Can Someone Be Anorexic an Eat Over 1000 Calories a Day? (Please Read, It’s About My Sister)?
Question by Janice Dooley: Can someone be anorexic an eat over 1000 calories a day? (please read, it’s about my sister)?
(I forgot to add that she is 20 and 5’3 tall
I’ve seen her food journals she eats around 1060 calories a day.)
My sister has lost over 25 lbs. She is down to 80 lbs. She used to binge eat, and over time she started to cut back more and more on food. She also started exercising. She is NOT normal about it though. She measures all of her food out. She counts every single little calorie. She plans & calculates her meals before time. She has strange eating rituals. She says she’s “fat” when she is tiny! She is also very afraid of gaining weight so she only eats “safe foods.” I know for a fact that she is no longer menstruating, and she is cranky all of the time. When I have tried to talk to her about it she just gets angry. She says she still eats and anorexics don’t eat. She is not lying… I see her eat. She eat 5-6 meals a day (small-ish meals). And she doesn’t purge. Can someone be anorexic without starving themselves?
15 minutes ago – 4 days left to answer.
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Answer by ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ
A drug addict isn’t determined to be a drug addict based on the amount or frequency of the drug use, addiction is defined as an inability to stop doing something despite mounting consequences.
Anorexia Nervosa isn’t determined by the amount of weight lost nor even the number of calories consumed each day, it is determined by the person’s inability to stop fixating on their food intake, weight, exercise regimen, etc. It’s about unrealistic and distorted body image. It’s about the compulsion to continue doing this despite mounting consequences and “consequences” means anything from worrying their family, physical health problems, mental health problems, impacting their memory, motivations, school or work, etc. etc. etc.
Anorexia Nervosa IS NOT A PHYSICAL DISEASE. It is a mental illness along the same lines as drug addiction. She is activating the same centers in her brain that get activated when a coke addict snorts coke or a pot head smokes weed. It’s about the way the brain works.
The #1 thing that people need to understand is that EVERYTHING is based on brain biology and that be it addiction or mental illness is not some nebulous thign that no one can understand because each person is an individual and how dare we judge them… Blah… Blah… Blah… Blah… Blah… Blah… It’s about a brain that is not working as it should, leading to negative and mounting consequences and despite these consequences, the person either REFUSES or CAN’T stop.
That’s the difference between addicts and non addicts. (And Anorexia Nervosa is basically an addiction.)
If you can stop, feel free to do so… But when you can’t, it’s time to seek treatment.
The ONLY thing that will change another person’s mind is the threat of loss. Be they alcoholics or anorexics. YOU CAN’T CHANGE HER… You and your family MIGHT force her into treatment but as with all addictions, you can make them go through the motions but can’t make them care.
Tell her that she has a problem.
Tell her that this problem is worrying her.
Tell her that you will make sure everyone else that cares about her knows of her problem.
Tell her that if she refuses to seek help to stop doing this, you will stop supporting and enabling her. Meaning, you will threaten her with the loss of your presence and support until she gets help.
Have your family repeat this.
The ONLY thing that gets other people help for THEIR problems is if you stop supporting them, enabling them, arguing with them, or in any other way giving them attention.
For alcoholics, the process is to get the family and friends of this person to go to a group like Alateen/Alanon and get the FAMILY to become HEALTHY, and the addict will feel THEIR boost in health and sanity as threatening to their life and eventually seek help themselves.
You and your family can do the same by finding an eating disorder support group and going there and getting their support.
It sounds stupid, I know…
“I’m not the alcoholic, my mom is! Why would I need to go to a 12-step group?”
“I’m not the anorexic, my sister is! Why would I need to go to a support group?”
Because YOU can’t change anyone but YOU and if YOU get healthy and gain insight into yourself, mental health, and what led your sister down this path, it will get HER into treatment.
The ONLY thing that makes an addict get help is either a) Court Order or b) The family gets healthy.
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