RE: R these 2
I can only speak about my own battle with anorexia, but my real problem was not that I thought I was fat. Obsessing about my weight, exercise, eating was a cover-up for other emotions that were too difficult to deal with. Also, it was a way for me to feel completely in control of something in my life when it seemed like nothing else was. So, rather than thinking and dealing with things that bothered me, I could focus on how "fat" I was, how much I could eat that day, how much I was going to exercise, how much I weighed, etc. Those thoughts took up sooo much time and energy, that I couldn't think about the real issues that I needed to deal with.
Same with compulsive overeating/binge eating. When any painful thoughts/feelings started to emerge, my coping mechanism was to overeat, then I would obsess about how much I ate, how much weight I would gain, how fat I was, etc. Once again, this pattern of thinking took me far away from my original emotions. Of course, with binge eating, the feeling was being out of control rather than in control like I felt with anorexia and that feeling was very distressing for me.
Once again, I hope this makes some sense.
Erica
I can only speak about my own battle with anorexia, but my real problem was not that I thought I was fat. Obsessing about my weight, exercise, eating was a cover-up for other emotions that were too difficult to deal with. Also, it was a way for me to feel completely in control of something in my life when it seemed like nothing else was. So, rather than thinking and dealing with things that bothered me, I could focus on how "fat" I was, how much I could eat that day, how much I was going to exercise, how much I weighed, etc. Those thoughts took up sooo much time and energy, that I couldn't think about the real issues that I needed to deal with.
Same with compulsive overeating/binge eating. When any painful thoughts/feelings started to emerge, my coping mechanism was to overeat, then I would obsess about how much I ate, how much weight I would gain, how fat I was, etc. Once again, this pattern of thinking took me far away from my original emotions. Of course, with binge eating, the feeling was being out of control rather than in control like I felt with anorexia and that feeling was very distressing for me.
Once again, I hope this makes some sense.
Erica
