How do you know when an ED is an ED?

[stories]

I have been wondering this lately, as I do not know how far into this I am.

Do any of you have any advice on when an ED is actually an ED or just some signs of disordered eating? Is it when it is hurting your health? Hurting your psychical health specifically? Is it, at least for females, after a three month period of not having your "period"? I am not sure.

I can tell you my symptoms if that will help. I think I have EDNOS but nothing has been diagnosed.

I know that you cannot diagnose me or anything, but your input would be nice.

Also, please don't recommend that I go to a doctor or anything to find out because I do not have the time or money (or even the courage) to do so. I just wanted to get some advice on here. So thanks.

[stories]

Please, I'd like some advice on this. Thanks.

Would posting my symptoms help?

[Fiction]

I think an ED is an ED when your eating becomes disordered. Simple enough. :P

You can have disordered thoughts about eating, and be doing disordered things long before it starts to effect your physical health, so to say someone physically healthy can't have an eating disorder I think is wrong.

I know for me, when I think of food it causes a hell of a lot of stress. I can't really even talk about food. Even talking about food with people very close to me is... diffcult. I know I have certain perceptions of food that are wrong. It's been like this as long as I remember though, but I wouldn't say that back then I had an eating disorder. Problems with food, yes, but not an eating disorder.

I think you need the presence of the mental symptoms but it becomes an ED when you physically act on them, if that makes sense.

[stories]

Thanks.

I have figured that it is one, when though I am not diagnosed with anything. Come October 5th, this will have been going on for three months.

Sometimes it is hard for me to eat. I have to watch what I eat and write down every calorie and if I do not know the exact amount I over-guess so I know to eat less later. When I go to the gym, which I don't always like to or have the energy to do, I always go with the intent of losing calories. I write down how many I've lost. I record this, my food intake, and thoughts for the day in a journal. I am so focused on food these days. I am finding it harder and harder to concentrate with all of these thoughts of food and weight on my mind. Sometimes I will sit at work, I'm a hall receptionist at my school, and instead of doing the schoolwork I should be doing, I am looking up diets, calories, and ways not to eat. I always contemplate back-and-forth on eating something. Sometimes I am okay with it but other times, if it is a "bad" or unsafe food I feel really guilty after it. I will tell myself how fat I am getting and how fat I feel. I have just made myself believe this way of "disordered" eating/living will make me better and feel better about myself in the end. Also, to me a binge is eating one or two bad foods off of my unsafe foods list. Like, I hate it if I eat one plain white bagel out of the foods I have eaten in a day because I know how bad it will be for me. Even small things are getting to me like that, and sometimes I am feeling irritable about it and everything else. I know the excuses to pull in front of my friends as well. I even got one of my brothers into it without him knowing it. I know that is bad but I told him whenever I am indecisive about food (which I am a super picky eater naturally) that I should just get salad and I have asked him to help me stop mindlessly eating. He doesn't know that salads are low in calories depending on how you make them. Little things set me off sometimes when people talk about weight, my looks, or anything related to that. Sometimes certain comments make me not want to eat at all. I also have been getting tired a bit more lately and I don't know why. It has been happening earlier in the night, which usually doesn't happen (as I have insomnia - undiagnosed), and it happened for a moment when I was at the gym yesterday, after I wasn't allowed to go for a week (which really bugged me).

I am not underweight though and I still have my period. I just don't feel my weight is good enough and going lower would help. And I am not getting the fat off me that I want so I can see what happens as this goes along.

So, yeah. I feel this is an ED. Well it's EDNOS (restricting-type anorexia). It's restricting-type because I have tried to purge a few times and just couldn't do it. I don't know why but felt bad after I couldn't, like I really wanted to. So my calorie counts are low. Actually they vary a lot. Sometimes that is good (to me) though. Like last week I checked my weight and was 105 lbs, freaked out that I gained weight, then restricted, and in three went back down to 102.5lbs. In the beginning of the summer I was eating junk food and fast food, which I never used to do. My eating habits were poor. I was about 117-118bs in April. Then after working out and not eating much for a two week period in July I went down to 106lbs. My weight has been in flux since then. I know that my weight is healthy but still don't like the way I look.

I just wanted to know where to draw the line on an ED.

Also, yesterday my friend wanted me to really see her room and persisted in me coming over. I did but after a little while my anxiety was rising and I kept getting antsy because I needed to go work out and I wasn't able to. I felt a sigh of relief when I was able to go.

And I am really picky about the amount of food I have. I have to count of pieces to things and cannot have it get messed up or my anxiety goes up about how much I am eating. I need the foods I eat to be a certain way too. I am a bit OCD like that.

Edit: One more thing... I can't stand the taste of food in my mouth. I have to brush my teeth after I eat anything. I just don't like the taste of food being there. I don't like the taste and it reminds that I've eaten, which I don't like either.

[KateReves]

I have struggled a LOT with this question, the thing is, if are undereating to lose wight, no matter how often, it IS an ED

[Faithfull]

If you're even thinking the word ED then it's an ED.

[stories]

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