Hello everyone,
I feel as though this topic is very important because eating disorders are very common but not everyone understands them.
Welcome to my life..
Growing up I never had a problem with food, I would eat healthy, whole foods, home cooked meals. Due to my petite size, I did not use to eat much but was very active (which is why I was underweight), but regardless I always had a healthy relationship with food. I would eat what I wanted and would not feel guilty.
However, when I started college, I believe it must have been the stress of college/exams and things happening at home which led to me start emotionally eating and generally overeating. My food choices became poor, I stopped exercising and I was using food as source of comfort, which sounds silly but it happened.
In a short space of time my weight obviously increased quite a bit, I was the heaviest I have ever been in my life. It was clear to people that I had put on weight, people knew me as the slim and athletic girl, and now I was the opposite. Inside I felt helpless, I hated who and what I had become, but I didn't know what to do. The thought of what I had became made me sick, angry and depressed.
During this period I also began experiencing a few problems, such as, panic attacks, my menstrual cycle became even more irregular, some kind of rash (small red spots) appeared all over my stomach and chest. At the time I did not know why these things were happening. I decided I needed to go and visit my doctor to find out what was going on. The doctor asked me questions about my cycle, he undertook various tests from a physical exam to measure my BMI, a blood test and and ultrasound of my ovaries. It turned out I had Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS). PCOS is a common endocrine disorder, affecting women of a reproductive age. Women with PCOS have women have higher androgens than they should. Symptoms include; irregular or no period, hirsutism, acne, hair loss.
I believe it was this period in my life that led to my PCOS or I had PCOS and the change in diet and lifestyle led to it showing up or becoming worse.
So what led me to developing an eating disorder?
My eating disorder began around the time I was diagnosed with PCOS. My PCOS diagnosis was not the only reason for me deciding to lose the weight I gained, it was also because I truly wanted to become who I was and most importantly healthy again, so I became dieting and exercising.
I went about losing weight very wrong, I began low calorie dieting, restricting food and overexercising. I knew this was wrong but I was so eager to lose the weight quickly.
Over time I began cutting and restricting lots of foods, to the point where I could count the food/meals I would eat on one hand. I was so fixated and obsessed about eating clean and healthy that I stopped living my life, I wasn't going out to eat with friends and family, I would be afraid to eat anything that was not deemed 'healthy' because I believed it would turn straight to fat. I was always tired, I didn't have any energy and I could not think clearly, my life was pretty boring. Seeing the scale go down and noticing the changes made me become obsessed and I got caught up and forgot what I was doing wasn't actually healthy.
Suffering from an eating disorder is extremely draining, both physically and mentally. It is a battle everyday to overcome it, but for health reasons it has to be done.
http://pcosandnutrition.com/i-am-on-steemit/
Author Despina, owner of PCOS and Nutrition
pcosandnutrition.com is an educational, informative and motivational website. The main focus of the website is for women who suffer from PCOS. The blog is dedicated to offering information on how women can heal their body and how PCOS can be managed. The content is full of information on nutrition for women with PCOS, to an array of recipes that are healthy and PCOS friendly but also motivational and inspirational posts. However, the website also offers further educational information on other health and fitness topics that are beneficial for anybody and everybody that is interested or looking to understand and learn about nutrition.