AS and Anorexia??

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I was just wondering if anyone's come across a correlation between Asperger's and Anorexia? I have both, though I didn't find out that I had Asperger's till just before my birthday last fall (I still think I was misdiagnosed as a child as having other special needs). The book that touched on it sightly is: Asperger's Syndrome by Tony Attwood.

Of course, just recently, I've read articles that AS and AN can sometimes go hand in hand, but I just wanted to see what others thought or if anyone else has/is experiencing this.

Any thoughts or ideas on this?

Thanks!

Yes. It has been discussed here several times since I joined awhile back. I would pull up the post, if I knew how to. I see Eating disorders being realated to Body Dismorphic Disorder, which would realate to Sensory Integration disorder. At least this is how I can realte all of my issues to my Aspergers. I don't think I would have had issues with my weight if my brain told me the truth on how it really is, not how I wrongly precieved it. If you feel like your clothes fit too tight, you loose weight. Many times, my mind told me that my clothing was fitting too tight, when it wasn't. It is hard to trust my bodies judgements when many times , they are not always correct to the reality of things.

I was recently diagnosed at 34. A long time to go not knowing why I was different and thinking that I was "broken or damaged". I AM NORMAL to me, and most people in the Aspergers community that I have gotton to know. Its the "NT" that are different and not MY normal

I've been tempted to not eat for days but I usually make myself eat... I already have low blood pressure as it is and I'd be pressing my luck.

There is a link. For example, they share cognitive similarities such as detail-oriented processing. My last therapist (and one before her) thought me anorexic because of my issues with food and displaying similar behavioural patterns to the many eating disordered clients she used to work with. However, I am not anorexic and could only convince her by telling her my GP knows I am not.

If you go to PubMed, you can search for abstracts from the research literature. I printed this information, and more, for the therapist because she wouldn't believe me that there were genetic and neurological factors involved; she attributed eating disorders to the mother-daughter relationship. Here are some specific references to begin with:


A neurodevelopmental model for anorexia nervosa.
Connan F, Campbell IC, Katzman M, Lightman SL, Treasure J.
Physiol Behav. 2003 Jun;79(1):13-24


Empathy, systemizing, and autistic traits in anorexia nervosa: a pilot study.
Hambrook D, Tchanturia K, Schmidt U, Russell T, Treasure J.
Br J Clin Psychol. 2008 Sep;47(Pt 3):335-9. Epub 2008 Jan 21


Linkage analysis of anorexia nervosa incorporating behavioral covariates.
Devlin B, Bacanu SA, Klump KL, Bulik CM, Fichter MM, Halmi KA, Kaplan AS, Strober M, Treasure J, Woodside DB, Berrettini WH, Kaye WH.
Hum Mol Genet. 2002 Mar 15;11(6):689-96


Cognitive flexibility in anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa.
Tchanturia K, Anderluh MB, Morris RG, Rabe-Hesketh S, Collier DA, Sanchez P, Treasure JL.
J Int Neuropsychol Soc. 2004 Jul;10(4):513-20


Is impaired set-shifting an endophenotype of anorexia nervosa?
Holliday J, Tchanturia K, Landau S, Collier D, Treasure J.
Am J Psychiatry. 2005 Dec;162(12):2269-75


Aspects of social cognition in anorexia nervosa: Affective and cognitive theory of mind.
Russell TA, Schmidt U, Doherty L, Young V, Tchanturia K.


Neural correlates of impaired cognitive-behavioral flexibility in anorexia nervosa.
Zastrow A, Kaiser S, Stippich C, Walther S, Herzog W, Tchanturia K, Belger A, Weisbrod M, Treasure J, Friederich HC.


Perfectionism in anorexia nervosa: variation by clinical subtype, obsessionality, and pathological eating behavior.
Halmi KA, Sunday SR, Strober M, Kaplan A, Woodside DB, Fichter M, Treasure J, Berrettini WH, Kaye WH.
Am J Psychiatry. 2000 Nov;157(11):1799-805


The recognition of emotion in the faces and voice of anorexia nervosa.
Kucharska-Pietura K, Nikolaou V, Masiak M, Treasure J.
Int J Eat Disord. 2002 Apr;31(3):290-9


A systematic review and meta-analysis of set-shifting ability in eating disorders.
Roberts ME, Tchanturia K, Stahl D, Southgate L, Treasure J.


Central coherence in eating disorders: a systematic review.
Lopez C, Tchanturia K, Stahl D, Treasure J.
J Clin Exp Neuropsychol. 2009 Jan;31(1):117-25.


Weak central coherence in eating disorders: a step towards looking for an endophenotype of eating disorders.
Lopez C, Tchanturia K, Stahl D, Treasure J.


The outcome of anorexia nervosa in the 20th century.
Steinhausen HC.
Am J Psychiatry. 2002 Aug;159(8 ):1284-93

I think that sounds legit but I think the opposite can also be true, as in eating too much because of a need for sensory stimulation or perhaps the sense of place a full stomach will give you. My blood sugar will drop suddenly and it's a very scary feeling. I'm a foodie I'm afraid.

I think it could related because I used to have an anorexia type obsession, involving not eating and exercising obsessively from when I was 17 until I was 24. I was never diagnosed with anorexia because I never went near the doctors about the problem but I guess it was a mild form because looking back there are photos where I was so thin that you could see all my bones yet I was still convinced that I was fat. I used to keep a diary of every single thing that I ate and how many calories were in it, I would avoid eating whenever there was no one to notice, and would only eat if someone was watching who might become suspicious. I also used to have loads of rituals with regards to exercise and would spend hours each day doing sit-ups, press-ups, etc and the rest in the secrecy of my bedroom!

It may have been an AS related obsession because it was temporary but I'm not certain because I don't understand how it works visually that you are aware that you are thin in one way, but can only see that you are fat, like how does that become part of the obsession because it's part of your perception.

It could be more than AS because my Mum used to be very thin and I can barely remember her eating when I was young (but, I think my Mum has AS as she has anxiety, touch, and ocd issues). My sister was actually hospitalised because she collapsed due to not eating and over-exercising so the tendency seems to run in my family.

The only reason why I stopped not eating was because I developed obsessions with drinking caffeine, alcohol and smoking which tended to make me crave to eat. The worst thing is that now that I have stopped drinking caffeine, alcohol and stopped smoking I crave not eating and am going back to square one!

What does one have to do with the other?

ruveyn

Both involve being extremely anxious, both involve obsessions and rituals and both involve sensory perceptual problems.

I was the same way about exercise and diet obsessions until I finally gave up and got fat last year, when my Adderall quit working. I've gone from 127 pounds to over 200 in fifteen months. I always knew there was a fat person waiting to get out, and she's on the loose. *shrug* Whatever, I don't care about what people think anymore, and I guess the main reason I wanted to be skinny was other people. I knew it was socially acceptable and expected, especially if I wanted to date, and it was one of the few socially acceptable, expected traits I could comprehend and control.

In my teens and twenties I weighed myself several times every day, I kept lists of my weight and what I ate and calendars of ridiculous weight goals. I couldn't tell if I was "skinny enough" ever, even when I weighed 104 pounds, I still felt fat. One thing that did startle me out of my body image one day was a man whispering to his kid, "That girl is on crack!", but I still didn't quite get it. Now I look back at photos of myself during those years, and I get it, though in some of them, I can see why I thought I was still fat, because my face is naturally wide and round, even when I'm very skinny.

hi- yes, me too.
you might also like to check recent writing on the female presentation of a.s, which is substantially different from the male one, and often includes mention of anorexia. one source mentioned 20% of a.s women having had anorexia/bulemia.

i also had sensory food problems until i was about 25, refusing to eat most foods other than bread, yoghurt, crisps, chocolate etc; though i was very thin.

when i was about 18/19 i also anorexia and bulemia- i have never really seen it as a bad thing, and often wish i could recapture such strength of will... i went down to 7 stone; im 36, and 9 stone now.

for me it was not really food related, it was just something i could directly control; food just happened to be. it wasnt body image focused, though that came into it a little; obliquely, as it were.

one shrink i saw said OCDs tended to flare up when a person was unable to cope with stress- they sjust begin to control random things and events because its all they can master; which is what i was doing by not eating, or throwing up.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg2 ... nking.html

it seems common.

I see AS and anorexia as two different things. Anorexia is when you starve yourself thinking you are fat so you do it to lose weight, sometimes girls do it for other reasons like they are unhappy about something and have no control over what is happening in their lives so they use food because it's something they can control. Some want to eat but are unable to because they have a fear of gaining weight.

But what if someone is just starving themselves because they have food issues and they dislike lot of things so they can hardly find any food they like? Is that anorexia?

Or what if someone just forgets to eat because they were too lazy to stop what they are doing to get themselves some food? Is that anorexia?

I agree AS and anorexia share the same characteristics, obsessions with food and their weight, social problems, sensitive to touch and sounds, routines in their work outs and some of them line up canned foods. It's possible for aspies to have anorexia too because anyone can get it but I wouldn't make their anorexia and the traits as part of their AS. That is just ridiculous.

Men can have this too but it's rare and more common in wrestlers because they have to keep their weight at a certain level and they might starve themselves to lose the weight so they can wrestle at a certain weight level. The movie Vision Quest has a male eating disorder in there. It's a Spokane movie and it's about wrestling.


I've suffered an eating disorder for many years. It all started when I was 15 when I was sick and we went skiing and I went down from 153 to 148 over the weekend. There was hardly any food at our condo so I lost the weight plus the work out I got from skiing. So I decided I wanted to lose more weight so I started to diet. I started cutting back on what i was eating and I lost more weight due to softball and PE and I was very sore but kept it up. Then I was down to 128 by that summer. Then I gained up to 140 when I was 16 1/2 and thinking it was muscle, I let it happen. Then I went down again when I was 18 by walking on the treadmill. I think I started the starving when I was 18 to keep my weight down than gaining so I didn't really have an eating disorder I'd say when I was 15-17 but I was obsessed about my weight and refuse to eat if my weight was too high. Then I was diagnosed with anorexia when I was 22 but I don't think I have that anymore. You don't need to look like you're from concentration camp to have it. I almost met the whole criteria but didn't because I still got my regular periods. Now I'm eating more food due to being pregnant and my weight hasn't gone up. I had to change my eating habits was why and I mostly go for fruit.

Sometimes I still feel fat and my body looks bigger at times and at other times I look smaller. One of the reasons why I hate showing my photos online when I look big in them than small.

Those thing are anorexia, but not Anorexia Nervosa. "Anorexia" technically just means loss of appetite. For it to be Anorexia it must fit the diagnostic criteria for Anorexia Nervosa.

DSM IV Criteria for Anorexia Nervosa (307.10)

I think they're planning on removing the amenorrhea criterion. I'm not sure if that's good or bad, because it may mean that someone could be diagnosed without objective signs of health problems from it, but it is still true that it can be dangerous even if the girl still gets her period. Maybe they should change that criterion to amenorrhea or very low blood pressure, or low body temperature.. Like not require a specific health problem resulting from it, but I don't think it's really anorexia if it's not causing any health problems. Or maybe a body fat percentage or something. Like just doing it purely by the weight doesn't take into account that some people have really small frames.


I think that was the point of the post.. not that they're the same, but that they're frequently comorbid.

Also, since there's so little knowledge of AS in women, and eating disorder therapists tend to work almost exclusively with women, they won't know anything about it. When I was 16 I got forced into an eating disorder treatment center, and I kept getting in trouble for not making friends there. It never occurred to anybody that I didn't know how.
I remember one day we were doing an affirmation thing where we had to write in other girls' journals, and I wrote to one girl that she was the first person there that I'd actually talked to.. and when she read it, she looked at somebody else.

80% of individuals with AS have an eating disorder of some form. It used to be a diagnostic criteria, if I recall correctly.

I myself have a BMI of 17.5 (at most, it's also possibly 15.5), even though I am positive I am fat as hell. I do have a fear of being fat. Anorexic guys are uncommon as far as I know...

lol, I also meet the criterion for Body Dysmorphic disorder Perhaps they should coin the term "screwed-up mofo syndrome" for people like me

I don't get why I was diagnosed with it if I only met two parts of it. I was never underweight even thought doctors said I was because they say I need to weigh 135 or 140 and I weighed less than that then. Yes I did use enema and fiber and stuff but I had constipation problems. I think people with anorexia keep the s**t out of them to keep their weight down, not do it because they are constipated and are unable to go. I don't think I ever misused it though.

This just shows how doctors don't follow the criterias to diagnose patients.

They why don't they have a freaking clue?! Urgh, I spent so long in so much completely unhelpful treatment, getting in trouble for being obsessive, clueless, unable to relate to people or give the "correct" answers to questions.. And all they could ever do was tell me it was my fault.

You're from Phoenix Arizona, yes? America is a mostly Protestant society. If it's not your parents' fault, it must be your fault,and even if it is your parents' fault, you're supposed to get over it and walk it off, or it becomes your fault. In addition, blaming corporate wrongdoers or societal inequality in any way shape or form is not permissible. Nor is blaming our increasingly hivelike societal structure. Thusly, you are to blame for everything you are and do, and you have an obligation to society, but society does not have an obligation to you.

Sucks, don't it?