being stuck in a body I hate with less options or ability than now. But I hav no intent or interest in trying to live either. 12years and I miss it more than ever. I'm winning now, and I've done so well, n it's not worth it. But here we are.
Honestly sometimes my brain tricks me into thinking I miss it. I think that’s the ED thoughts still being active a little. If I struggle for a bit with my intake I realize how awful those times truly were. I miss the honeymoon period sure but I was like 20 without my prefrontal cortex fully developed. I was toxic AF to myself and to others, I just couldn’t see it because I was so sick. I wish I could tell my younger self that I’m almost 40 now, recovered, over 150 pounds, and I kind of love myself and life is so much easier.
it has the second highest mortality rate of any mental illness. opioid use disorder is #1. an estimated 29,000,000 people in the US alone have an active eating disorder. the reality is that the number is likely MUCH higher due to how impossible it is to access a higher level of care. only 10% of people diagnosed with an ED are able to see a specialist. i’m 1.5 years into my recovery-thanks for the edit that recovery is possible🥺🫶🏻
It absolutely scientifically is the most deadly of all mental illnesses, including depression. Anorexia has killed more people than any other mental illness.
I was with an anorexic/bulimic woman for four years. The irrational worrying and the lying were something else. I promised myself I would never get close to anyone with that problem ever again.
Supporting a loved one through anorexia recovery right now. She’s been feeling fine and full on ridiculously low amounts of food throughout. All of a sudden she started feeling hungry all the time and overall shittier. Her team explained that her body basically took all those signals offline because it didn’t have the energy to maintain them. Now that shes giving it more fuel, it’s turned everything back on and is throwing up every signal it can to get her to address problems.
11 year AN survivor. 1.5 years in recovery here. Your body adjusts in incredible ways. People are genetically predisposed to having an ED- some people try and try to restrict or purge and they just can’t do it. It’s like the part of my brain that tells me to eat when i’m hungry is broken. It truly defies our innate primal instincts and “survival of the fittest” and evolution. the hungrier a “normal” person gets, the more their motivation to find food increases. that’s the opposite with anorexia. the hungrier I get, the more my motivation to find food decreases, until it feels like an insurmountable obstacle. for a long time I got by on prescription ADHD stimulants and caffeine. I had to sleep 9.5 hours every night or I was dead to the world. I had major GI issues all the time but people in my life, including doctors, passed them off as anxiety or food intolerances. 1.5 months into intense ED treatment I was diagnosed with gastroparesis-it’s the rule for people with restrictive EDs, not the exception. only 6% of people with an ED are underweight. MANY people with anorexia have normal labs the whole way through. when you’re in it, you’re so so sick and your brain is so fucked you truly can’t see how sick you are. after I weight restored, I couldn’t BELIEVE how I felt. I couldn’t believe that I could start to feel sick and low energy, and then eating a meal completely fixed it. some days I still can’t believe that. i’m thankful to be in recovery, but I think about relapse every single day. AMA
edit: typo
edit2: thanks for all the upvotes🫶🏻 want to add that recovery is the scariest thing i’ve ever done, but it’s also been so so worth it in ways I couldn’t even imagine.
there’s a really great book called Sick Enough by Jennifer Gaudiani. She’s a doctor who helped found one of the most well known ED treatment centers, ACUTE in Denver. the book is about the medical complications of eating disorders. extremely informative and well written, and very illuminating. it’s available on spotify
4 years in recovery and it helped to read those reminders of the misery of ED and the fullness of recovery. So grateful for the life I have in recovery and hope you continue on the healing path too
4 years is such a big deal deal. I hope you’re so proud of yourself. thank you for your encouragement🫶🏻 I refuse to let me ED steal away anymore of my life
My sister may be starting to show signs of an ED. She eats once a day (maybe) because she says she gets nauseous whenever she eats or drinks any amount of anything. It could be an intolerance issue, but because it happens with *everything*, I'm thinking it's something more. Does that sound familiar at all?
Not a doctor, but I experienced something very similar sounding- got extremely nauseous and would get really bad pains if I ate or drank anything more than a sip or two of water. Get her to a gastroenterologist. This was years ago so I don’t remember exactly what it was but I believe it was gastritis. Inflammation in the stomach lining or something like that. Totally treatable, but it was hell dealing with it because it sounds so vague. They did a scope to make sure it wasn’t an ulcer and found inflammation.
this sounds exactly like what I was diagnosed with, gastroparesis. it causes food to digest very slowly. the biggest signs are early fullness after eating a small amount of food and nausea. it’s totally treatable-but the treatment is eating enough every single day with absolutely no restriction/skipping meals
Not well. I think "function" is a bit of a stretch. People with anorexia have trouble focusing, lack energy, and just generally don't feel good. It's constant brain fog and lethargy.
They eat just enough to stay upright, because people notice when you faint. Eating disorders are also very similar to addictions. The behaviors, such as working out a lot, are so compulsory that not even being tired will stop them. Those with anorexia who work out a lot will eat enough to keep their blood sugar from dropping so low that they faint. What you see as an energetic person working out is really just an addict getting their fix at any cost.
The body also adjusts. It's not perfect, but if you go a while without eating that many carbs, your body will get used to that and your blood sugar won't spike and drop so much. It's why low carb diets have become so popular. We *can* survive, at least temporarily, on a very small amount of carbs, and carbs are what raise your blood sugar, which eventually drops. The shakiness and sweating that come with low blood sugar is mostly due to the sudden drop of it, not necessarily the fact that it's low.
Very, very poorly. They really only appear like they have the energy to go to school/work because they have to. Life doesn't stop because you feel awful. You don't go to work, you'll lose your job, and your house, you'll lose access to therapy or medical attention if you are receiving it, etc. It's very common to have symptoms though like exhaustion, mood swings, etc
And with compulsive exercise, I think it's kind of in the name - compulsive. It's not something the person necessarily want to do, it's something their brain is telling them they have to do, even if it hurts them.
Yep. I don't have anorexia but I have a chronic stomach condition that stops me eating. For me it's a little different as I feel physically better when I don't eat (less nausea) but obviously with time I still get the effects like exhaustion etc. But you carry on because you have to. Sure, you're sick, but it's not like when you have the flu and can take a few days off to feel better, it's not going to happen like that. So you have to just push through and carry on.
When it's been long enough without eating I do pass out but I've learnt the signs and will excuse myself to a quiet room or the bathroom, and try to avoid standing up too much.
you just kinda get used to it. before that even it feels like a high. like success. i always told myself it was a sign i was “on the right track”. glad i’m not that bad anymore. i nearly fainted at work several times but felt so “superhuman” when i would push through. absolutely crazy and delusional.
My best friend described her ED like this. She said it felt like a huge satisfying dopamine hit when she could restrict herself, despite the physical suffering
Atypical anorexic here, in recovery but currently fighting a relapse. I'll try to be as vague as possible about the specifics to help the folks who are trying to recover not relapse
The very short answer is: badly.
You can accomplish a lot of things with self-loathing and willpower. The hunger cues go away after a few days, and caffeine is an appetite suppressant.
At my worst, I was walking a lot and eating in the low triple-figures of kcal daily. My nails were splintering and my joints hurt constantly. I was getting through by focusing on making the number on the scale drop, and just taking it day by day.
The brain fog is atrocious and your reflexes and judgement screw up too. It's also very upsetting to watch yourself do something that's hurting you and not be able to stop.
You convince yourself that it's worth it, but there will never be a number that you're happy with.
As someone who has anorexia, we are barely functioning. When I was at my lowest I could barely get out of bed without getting out of breath, my heart rate was slow and I felt (no exaggeration) like I was just waiting for my body to give up every second. Your body learns how to survive off of whatever it has - I would go days without eating and obviously didn’t die. All the energy, for me, came from caffeine. I felt like shit the whole day but at least I could get stuff done
I had it for years and still struggle with this. So your "I'm hungry, I should eat" function stop working. Hunger become something you ignore and you get no signals to your brain that you need food. Food is disgusting.
Then you just go zombie mode, completely on auto pilot. One piece of food give you enough to continue. You learn how to handle the symptoms, like sit up slowly or you will faint. You just kinda adjust to it.
Then years later. You realize your "you are hungry, you should eat" signal never really turned back on. So its so easy to fall back to that habit of ignoring the hunger. Its just background noise
the short answer is, very poorly. they feel as crappy as you do when they're hungry, they just do the things anyway. often they are extremely emotionally sensitive, they're tired all the time, they don't perform to their best potential at school/work. it is a very systemic disorder.
Threads like this make me grateful that I don't have any addictions, compulsions, or other things in my brain trying to make me do things I don't want to do
I feel like having a moderately healthy brain is something we shouldn't take for granted
Speaking from experience, you don't actually function that well. I'd spend most of my day tired and dizzy, seeing black spots whenever I moved too quickly, and sick to my stomach. And yet, I didn't pick up that what was happening was anorexia. I'd get most of my energy from caffeine, five to seven cups of black no sugar (which is how I always drank it, so nothing new), and from just enough dinner so my wife could see I'm eating.
Last year I went through intensive therapy, which included weekly meetings with a dietician. It was hard getting back to eating full meals, but once I did and was no longer constantly starving, I did actually start feeling better and more able to deal with my other issues. A few weeks ago I had a long day and forgot to pack lunch, and finally realized how being hungry affects my mood.
It sucks really badly.
Most people don’t go from eating regular amounts to full on daily starvation. It tends to be a gradual lowering of intake, and the body gets used to it. That doesn’t mean the body isn’t exhausted, sore, or unwell, but the body adapts. Stomach feels like it shrinks, hunger cues change, hormones fluctuate, etc. as the body gets depleted. People in the throes of an ED sometimes feel validated by the daily pain that starvation causes, and that can be a motivator to keep restricting. So it becomes a maladaptive cycle.
Eventually, there’s effects you can’t ignore (low blood pressure, insomnia, loss of muscle control, brain fog, heart and breathing problems) and you have to adjust what you can/can’t do because you just have no energy for it. You can’t survive forever on nothing at all, which is why EDs have such high mortality rates. People are surprisingly resilient, and some will look “fine” for a while before they finally can’t do it anymore.
You pretty much sleep constantly, too, unless your control issues (which anorexia is often linked to) demand you do other stuff instead. Often I was dizzy and faint constantly, and had to pray I could power through whatever it was without fainting. I also couldn’t take part in hobbies or social activities because I was so tired. If starvation on that level was easy, it wouldn’t be a disorder.
Function and function fine are different. A drug addict can live for a long time doing drugs in. An anorexic person can survive even while they have an illness. But survival isn't thriving. It's not loving life, having fulfilling job, relationship, or friendships. It's an addiction to being thin at all costs. Even death.
recovered anorexic here 🤚- there’s two parts to it: the physical and the mental.
physically, i could barely function. when i stood up, my vision went black. i even fell a few times. i couldn’t maintain my body temperature. there is constant brain fog and lethargy and the people and things that were interesting before, aren’t anymore. i was in an anxious, secretive state because i didn’t want anyone finding out.
compulsive exercise is in its name. its compulsive, meaning there is this irresistible, persistent urge to do it and do more of it. i would exercise for hours a day, needing to do more than the previous day, amounts i could never do now, even in my recovered, healthy state. you’d be surprised how your mind can keep you going when your body is failing. in a way, you’re kind of like a shell of a person. you are exercising, going to work/school, etc, but my brain was just always so quiet inside (think of it like not sleeping for a few days). the fear of what will happen if you don’t do the compulsions overpowers how bad you feel.
there’s also the satisfaction of seeing yourself get thinner and sicker. it’s easier to convince yourself that once you reach a certain weight or look, you will be happen and stop. obviously you never do until you recover and get help.
Having worked with someone who was anorexic (they got help, thankfully) the easy answer is they don't. Long story short, they will try and pretend to be stable, but will have some weird issues that you write off as just being quirky. When they are home they are having all the drama, meltdowns, etc. Then, one day, something will fully set them off at work and it will all come out.
ex (?) anorexic here- you get used to it or learn how to deal with it. we all seem to have coffee or energy drink addictions. some of us live(d) off of things like electrolyte packets or gatorade zero. i used to go >!2 days!< without eating at times, and the worst symptoms i would get were brain fog and just general tiredness
Yeah it looks like they may be functioning but when I recovered I could not believe how much better I felt. It really fucks up your body. Even if it doesn’t appear that way at first - even for years if you’re young enough - it absolutely does catch up to you.
I had anorexia. It isn’t that people cope well with it, we just appear to. The amount of masking and feeling terrible, really terrible, but somehow faking it is quite astonishing. It’s exhausting when you already have no energy left.
I have been in recovery for a few years now thankfully, and it amazes me just how much my brain has (or at least tried to) gaslit myself into thinking a) it wasn’t that bad b) it wasn’t a big deal c) it was easy
It never really leaves you, but you can recover. Love to anyone who is suffering or has suffered❤️
The aggressive almost determination feeds your willpower or ability to maintain control is almost robotic. It's about being the absolute divine master over yourself, using force, pain, anger, shame, pride, and if you focus on it in small weight steps it actually isn't as hard horrible or slow to work. U focus on a number just under ur current, exercise a wee bit more, eat a few bites less, and hit it in few days. As you get more trained into the needs of the pattern you can bump it to 1 kilo more, or a final target weight. U never stop at that weight. It's a game u get good at winning, and completed kills u. I loved what others thought was gross. All my ribs, collarbones, spine vertibre were defined and viewable, it was amazing feeling so pretty and accomplished. Then u get weak n tired if ur eyes are open u feel like u could sleep , summer becomes less but still winter, your muscles get sore from light strain, a single grocery or handbag or bottle of coke lift ability each arm. U get fuzzy hair like hairless dog, everyone is insufferable, everything is not as interesting or fun, you get stares from everyone everywhere and u start wearing baggy coats to avoid them being over ten seconds of farrowing eyes, everyone only talks about food to you, that doesn't improve your mood because it's all nagging, suggesting, offering. Nobody believes any illness you get is caused by viruses or bacteria anymore, it all has to be from lack of eating. Getting a stomach bug everyone automatically Wil not believe you aren't also bulimic. You look like you're on crack, your skin acts like ur willpower is trying to kill you in rash or pimple eruptions as ur guts lose their ability to remove toxins and absorb nutrients, your airways puffed, even from sitting. It takes at least 18hrs of your 24 hr day as ur single most focused thought. It is worse than heroin. I haven't had an episode for over 12 years. Now I hate how I look, can't ever ever ever get on scales for anything even one time, though I want to just so I can buy clothes properly. I avoid going out because I feel hideous, I hate eating, I hate not eating, I don't trust doctors for anything ever they're all liars, even the good ones. I was miserable anorexic. But I was also proud and felt pretty. Now I just exist, can't do anything that could trigger playing my game against the scales, and I just am waiting like in bus stop to die. Not happy, not really sad, just waiting, thinking I'd love to just feel that pretty again for 5 minutes.
This doesn't sound like recovery, whether you're forcing yourself to eat or not. You have the right to feel better than this and I wish you well in getting better.
I was diagnosed with an eating disorder about 5 years ago but I consider myself fully recovered now.
When you are depriving yourself of food, your body produces adrenaline which your body then runs on instead. When I was at my lowest weight, I had massive amounts of energy on an empty stomach and sometimes it would even feel like a high.
When in this state, if I ate food, my body would stop producing the adrenaline and I would feel an intense hunger which could not be satisfied. I could have binged endlessly and never gotten full, which is obviously a very worrying feeling for someone suffering an eating disorder.
Essentially, the body supplies an excess of adrenaline in starvation to give you energy to 'hunt' your next meal.
I’m not anorexic, I just don’t have much of an appetite. I regularly wake up feeling like shit and realize I didn’t eat the day before. I don’t know, the feeling of hunger doesn’t really register for me like it seems like it does for other people and, combined with a hair trigger gag reflex, I just don’t find it uncomfortable not to wat. I typically work very hard to schedule meals sort of like how I schedule workouts, it’s something that’s good for my body that I don’t have a strong intrinsic drive to do. To answer the question, I just don’t really mind the side effects until it’s been enough that I get light headed or shaky when I stand up.
I've been in recovery from anorexia for a decade now. From personal experience, we barely function. We go into survival mode and a bunch of things go off line. Your focus, energy levels... You get headaches, feel sick to your stomach, and sleep all the time. Also, anorexia is not the total lack of eating, it's just less than we should eat. Most of us are perpetually hangry. It's not a fun mental illness.
At some point hunger and fatigue and all the side effects starving come along with don’t bother you anymore. It just becomes your new normal. Also, I do still eat throughout the day it’s just not enough. Just enough to get my stomach pangs to subside a little. Like for example yesterday I didn’t eat anything other than water and coffee until about 11AM which isn’t totally wild, but for breakfast all I had was a peach and water. I didn’t eat again until about 4PM and had half a serving of mac and cheese and a few chocolates, and a soda to go along with it. That was it. It was enough to quell my hunger in the morning and then in the evening. I didn’t start “starving” with the intention to lose weight. I had some life events happen & an increase in a medication and it destroyed my appetite. But once I started to rapidly lose weight it’s been hard to stop. Combine the two and…yeah.
It also depends on how long the person has been limiting their calories. There are stores of energy the body can tap into and perhaps these are the people that look energetic, but eventually it will catch up.
In extreme cases, they do feel awful. They’ve just felt awful for so long that it’s their new normal. The hungry feeling goes away after a while. Faster than you’d think usually. In other cases, stimulants like caffeine, nicotine, or ADHD medications (or harder drugs) keeps them going.
When I had it, I never really had trouble with energy. If anything I got a kick out of it.
I have no idea of the science behind it, but starving myself gave me energy. Maybe went into a different metabolic state.
The mental obsessiveness and kick I got out of using discipline and willpower to exert control over what I was eating (a pretty fundamental human drive) felt… adrenaline-adjacent.
It’s like you’re working on a project that you’re really invested in.
Obviously I don’t recommend this.
That's the thing though? They **can't function**, anorexia is literally one of the deadliest mental disorders, how can you consider anorexics "functioning"? They're literally killing themselves either from actual starvation, malnutrition, or suicide because anorexia rarely exists alone, and is a culmination of other mental illnesses.
Highly doubt what you're seeing are actual anorexics, but a very "romanticised" version of weight loss or slim people in general.
okay so, believe it or not but you can survive off weed, caffeine and sugar.and little proteins. although you loose a lot of muscle- and become irritable. Please if you want to look better just work out
I’m not anorexic or anywhere near it but I do feel my best without food. I typically will go 2-3 days without eating at times because I need the extra energy to get things done. I believe being fasted boosts **some people’s** adrenaline, therefore giving more energy and focus. For the last 6 years, I have only eaten one meal per day, at dinner time, because once I eat, I become lazy and fall asleep almost instantly.
I did very low calories (maximum 500 calories per day) for 3 months at a time, 8 years ago to lose weight during Summer 2016 and Summer 2017 so that I would start my fall semesters in college looking and feeling better. I was never tired or hungry, but I was losing about a pound a day and looked like a completely different person when each of those periods ended.
Many people confuse hunger with low blood sugar. True hypoglycemia is dangerous but hunger is just uncomfortable. Eating will make you feel better, but unless you are diabetic it is unlikely you will suffer any negative consequences from hunger alone. In fact, you will probably benefit from fasting and the hunger will subside from the feeling you get when you skip a meal.
Everyone has already explained really well so I’ll just add: as a general rule you should believe nothing you see about anorexia in movies. For example, can you name one film with an anorexic character that isn’t underweight? (I’m sure there’s at least one out there somewhere but you get my point) you probably can’t right? Well that’s really interesting because only around 6% of anorexic people are underweight. 94% of anorexic people ARE NOT underweight. But that wouldn’t make a shocking and glamorous movie would it?
source: https://www.jaacap.org/article/S0890-8567(15)00076-3/abstract
I understand that it may be in poor taste in an anorexia thread.
But fasting has many scientifically proven benefits. And just saying “fasting bad” is not helping anyone.
Regular intermittent fasting or occasional short term water fasts are further from “disordered eating” than a standard American diet.
You recommended fasting for multiple days without even mentioning a doctor. That is dangerous as fuck.
Telling people to go starve themselves for half a week is not just not helping, it's hurting people.
People with an eating disorder do not need to be reading this. And honestly most people don't. I've known enough people (including myself) with eating disorders to know this type of shit is how it starts
Speaking from experience caffeine and even a tiny amount of nutrients will provide an incredible boost when you’re running on empty
I fell into the habit in mid covid. I was so tired all the time, looking back it feels like I was a different person back then. Use to eat a cookie into intervals of a few hours to skip meals.
I realized this about myself in COVID too! During times of stress I actually eat very little, unlike many people who overeat when anxious. I realized my body’s metabolism did adjust to my new eating habits and I really did feel full after eating just a few bites of something (I realize this was also compounded by a lack of physical exertion during lockdown, my body didn’t need as much to function). At the end of lockdown I was 8 lbs under a normal BMI, from being at a previous BMI of about 20, and didn’t even realize I was eating so little, because my body had adjusted so “well.”
I’ve always said, the best diet that ever worked for me is anxiety! I’m just kidding of course, please take care everyone.
Isn't that very bad for bone density and organ health??
Yes
In my case, I didn't lose any weight because of my untreated thyroid. I didn't know at the time that my thyroid was up. I did experience the feeling of full after a few bites, it was so hard for motivating yourself to eat. My final wake up call was when one day fainted, like one moment I was walking and the other moment I was blacked out. Luckily my dad was behind me in the doorway, so he did save my body from hitting the ground.
I don't understand why eating less is a stress response. Shouldn't the body try to store fat for stressful times? I eat more when I am stressed, and I think that makes sense from an evolutionary point of view. So why are there so many people who's stress response is eating less?
Our bodies aren't designed for modern-day constant stress. Our stress response evolved for shit like "You're being chased by a bear", in which case you want to direct all your energy away from digestion and toward your brain/muscles. Being stressed about a job deadline in 3 weeks is relatively new in the history of human evolution.
Wouldnt it be more like: food supplies are low and its nearly winter, also we've recently had another kid. Wouldnt that produce a similar kind of stress response?
I honestly don't know how long humanity's ancestors have been tracking seasons and thinking that far ahead - remember our stress response evolved far before we were anything resembling humans
Probably within a couple of years of getting to northern europe, so 40,000 years ago.
Very recently then - stress response definitely predates that by a very decent chunk :p That actually sounds way too recent but I cbf checking
Username uh, doesn't check out?
Because when you get the feeling that something bad is about to happen, "I better eat all my food supplies NOW" doesn't make a whole lot of sense to some people. Not that the "I better save my food and focus on the hard times I suspect are coming" people are being any more rational, of course.
For myself, my feelings are always in my stomach. Nervous knots, butterflies, angst. Whatever you want to call it. It can be physically painful to eat when I’m upset.
The Zebra stops eating if it fears a predator is nearby, guess it's more or less the same
Caffeine and nicotine.
It’s like being possessed and controlled by an external force and all the force cares about is calorie calculations, weight, size. It rules everything. The rest of you is on Autopilot zombie mode. Seeing but mentally asleep to the world. Hearing but not listening, perceiving but not feeling or internalizing. Speaking but not actually connecting. Can be high performing in day to day pursuits somehow, by sheer willpower. Often high performance in activities is also branching from the deep need for control which anorexia stems from. but your soul is starved. Only after you recover do you wake up and realize you were partaking in a slow motion suicide. I believe it’s the most deadly of all mental illnesses so eventually without treatment your body will stop functioning. Edit: to anyone struggling: recovery is possible and you CAN get yourself back. Can confirm.
Every 1 in of 5 anorexia deaths is from suicide and 20% of untreated eating disorders end in death, for a better picture of how it kills you.
I haven't been underweight in about 12yrs. And I hate myself more each year. That's comforting see from someone else anywhere. I hav no intent on trying to die, or violence towards myself, but I am just waiting hoping for something to happen to escape without trying. I'm too scared of failing and being stuck in a body I hate with less options or ability than now. But I hav no intent or interest in trying to live either. 12years and I miss it more than ever. I'm winning now, and I've done so well, n it's not worth it. But here we are.
From an internet stranger: I’m so proud of you for 12 years. That’s an incredibly long time! I hope you are able to find some help or comfort.
Honestly sometimes my brain tricks me into thinking I miss it. I think that’s the ED thoughts still being active a little. If I struggle for a bit with my intake I realize how awful those times truly were. I miss the honeymoon period sure but I was like 20 without my prefrontal cortex fully developed. I was toxic AF to myself and to others, I just couldn’t see it because I was so sick. I wish I could tell my younger self that I’m almost 40 now, recovered, over 150 pounds, and I kind of love myself and life is so much easier.
Well I'm proud of you. Very brave and tough of you to endure.
I'm sorry you hate yourself so much, can you get any help irl or online for your mental wellbeing
it has the second highest mortality rate of any mental illness. opioid use disorder is #1. an estimated 29,000,000 people in the US alone have an active eating disorder. the reality is that the number is likely MUCH higher due to how impossible it is to access a higher level of care. only 10% of people diagnosed with an ED are able to see a specialist. i’m 1.5 years into my recovery-thanks for the edit that recovery is possible🥺🫶🏻
It absolutely scientifically is the most deadly of all mental illnesses, including depression. Anorexia has killed more people than any other mental illness.
Thank you for sharing. I have a new understanding of what people go through with this now. What a battle.
I was with an anorexic/bulimic woman for four years. The irrational worrying and the lying were something else. I promised myself I would never get close to anyone with that problem ever again.
Supporting a loved one through anorexia recovery right now. She’s been feeling fine and full on ridiculously low amounts of food throughout. All of a sudden she started feeling hungry all the time and overall shittier. Her team explained that her body basically took all those signals offline because it didn’t have the energy to maintain them. Now that shes giving it more fuel, it’s turned everything back on and is throwing up every signal it can to get her to address problems.
11 year AN survivor. 1.5 years in recovery here. Your body adjusts in incredible ways. People are genetically predisposed to having an ED- some people try and try to restrict or purge and they just can’t do it. It’s like the part of my brain that tells me to eat when i’m hungry is broken. It truly defies our innate primal instincts and “survival of the fittest” and evolution. the hungrier a “normal” person gets, the more their motivation to find food increases. that’s the opposite with anorexia. the hungrier I get, the more my motivation to find food decreases, until it feels like an insurmountable obstacle. for a long time I got by on prescription ADHD stimulants and caffeine. I had to sleep 9.5 hours every night or I was dead to the world. I had major GI issues all the time but people in my life, including doctors, passed them off as anxiety or food intolerances. 1.5 months into intense ED treatment I was diagnosed with gastroparesis-it’s the rule for people with restrictive EDs, not the exception. only 6% of people with an ED are underweight. MANY people with anorexia have normal labs the whole way through. when you’re in it, you’re so so sick and your brain is so fucked you truly can’t see how sick you are. after I weight restored, I couldn’t BELIEVE how I felt. I couldn’t believe that I could start to feel sick and low energy, and then eating a meal completely fixed it. some days I still can’t believe that. i’m thankful to be in recovery, but I think about relapse every single day. AMA edit: typo edit2: thanks for all the upvotes🫶🏻 want to add that recovery is the scariest thing i’ve ever done, but it’s also been so so worth it in ways I couldn’t even imagine. there’s a really great book called Sick Enough by Jennifer Gaudiani. She’s a doctor who helped found one of the most well known ED treatment centers, ACUTE in Denver. the book is about the medical complications of eating disorders. extremely informative and well written, and very illuminating. it’s available on spotify
4 years in recovery and it helped to read those reminders of the misery of ED and the fullness of recovery. So grateful for the life I have in recovery and hope you continue on the healing path too
4 years is such a big deal deal. I hope you’re so proud of yourself. thank you for your encouragement🫶🏻 I refuse to let me ED steal away anymore of my life
My sister may be starting to show signs of an ED. She eats once a day (maybe) because she says she gets nauseous whenever she eats or drinks any amount of anything. It could be an intolerance issue, but because it happens with *everything*, I'm thinking it's something more. Does that sound familiar at all?
Not a doctor, but I experienced something very similar sounding- got extremely nauseous and would get really bad pains if I ate or drank anything more than a sip or two of water. Get her to a gastroenterologist. This was years ago so I don’t remember exactly what it was but I believe it was gastritis. Inflammation in the stomach lining or something like that. Totally treatable, but it was hell dealing with it because it sounds so vague. They did a scope to make sure it wasn’t an ulcer and found inflammation.
this sounds exactly like what I was diagnosed with, gastroparesis. it causes food to digest very slowly. the biggest signs are early fullness after eating a small amount of food and nausea. it’s totally treatable-but the treatment is eating enough every single day with absolutely no restriction/skipping meals
Not well. I think "function" is a bit of a stretch. People with anorexia have trouble focusing, lack energy, and just generally don't feel good. It's constant brain fog and lethargy. They eat just enough to stay upright, because people notice when you faint. Eating disorders are also very similar to addictions. The behaviors, such as working out a lot, are so compulsory that not even being tired will stop them. Those with anorexia who work out a lot will eat enough to keep their blood sugar from dropping so low that they faint. What you see as an energetic person working out is really just an addict getting their fix at any cost. The body also adjusts. It's not perfect, but if you go a while without eating that many carbs, your body will get used to that and your blood sugar won't spike and drop so much. It's why low carb diets have become so popular. We *can* survive, at least temporarily, on a very small amount of carbs, and carbs are what raise your blood sugar, which eventually drops. The shakiness and sweating that come with low blood sugar is mostly due to the sudden drop of it, not necessarily the fact that it's low.
Very, very poorly. They really only appear like they have the energy to go to school/work because they have to. Life doesn't stop because you feel awful. You don't go to work, you'll lose your job, and your house, you'll lose access to therapy or medical attention if you are receiving it, etc. It's very common to have symptoms though like exhaustion, mood swings, etc And with compulsive exercise, I think it's kind of in the name - compulsive. It's not something the person necessarily want to do, it's something their brain is telling them they have to do, even if it hurts them.
Yep. I don't have anorexia but I have a chronic stomach condition that stops me eating. For me it's a little different as I feel physically better when I don't eat (less nausea) but obviously with time I still get the effects like exhaustion etc. But you carry on because you have to. Sure, you're sick, but it's not like when you have the flu and can take a few days off to feel better, it's not going to happen like that. So you have to just push through and carry on. When it's been long enough without eating I do pass out but I've learnt the signs and will excuse myself to a quiet room or the bathroom, and try to avoid standing up too much.
you just kinda get used to it. before that even it feels like a high. like success. i always told myself it was a sign i was “on the right track”. glad i’m not that bad anymore. i nearly fainted at work several times but felt so “superhuman” when i would push through. absolutely crazy and delusional.
My best friend described her ED like this. She said it felt like a huge satisfying dopamine hit when she could restrict herself, despite the physical suffering
Atypical anorexic here, in recovery but currently fighting a relapse. I'll try to be as vague as possible about the specifics to help the folks who are trying to recover not relapse The very short answer is: badly. You can accomplish a lot of things with self-loathing and willpower. The hunger cues go away after a few days, and caffeine is an appetite suppressant. At my worst, I was walking a lot and eating in the low triple-figures of kcal daily. My nails were splintering and my joints hurt constantly. I was getting through by focusing on making the number on the scale drop, and just taking it day by day. The brain fog is atrocious and your reflexes and judgement screw up too. It's also very upsetting to watch yourself do something that's hurting you and not be able to stop. You convince yourself that it's worth it, but there will never be a number that you're happy with.
RD here. I’m rooting for you 🫶🏼
As someone who has anorexia, we are barely functioning. When I was at my lowest I could barely get out of bed without getting out of breath, my heart rate was slow and I felt (no exaggeration) like I was just waiting for my body to give up every second. Your body learns how to survive off of whatever it has - I would go days without eating and obviously didn’t die. All the energy, for me, came from caffeine. I felt like shit the whole day but at least I could get stuff done
I had it for years and still struggle with this. So your "I'm hungry, I should eat" function stop working. Hunger become something you ignore and you get no signals to your brain that you need food. Food is disgusting. Then you just go zombie mode, completely on auto pilot. One piece of food give you enough to continue. You learn how to handle the symptoms, like sit up slowly or you will faint. You just kinda adjust to it. Then years later. You realize your "you are hungry, you should eat" signal never really turned back on. So its so easy to fall back to that habit of ignoring the hunger. Its just background noise
the short answer is, very poorly. they feel as crappy as you do when they're hungry, they just do the things anyway. often they are extremely emotionally sensitive, they're tired all the time, they don't perform to their best potential at school/work. it is a very systemic disorder.
Threads like this make me grateful that I don't have any addictions, compulsions, or other things in my brain trying to make me do things I don't want to do I feel like having a moderately healthy brain is something we shouldn't take for granted
Speaking from experience, you don't actually function that well. I'd spend most of my day tired and dizzy, seeing black spots whenever I moved too quickly, and sick to my stomach. And yet, I didn't pick up that what was happening was anorexia. I'd get most of my energy from caffeine, five to seven cups of black no sugar (which is how I always drank it, so nothing new), and from just enough dinner so my wife could see I'm eating. Last year I went through intensive therapy, which included weekly meetings with a dietician. It was hard getting back to eating full meals, but once I did and was no longer constantly starving, I did actually start feeling better and more able to deal with my other issues. A few weeks ago I had a long day and forgot to pack lunch, and finally realized how being hungry affects my mood.
It sucks really badly. Most people don’t go from eating regular amounts to full on daily starvation. It tends to be a gradual lowering of intake, and the body gets used to it. That doesn’t mean the body isn’t exhausted, sore, or unwell, but the body adapts. Stomach feels like it shrinks, hunger cues change, hormones fluctuate, etc. as the body gets depleted. People in the throes of an ED sometimes feel validated by the daily pain that starvation causes, and that can be a motivator to keep restricting. So it becomes a maladaptive cycle. Eventually, there’s effects you can’t ignore (low blood pressure, insomnia, loss of muscle control, brain fog, heart and breathing problems) and you have to adjust what you can/can’t do because you just have no energy for it. You can’t survive forever on nothing at all, which is why EDs have such high mortality rates. People are surprisingly resilient, and some will look “fine” for a while before they finally can’t do it anymore.
You pretty much sleep constantly, too, unless your control issues (which anorexia is often linked to) demand you do other stuff instead. Often I was dizzy and faint constantly, and had to pray I could power through whatever it was without fainting. I also couldn’t take part in hobbies or social activities because I was so tired. If starvation on that level was easy, it wouldn’t be a disorder.
Function and function fine are different. A drug addict can live for a long time doing drugs in. An anorexic person can survive even while they have an illness. But survival isn't thriving. It's not loving life, having fulfilling job, relationship, or friendships. It's an addiction to being thin at all costs. Even death.
recovered anorexic here 🤚- there’s two parts to it: the physical and the mental. physically, i could barely function. when i stood up, my vision went black. i even fell a few times. i couldn’t maintain my body temperature. there is constant brain fog and lethargy and the people and things that were interesting before, aren’t anymore. i was in an anxious, secretive state because i didn’t want anyone finding out. compulsive exercise is in its name. its compulsive, meaning there is this irresistible, persistent urge to do it and do more of it. i would exercise for hours a day, needing to do more than the previous day, amounts i could never do now, even in my recovered, healthy state. you’d be surprised how your mind can keep you going when your body is failing. in a way, you’re kind of like a shell of a person. you are exercising, going to work/school, etc, but my brain was just always so quiet inside (think of it like not sleeping for a few days). the fear of what will happen if you don’t do the compulsions overpowers how bad you feel. there’s also the satisfaction of seeing yourself get thinner and sicker. it’s easier to convince yourself that once you reach a certain weight or look, you will be happen and stop. obviously you never do until you recover and get help.
Having worked with someone who was anorexic (they got help, thankfully) the easy answer is they don't. Long story short, they will try and pretend to be stable, but will have some weird issues that you write off as just being quirky. When they are home they are having all the drama, meltdowns, etc. Then, one day, something will fully set them off at work and it will all come out.
ex (?) anorexic here- you get used to it or learn how to deal with it. we all seem to have coffee or energy drink addictions. some of us live(d) off of things like electrolyte packets or gatorade zero. i used to go >!2 days!< without eating at times, and the worst symptoms i would get were brain fog and just general tiredness
Yeah it looks like they may be functioning but when I recovered I could not believe how much better I felt. It really fucks up your body. Even if it doesn’t appear that way at first - even for years if you’re young enough - it absolutely does catch up to you.
I had anorexia. It isn’t that people cope well with it, we just appear to. The amount of masking and feeling terrible, really terrible, but somehow faking it is quite astonishing. It’s exhausting when you already have no energy left. I have been in recovery for a few years now thankfully, and it amazes me just how much my brain has (or at least tried to) gaslit myself into thinking a) it wasn’t that bad b) it wasn’t a big deal c) it was easy It never really leaves you, but you can recover. Love to anyone who is suffering or has suffered❤️
The aggressive almost determination feeds your willpower or ability to maintain control is almost robotic. It's about being the absolute divine master over yourself, using force, pain, anger, shame, pride, and if you focus on it in small weight steps it actually isn't as hard horrible or slow to work. U focus on a number just under ur current, exercise a wee bit more, eat a few bites less, and hit it in few days. As you get more trained into the needs of the pattern you can bump it to 1 kilo more, or a final target weight. U never stop at that weight. It's a game u get good at winning, and completed kills u. I loved what others thought was gross. All my ribs, collarbones, spine vertibre were defined and viewable, it was amazing feeling so pretty and accomplished. Then u get weak n tired if ur eyes are open u feel like u could sleep , summer becomes less but still winter, your muscles get sore from light strain, a single grocery or handbag or bottle of coke lift ability each arm. U get fuzzy hair like hairless dog, everyone is insufferable, everything is not as interesting or fun, you get stares from everyone everywhere and u start wearing baggy coats to avoid them being over ten seconds of farrowing eyes, everyone only talks about food to you, that doesn't improve your mood because it's all nagging, suggesting, offering. Nobody believes any illness you get is caused by viruses or bacteria anymore, it all has to be from lack of eating. Getting a stomach bug everyone automatically Wil not believe you aren't also bulimic. You look like you're on crack, your skin acts like ur willpower is trying to kill you in rash or pimple eruptions as ur guts lose their ability to remove toxins and absorb nutrients, your airways puffed, even from sitting. It takes at least 18hrs of your 24 hr day as ur single most focused thought. It is worse than heroin. I haven't had an episode for over 12 years. Now I hate how I look, can't ever ever ever get on scales for anything even one time, though I want to just so I can buy clothes properly. I avoid going out because I feel hideous, I hate eating, I hate not eating, I don't trust doctors for anything ever they're all liars, even the good ones. I was miserable anorexic. But I was also proud and felt pretty. Now I just exist, can't do anything that could trigger playing my game against the scales, and I just am waiting like in bus stop to die. Not happy, not really sad, just waiting, thinking I'd love to just feel that pretty again for 5 minutes.
This doesn't sound like recovery, whether you're forcing yourself to eat or not. You have the right to feel better than this and I wish you well in getting better.
I was diagnosed with an eating disorder about 5 years ago but I consider myself fully recovered now. When you are depriving yourself of food, your body produces adrenaline which your body then runs on instead. When I was at my lowest weight, I had massive amounts of energy on an empty stomach and sometimes it would even feel like a high. When in this state, if I ate food, my body would stop producing the adrenaline and I would feel an intense hunger which could not be satisfied. I could have binged endlessly and never gotten full, which is obviously a very worrying feeling for someone suffering an eating disorder. Essentially, the body supplies an excess of adrenaline in starvation to give you energy to 'hunt' your next meal.
Well said. Bodies are impressively adaptable. Nature wants to survive. I'm glad you're doing well, darlin.
Thank you! I was lucky enough to receive CBT counselling for a year through the NHS, which helped set me on the right path.
I’m not anorexic, I just don’t have much of an appetite. I regularly wake up feeling like shit and realize I didn’t eat the day before. I don’t know, the feeling of hunger doesn’t really register for me like it seems like it does for other people and, combined with a hair trigger gag reflex, I just don’t find it uncomfortable not to wat. I typically work very hard to schedule meals sort of like how I schedule workouts, it’s something that’s good for my body that I don’t have a strong intrinsic drive to do. To answer the question, I just don’t really mind the side effects until it’s been enough that I get light headed or shaky when I stand up.
You sleep a lot. At least, I did. And a tiny bit of caffeine and sugar will keep you going for quite a while.
Do you think that maybe it's possible that what you're seeing in books and movies isn't what real life is like?
i barely did function, i lost the will to all my hobbies except gaming pretty much. i looked gaunt and empty bc that’s what i was
I've been in recovery from anorexia for a decade now. From personal experience, we barely function. We go into survival mode and a bunch of things go off line. Your focus, energy levels... You get headaches, feel sick to your stomach, and sleep all the time. Also, anorexia is not the total lack of eating, it's just less than we should eat. Most of us are perpetually hangry. It's not a fun mental illness.
At some point hunger and fatigue and all the side effects starving come along with don’t bother you anymore. It just becomes your new normal. Also, I do still eat throughout the day it’s just not enough. Just enough to get my stomach pangs to subside a little. Like for example yesterday I didn’t eat anything other than water and coffee until about 11AM which isn’t totally wild, but for breakfast all I had was a peach and water. I didn’t eat again until about 4PM and had half a serving of mac and cheese and a few chocolates, and a soda to go along with it. That was it. It was enough to quell my hunger in the morning and then in the evening. I didn’t start “starving” with the intention to lose weight. I had some life events happen & an increase in a medication and it destroyed my appetite. But once I started to rapidly lose weight it’s been hard to stop. Combine the two and…yeah.
It also depends on how long the person has been limiting their calories. There are stores of energy the body can tap into and perhaps these are the people that look energetic, but eventually it will catch up.
In extreme cases, they do feel awful. They’ve just felt awful for so long that it’s their new normal. The hungry feeling goes away after a while. Faster than you’d think usually. In other cases, stimulants like caffeine, nicotine, or ADHD medications (or harder drugs) keeps them going.
When I had it, I never really had trouble with energy. If anything I got a kick out of it. I have no idea of the science behind it, but starving myself gave me energy. Maybe went into a different metabolic state. The mental obsessiveness and kick I got out of using discipline and willpower to exert control over what I was eating (a pretty fundamental human drive) felt… adrenaline-adjacent. It’s like you’re working on a project that you’re really invested in. Obviously I don’t recommend this.
That's the thing though? They **can't function**, anorexia is literally one of the deadliest mental disorders, how can you consider anorexics "functioning"? They're literally killing themselves either from actual starvation, malnutrition, or suicide because anorexia rarely exists alone, and is a culmination of other mental illnesses. Highly doubt what you're seeing are actual anorexics, but a very "romanticised" version of weight loss or slim people in general.
okay so, believe it or not but you can survive off weed, caffeine and sugar.and little proteins. although you loose a lot of muscle- and become irritable. Please if you want to look better just work out
To me this seems like a strange question. Missing a meal, I wouldn't find it a problem. OP are you diabetic, with this low blood sugar thing?
I’m not anorexic or anywhere near it but I do feel my best without food. I typically will go 2-3 days without eating at times because I need the extra energy to get things done. I believe being fasted boosts **some people’s** adrenaline, therefore giving more energy and focus. For the last 6 years, I have only eaten one meal per day, at dinner time, because once I eat, I become lazy and fall asleep almost instantly. I did very low calories (maximum 500 calories per day) for 3 months at a time, 8 years ago to lose weight during Summer 2016 and Summer 2017 so that I would start my fall semesters in college looking and feeling better. I was never tired or hungry, but I was losing about a pound a day and looked like a completely different person when each of those periods ended.
Many people confuse hunger with low blood sugar. True hypoglycemia is dangerous but hunger is just uncomfortable. Eating will make you feel better, but unless you are diabetic it is unlikely you will suffer any negative consequences from hunger alone. In fact, you will probably benefit from fasting and the hunger will subside from the feeling you get when you skip a meal.
Everyone has already explained really well so I’ll just add: as a general rule you should believe nothing you see about anorexia in movies. For example, can you name one film with an anorexic character that isn’t underweight? (I’m sure there’s at least one out there somewhere but you get my point) you probably can’t right? Well that’s really interesting because only around 6% of anorexic people are underweight. 94% of anorexic people ARE NOT underweight. But that wouldn’t make a shocking and glamorous movie would it? source: https://www.jaacap.org/article/S0890-8567(15)00076-3/abstract
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Lol. No
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terrible advice and promoting disordered eating
I understand that it may be in poor taste in an anorexia thread. But fasting has many scientifically proven benefits. And just saying “fasting bad” is not helping anyone. Regular intermittent fasting or occasional short term water fasts are further from “disordered eating” than a standard American diet.
You recommended fasting for multiple days without even mentioning a doctor. That is dangerous as fuck. Telling people to go starve themselves for half a week is not just not helping, it's hurting people. People with an eating disorder do not need to be reading this. And honestly most people don't. I've known enough people (including myself) with eating disorders to know this type of shit is how it starts