# eating disorders and ibs



## chasity_000

hi everyonei was wondering, what do you think?eating disorders can cause certain symptoms of ibs, because of the change of diet; but does ibs cause eating disorders?i say YES! what do you think?For me, not only is my eating disorder stemming from the pressure of society, but the fact that people with ibs have to pay so much attention to what they eat. an obsession with food grows, and an unhealthy relationship is started. because of what we eat has an impact on the way we go to the toilet, of course people with ibs are going to relate to food as a bad thing, both consiously and un consiously. also, ibs is something we are unable to control, everyone knows that eating disorders, read anorexia, is a way of controlling. ibs is not only a chronic illness that interupts our lives, but our mental health and physical. i hate it and all its problems it has brought me and i just wish it never happened to me.what do u people think?


----------



## Karen Savage

I totally agree wiht you. When I was in High school, which was a long time ago! It was the style to be super thin and my IBS made me always bloated and constipated. So I started to use laxtives and became hooked on them. I still have a problem with them even now.


----------



## Chash2

I agree100%Since I had my son at 18 i have spasms so bad that i had vertually stopped eating, everyone is saying that i am anorexic, even the hospital. This has led to my self obsession with weight gain and other peoples opinions.So i think that IBS can cause eating dissorders!!!


----------



## Angel01

I feel the same way...does anyone think laxatives can cause IBS? cause i'm not sure if i have IBS for sure...but i was taking laxatives for awhile


----------



## crazepinkpixie

hey-i hate ibs b/c although i love eating...i have 2 limit myself -- it really disappoints me!! i always hafta eat less, and very carefully...i hate it!


----------



## Auroraheart

I'm not a teen....but I could not help but see this on the main screen.I totally agree that eating disorders may attribute to IBS. I was bulimic in my teens and early twenties. When you speak of laxatives I can totally relate. I used to eat BARS (as in 2-3 BARS) of exlax a day. You are normally to have 2-3 squares of a bar. It took me a long time to overcome this...I was able to do it on my own then but in retrospect I wish I had also had counselling. I really think that this contributed to my having IBS D now. To this day the smell of dark chocolate will cause a violent IBS D attack in me. And I am now 30 years old.I also think that b/c I wrecked my metabolism, that is why now I have problems losing weight. My body still goes into starvation mode, thinking one day I will not eat or use laxatives again.If any of you do think you have an eating disorder; please learn by my mistake and get counselling and tell your doctor.


----------



## kyestar

I do believe that ED's can lead to IBS or problems with IBS. Whilst I have had IBS longer than an ED, when I go through a particuarly bad "phase" my IBS gets much worse, it also takes a long time to get back on track.


----------



## theperfect

My bulimia started about four years ago. At that time i was experianceing the serve bloating caused by IBS, but I was not diagnosed. I believed that I was just fat, although I was about ten lbs over weight, my bloated stomach exagerrated my apperance.I don't believe that IBS was the only factor that lead to an eventual eating disorder, however, it did drastically effect me.Even today (I have been recovered for 8 months!) I have terriable self esteme body image issues. Sometimes I believe that If I could eat normally, without my stomach growing five inches with each meal, and random C, I may not have any body image issues.Well, heres to hoping.BTW, feel free to e-mail me, anyone dealing with anorexia/bulimia. I spend too much time at home, and know waaaay too much about ED's


----------



## 22273

chasity_000, my sentiments EXACTLY. you totally nailed it. i can't believe there are people out there who feel the same way i do. i have always been a healthy eater and i love it, but IBS has made me so obsessed with food and weight and ugh it's just awful.


----------



## 20678

I do believe that digestive difficulties can cause an eating disorder. IBS is often caused by or related to "leaky gut" or malnutrition, which can result from many different causes. I didn't develop bulimia until I was 19 -- but 7 years prior to that, I'd had constipation, slow digestion & digestive distress after eating. After trying everything to recover from bulimia, what finally did it for me was fixing my digestion. Once my digestive distress stopped (gas pain, bloating, etc.), it was like a miracle. I no longer wanted to binge or purge. I no longer had cravings. I was able to eat normally. There is definitely a connection, although I'm sure it's complicated and I don't know any doctors who understand the body as a system enough to figure it out. I've written several articles about this in my bulimia recovery blog. Here are two that address IBS and digestion:http://transcendbulimia.com/archives/48http://transcendbulimia.com/archives/53My blog also talks about how I recovered digestive health by following the Body Ecology Diet. I was skeptical, but it worked! After 6 - 8 days, the bloating was gone. The pain stopped immediately. Thank God!


----------



## 17176

hi and welcome Heather


----------



## 20745

I have had an eating disorder since I was 12.I was terrified to be fat and swallowed all my mother's laxatives and the whole deal.But being a teeenager it was hard to refrain from the stuff teens eat.When I was 19 I ate a really greasy hamberger in a really sleazy place in NYC. I thought I was a hot shot hanging out by Broadway shows with my friends doing some pot etc. it was a really degenerate part of my life.The next day I got really sick and I had diarrhea for about 5 days straight the doctors came to your homes in those days. The doc said I had the flu Well I got worse and worse and was bleeding outr of everywhere and they admitted me to the hospital where I was diagnosewd with salmonella from the meat that had obviously been uncooked. I thought I was going to die. I lost a ton of weight and got sicker They started to treat me for ulcerative colitis as I was getting some disease in my colon. I was not reacting to the meds actualy I was allergic and they were planning on surgery and a colostomy. But somehow they were able to make me better with medication. I was in the hospital a long time and missed a lot of schoolIt took 6 years to graduate because I was sick so much. Anyway when Iwas better I followed the diet and was so careful not to eat anything that would hurt my digestive system.During this recovery I became more and more anorexic and bullimic. To this day there are foods that I wont eat because I have this deep seeded belief that I will get fat.In my 30's my symptoms came back an d I got real sickI had physically destroyed certain organs of my body which emotionally made me a wreck I was destroying myself. I continued seeking help for the spastic colon thats what they called in then and didnt go into treatment for the anorexia until almost 40. My life has been a crazy rollercoster I have done a lot of damage. Thank God I had one healthy child. She was my miracle babyI am in my mid 50's now and I have a great GI doc but I still have a lot of problems with it along with a bad back and bladderI still seek treatment for my anorexia.It seems the only thing I allow outside of my anorexia thinking is lots of whole grains and bran.Most of the time I have no appetite and only eat for the nutritional value I have lost the love of the taste of foodWith me IBS and anorexia and bullemia go hand in handI couldnt read Heathers blog It was difficult for me I had tried to wrtie a book once or twice or many times to tell my story so I couldl help young women so they wouldnt fall into this #### I started getting a MA in Psychology so I could be a therapist and help young women But I was too sickI am doing better now And I was happy to see this thread today If I could help just one person I would be so happyI have rambled on so I will closekrobert055###aol.comKaren


----------



## 20678

Hi joolie, thank you for your welcome -- I appreciate it! Karen, thanks for sharing your story. For everyone else -- I lost my blog over the weekend due to a server error and had to reconstruct it. I just fixed the links in the above post, so they actually point to the right IBS articles. I'd love to hear from others about the connection between digestive distress/IBS and eating disorders. There isn't much information about this out there, so this thread is great!With love,Heather


----------



## 20678

Hi Tess, thanks for sharing your story. Thank heavens the infection in your gallbladder and appendix was found in time! There is a doctor who believes that eating disorders are caused by gall stones or diseased gall bladders. He has apparently successfully treated patients by removing their gall bladders. I went to see him in Kingston, PA and learned that my gall bladder is diseased too. He does a special test because small gall stones can't be found on the usual ultrasound. His name is Dr. Smedley and you can find information about him online.I actually believe the gall bladder, liver and other digestive organs can be healed through a body repair diet -- but certainly not if they are as acute and far along as yours, Tess. For me, The Body Ecology Diet has really worked to heal my body. I plan to get retested after following this plan to see if there are changes in my gall bladder test. I'm guessing there will be and I can avoid surgery.Tess, I hope you are doing well after your surgery!With love,Heather


----------



## 14013

tess i really hope you take legal action against that docotOr, thats just mal practice!


----------



## 20307

I don't necessarily thing eating disorders can cause IBS- but I do believe that IBS can cause eating disorders.I think I'm on the verge of one myself.When you're forced to watch every measley ounce of food that goes into your body, you tend to cut out the things that you find "unnecessary".I'm 5'8" and probably 105 pounds. I'm averaging probably 600 calories a day.Hopefully I can stop it before it happens, and I hope the same to all of you.


----------



## 20307

And, Tess, I just read your entry... and holy cow.I was misdiagnosed, too, but not that severely. The doc's said I was constipated so they sent me home with Milk of Magnisia.. then i didn't get better.. so three months later they settled on "um.. well.. it has to be pancreatitis." right. it wasn't.i go to my doctor recently, and it takes him an hour to figure out that I have IBS, when these doctors couldn't figure it out for THREE YEARS. I share your pain. I only hope that you took some action against them. We threatened, but we didn't ever act on it. I hope all is well.


----------



## 13545

HiThis the first time ive been on this site and I am so glad Ive read ur postings. Im in a right state I was diagnosed with ibs two years ago although Im still waiting for a hospital appointment to try and get sumthing to help. Im really bad at the momment and have been for a while now. I haven't been able to eat anything even if I eat an apple the pain starts. But Ive kind of used that as an excuse to not eat and ive been doing excessive amounts of excercise. Ive suffered with body image problems since I was 15 Im now 23 and have a body fat (tested last week at the gym) of 8.9%. People have started to worry and have asked if I have a problem. I brush it off as IBS but I don't know whats happening to me. It really does hurt when I eat anything especially a big meal but am I making matters worse by not eating at all. Half of me wants to be thin and the other half is seeing myself waste away. My boyfriends trys to fatten me up my making me eat cake and chocolate but he doesn't understand the discomfort I know will come after I eat.Any suggestions, am I the only one who feels like this??


----------



## 14706

I think IBS can cause eating disorders. For me last year I had super bad IBS symptoms and it wasn't under control at all. I found it easier to simply not eat hardly anything at all, this way I wouldn't have to deal with the stomach pain and severe diarhea. By the end of the school year I had lost a lot of weight...to the point were my family was "worried" I wasn't trying to lose weight or anything...I just hated having to use the bathroom.


----------



## 21973

you know, now that i think about it, when i was in high school, thats when my ibs really kicked in. i hardly ate anything, and once i put a single ounce of any food in my body, i would run for my life to the bathroom. now, i am overweight, take medicine.i take lomotil . well, im starting wear off the lomotil.


----------



## 14360

I definately agree with the first poster...I personally don't have an eating disorder, but about a year after I developed IBS, my freshmen year, I figured out that eating anything period triggered symptoms for me. There were days where even if I ate a single piece of popcorn I'd rush to the bathroom. I remember back when I learned what anorexia was, I was like, "Oh I could never be anorexic, I'd get hungry." After IBS, however, my views changed. I've never actually had anorexia, but that was the first time I've considered being anorexic, and like seriously considered it. My sophomore year, this past year, I never ate breakfast except maybe during a one or two month period when my stomach was really really great. I also skipped lunch quite a few times in fear of having to rush to the bathroom or call home from D. I would go home and eat then, where I could relieve symptoms in my own privacy, but it wasn't really healthy. I would starve myself for about 16 hours then eat a lot because I was so hungry. I still struggle with this, there are days when I'm petrified to eat because I'm out and about. I guess you could say I suffer from "partial anorexia".


----------



## Katters279

Hey thereMy history with IBS and Anorexia is complicated. I was actually diagnosed with IBS once before 3 years ago but that was only because it was the closest thing they could label me with, what i really had back then was anorexia, i just didn't know it i was so deep in denial and i had a LOT of pain but it was brought on by my mind rather than anything physical, or that's what i think anyway, or did i? Having recently being diagnosed with IBS again i do wonder, maybe it was a mix of the two. I also abused laxatives heavily for a long time which no doubt did nothing but damage my already sensitive system, i'm just about off them now but i do have my moments of weakness but i never want and i hope i don't ever go back to taking 50-70 extra strengh laxatives a week again like i was earlier this year


----------



## 21556

yes...an eating disorder (specifically anorexia) can cause IBS. I've had an eating disorder (anorexia w/ mia tendencies) for five years, but IBS for 9 months. After doing much research, here is what I concluded:A common neurotransmitter that many anorexics are short of is serotonin. Though neurotransmitters are normally thought to be in your brain, they also help aid in digestion. Serotonin also aids 90-95% in digesting your food properly. So people with IBS (most people) have a short supply of serotonin, just like the anorexic.


----------



## rarr

I believe it happens both ways....IBS can bring on an ED and an ED can bring on IBS.personally...I am 23...was diagnosed with IBS at the age of 6...and soon came the disordered eating. I didn't think I had an eating disorder b/c I assumed eating disorders were always related to body image and my problem wasn't with my body...it was with my stomach and fear of food. Naturally I would avoid food because I didn't want to get sick/have an attack...so it started a vicious cycle that escalated into anorexia. I checked myself into a centre for eating disorders at the age of 21 (I was terrified) and I met some really amazing people and another girl with IBS...it changed my life. Since then it's been all uphill...I have a year and half left to finish my degree and am becoming a registered dietitian so that I can someday help people in dealing with IBS. ....so bottom line... fight it. we can manage the disordered eating and IBS...together.


----------



## badfoot

Hi allThis is a tricky one. I think you could probably argue that IBS might cause an eating disorder and vice versa. I'm a 50 yr. old male who started drinking in my teens, eventually got chronic fatigue or something, then depression, then an eating disorder. I'm just now dealing with the eating disorder. In my case I really restricted my diet to avoid IBS symptoms and became anorexic. Certainly I wish someone had pointed out the possible link between these two conditions/illnesses earlier and I'm glad to see it being discussed now. I now know from treatment that eating disorders can cause problems with peristalsis, among a million other serious medical conditions. I would sincerely counsel anyone who even thinks they might have an eating disorder to see an ED specialist and check it out. Remember that it isn't necessarily straight ahead bulimia or anorexia - mine was kind of restriction anorexia.Best of lluck, prayers and blessings


----------



## sazzy

Actually the whole eating side with ibs doesn't bother me. I regularly worry about what i drink though! While i'm at school i never drink for fear it'll set off an attack, although usually if i make it until break i can be pretty assured i'll be fine until the rest of the day. Food isn't so worrying to me, i've always had a healthy relationship towards food and it doesn't affect my ibs much, just so long as i avoid food flavourings like pepper, because it just sets me in so badly!I suffer more with trhe anxiety and depression side of ibs, just when i think that i have it and can't be like al lthe other teenagers makes me upset and i envy all my friends who don't have it.


----------



## 21546

I'm glad that I saw this thread tonight...I was literally just diagnosed with severe IBS today. Both my GP and GI doctors have attributed my IBS to a 13 year struggle with both anorexia and bulimia. If any of you think there may be a possiblity of having an eating disorder the only thing I would encourage you to do is be brave enough to get help. If I knew then everything I know now about how much damage eating disorders do to your body I would have never began in the first place! NOt only do I have IBS but I have a heart condition, damage to my throat and skin, and those are just the big things that I have damaged. I also lost a friend who died at 21 of a massive heart attack during refeeding...Yeah, IBS brings up food issues and we all obsess...but starving ourselves and binging/purging is just going to make the whole situation worse.


----------



## 19988

> quote:Originally posted by Angel01:I feel the same way...does anyone think laxatives can cause IBS? cause i'm not sure if i have IBS for sure...but i was taking laxatives for awhile


yeah, i abused them & it made my ibs worse.


----------



## 14529

Hey everyone,I agree with just about everything everyone has said here. My IBS-C was caused by an overuse of laxatives. I started seeing slight problems of incomplete evacuation, and I was so afraid that if it continued, I would gain weight. (I had just lost weight with right diet and exercise, and the thought of being constipated and gaining weight made me anxious). I took the laxatives, but I still couldn't go properly, which perpetuated the intake of the laxatives. I took them until the point my body could no longer go on its own. (But part of the reason why I continued the laxative was because I enjoyed the weight I was losing). But in doing so I ruined my body! To this date (regardles of tests and medicine), I still suffer from IBS, and it's horrible. I still need some laxatives to go, although now I use herbal laxatives. I wish I could get off of them, but I'm really afraid. But because of IBS, my weight fluctuates. If I don't go properly for days or weeks, I gain weight. I have to be so carful with food. I hate the fact I can't enjoy food because it completely affects my symptoms. I eat really healthy, and people think I'm constantly on a diet. I wish I had been smart enough to have just understood that I was beautiful as I was, and didn't need to lose weight. I wish I had taken more careful steps, like just focusing on diet and exercise, instead of looking to laxatives to solve the incomplete evacuation feeling. I wish I hadn't been so obsessed and paranoid about my weight!


----------



## Lindsay Nicole

BigAlison said:


> I'm glad that I saw this thread tonight...I was literally just diagnosed with severe IBS today. Both my GP and GI doctors have attributed my IBS to a 13 year struggle with both anorexia and bulimia. If any of you think there may be a possiblity of having an eating disorder the only thing I would encourage you to do is be brave enough to get help. If I knew then everything I know now about how much damage eating disorders do to your body I would have never began in the first place! NOt only do I have IBS but I have a heart condition, damage to my throat and skin, and those are just the big things that I have damaged. I also lost a friend who died at 21 of a massive heart attack during refeeding...
> 
> Yeah, IBS brings up food issues and we all obsess...but starving ourselves and binging/purging is just going to make the whole situation worse.


your story sounds all too familiar *hugs* i'm really sorry hun. I really hope you work with your doctors to help you get the right treatment for both your ibs AND your ed. stay strong.


----------



## Lis

There isn't a lot of research on this topic yet, but I just spent a few hours and found that there is definitely a link between celiac disease and mental disorders (like anxiety, depression, etc) due to a decreased blood flow to the brain. It would stand to reason that IBS would be similar, since lots of people with IBS also have food intolerances. My hunch is that IBS could both be caused by EDs and cause EDs. From personal experience, I've found that needing to follow a strict diet (no gluten, dairy or fructose for me) to help my IBS has led me to become too controlling with my food, although I don't believe I could be classified as having a full-blown ED. I obsess over my appearance, which for me focuses specifically on exercise and food. It makes a lot of sense to me that eating foods that block my body's ability to obtain nutrients from them would cause other non-stomach issues. So, you see, it's circular--IBS depletes my body of nutrients, which causes depression/anxiety and leads me toward EDs, which cause my IBS to flare up and deplete my body of nutrients ... Quite a vicious cycle. I'm planning on going to an integrative doctor shortly who can test me and see if I have any deficiencies due to my limited diet. My hope is that following my diet will eliminate the stomach & related problems, and supplementing whatever vitamins & minerals I'm lacking will eliminate the depression that leads me back into the vicious cycle. Fingers crossed!If you're interested, you might want to check out some of the articles (or abstracts) I just found (it's interesting but fairly scholarly):
Depression, Anxiety, Panic (The Gluten File) - This is a summary of quite a bit of research, all in one place. I'd recommend starting here.
Food Cravings, Obesity and Gluten Consumption (Dr. Ron Hoggan, Ed.D)
Features of Eating Disorders in Patients with IBS (Tang TN, Toner BB, Stuckless N, Dion KL, Daplan AS, Ali A.)
Depression and Gluten: Is Dietary Change Too Easy? (Dr. Vikki Petersen)
Psychiatric Issues in Celiac Disease (Ron Hoggan)
Lis (not a teen, but young enough for this to still apply)


----------



## jennyk22

It's like the chicken and the egg. Which causes which? I definitely have struggled with anorexia issues for about a decade. Now I actually wish I weighed a little more, but my IBS makes me feel anorexic again. I fear food, not because of gaining weight but because of the physical consequences that occur after eating. I'm glad someone brought this up.


----------



## poeticsong725

mazzie said:


> HiThis the first time ive been on this site and I am so glad Ive read ur postings. Im in a right state I was diagnosed with ibs two years ago although Im still waiting for a hospital appointment to try and get sumthing to help. Im really bad at the momment and have been for a while now. I haven't been able to eat anything even if I eat an apple the pain starts. But Ive kind of used that as an excuse to not eat and ive been doing excessive amounts of excercise. Ive suffered with body image problems since I was 15 Im now 23 and have a body fat (tested last week at the gym) of 8.9%. People have started to worry and have asked if I have a problem. I brush it off as IBS but I don't know whats happening to me. It really does hurt when I eat anything especially a big meal but am I making matters worse by not eating at all. Half of me wants to be thin and the other half is seeing myself waste away. My boyfriends trys to fatten me up my making me eat cake and chocolate but he doesn't understand the discomfort I know will come after I eat.Any suggestions, am I the only one who feels like this??


Mazzie, I totally agree with you, it's tough. I started having mild symptoms in my teens, and then at around 22 or 23, my symptoms burst thru the roof. Now I'm 25, and just starting to maintain an even keel...although I still always have flares now and then...But when I first started getting the really strong flares (around the time I moved for the first time in my life), they were so bad, and lasted so long that I literally became AFRAID of food. I agree 100% with the OP that IBS can DEFINITELY cause eating disorders. NO QUESTION. If anybody wants to talk, I would love to bounce ideas and stories back and forth one-on-one...so if anyone has AIM or Facebook, message me. [email protected]


----------



## Tiel08

Maybe, the one to blame if a child has an eating disorder, is their parents. If the children are monitored properly by their parents this disorder will not happen.


----------



## margueritelina

i have had stomach troubles for about 6 years with doctors saying the same thing "it is likely to be IBS and there's nothing we can do", the first time i noticed it getting really bad was after i came back from bali, where i had gotten bali belly (a stomach bug). Ever since then i have gone through phases where my IBS makes me get diarrhoea for weeks straight so that i'm barely eating or drinking. and for weeks after that the thought of food makes me feel sick because i'm so afraid of the pain that i now associate with it. i lose about 5 kilo's every bout of this and i worry about my mental state. i feel depressed and sick all the time during these periods, and the only thing that makes me feel any better is that i look so pretty that skinny&#8230;.. like how bad is that! after i recover from these bouts i don't want to start eating again because i like the weight i have dropped to. i _would have to say that IBS is correlated with eating disorders_. the focus IBS puts on your food intake just completely gets in your head! then some foods set me off and so i stay away from those, but with me, so many foods seem to make it happen that i feel like i can barely eat anything. so further weight is lost. then sometimes i have the periods where i'm doing ok, and i can eat what i want, and i'm finding myself hating myself because i'm gaining the weight back that i lost through IBS. It feel's like to me now that IBS is a involuntary eating disorder. one that makes you skinny but unable to enjoy it because you feel like #### all the time. All i want to be is healthy (mind and body), and my IBS seems to hold me back from that. do other people feel this way? should i see someone?


----------



## em_t

I don't think its fair to blame parents for their child's eating disorder ... I have suffered from eating disorders from the age of 16 and had my worst relapse at 22 when I weighed only 35 kilos (77 pounds). If someone, a child or otherwise is determined to restrict food then they will find a way of doing it. I have fairly strict parents and I managed to hide my anorexia for 3 months from them, remember people with eating disorders can be very sneaky and deceptive when it comes to food - saying they already ate at a friends house, eat food in another room and throw it away in a plastic bag, complain of a sore head and go to their room ... the list goes on and on! Although my ED was worst when I moved out of home and was at university, my parents still felt incredibly guilty that they hadn't noticed how ill I was earlier so I don't think its fair to blame them!Sorry rant over ... For me the link between my ED and IBS was when you start to eat so little your stomach can start to bloat and feel uncomfortable after eating the smallest thing and you can develop symptoms of IBS. During my ED I often used IBS as an excuse not to eat, and although my IBS is much worse now that I eat much more food, I know I am now much healthier even if I don't always feel it. As for those who have previously suffered from eating disorders, does anyone suffer from IBS C? Most people here seem to suffer from IBS D but I'm the other way around, even though I never touched laxatives during my ED!Its interesting to see the connection between EDs and IBS because my doctor assured me that my ED had absolutely NO effect on my IBS C, but from everyone here this to be untrue! In saying that, GPs in the UK aren't always the best when it comes to treating either eating disorders or IBS from my past experience!


----------



## xSarahx

I've had IBS since I was 10 years old, I am now 17. I never thought I would ever have a problem with my weight since i was always underweight and small (due to my stunted growth because of IBS). But I went through puberty and got hips. although i am still underweight and short, I feel like i'm fat because of the bloating. My sister was anorexic for a little while, and now she's skinny and taller than me ( she's younger) and i am jealous of her. now i'm struggling with my body image and have contemplated going anorexic. I have also been over exercising and eating less ( mostly due to my ibs). so yes, I AGREE lol but don't worry, my friends and family would never let me go anorexic / i don't really want to.. i don't wanna be skin and bones! :S


----------



## biffylove98

I haven't officially been diagnosed with IBS, but I think I could have that and endometriosis, because I have almost constant constipation, with the occasional bout of diarrhea (once every few weeks) I have no appetite, mild nausea, really bad stomach pain and back pain, heavy periods, painful periods, really bad dizziness and almost black outs. I have found the only way to relieve my stomach pains, diarrhea, and back pains is to just not eat. But not eating makes the constipation worse, so its a double ended sword. I have to choose between eating and having horrific diarrhea and not eating and having painful constipation. I also have contamination OCD and emetophobia so I don't eat meat or most dairy, and I'm terrified of eating things that will either make me sick or set off my stomach pains, constipation or diarrhea. I'm surviving on less than 1000 calories a day, most days I'm eating a slice of toast and a packet of crisps all day, and as a result, I've lost 2 stone in 3 months, and all my muscle tone has gone, yet I just can't bring myself to eat because I'm so scared of the pain and suffering it brings me. I'm not afraid if putting on weight, so I dont think I have anorexia but I am scared of foods, and I feel so depressed, I want to die because I can't cope with this pain anymore, its debilitating and is causing me to miss days off school, and this is the year of my GCSES so I can't afford to take any more time off. My mum thinks I'm not eating intentionally and she says she will section me and put me in hospital and no one believes the pain I'm in. I'm so tired of this.


----------

