female aspies and eating disorders

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here's an article that talks about girls with autism and eating disorders

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_a ... 017168.ece


relevant excerpt:
"Janet Treasure, an expert on eating disorders at the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London, said that women or girls on the autistic spectrum often focused on diet or calorie control, which became their obsession. About one in five women with an eating disorder is thought to be on the autistic spectrum."

I think the relationship between eating disorders and autism needs more attention, or at least autism in females as a whole does. It seems to have a lot to do with being outcast-ed and obsessive.

I don't know... I know I am guilty of disordered eating but not an eating disorder I don't have much variety in my diet. I think I'm probably an average weight for my height. I'm sure all my weight is placed in weird locations though. I don't excercise at all. I really like tan/white/cream ish colored things. I'm most comfortable with those Which means everything has tons of carbohydrates!

My girlfriend has an eating disorder and she worries about her weight and counts calories, you name it, she did most of that, just to fit into the world.

But recently, I've noticed she hasn't done that, maybe she has gotten over it or my power of distracts actually worked?

Thank you for that link - that's a great article.

To anyone, is the eating disorder more of a phyiscal pain or a mental path to "fitting in"(?) what ever that is...

To anyone, is the eating disorder more of a phyiscal pain or a mental path to "fitting in"(?) what ever that is...

I don't think I ever had eating disorder, although I have always been slim, so I don't know how I would react if I need to restrict eating. My diet is well balanced, mostly due to my upbringing. My parents eat everything cooked freshly from scratch, huge servings of veggies, no junk food at all and they don't like anything sweet. Compared to them I eat a lot more processed stuff, but it's not bad overall.

It's definitely much more of a mental thing than a physical thing. It's considered a psychiatric condition. It's not a physical illness making someone gain or lose weight (if it is, it's not an ED, it's something else).
Usually all eating disorders start out with some sort of stress. Anorexia is usually about control, bulimia is a combination of control and lack of control (bulimia is incredibly difficult to beat, because of this, though of course all EDs are), and binge eating is the lack of control. In the end, they're all due to underlying problems, which is why the 70's method of force feeding didn't work as a cure. One has to treat the original cause of the problem (usually depression, anxiety, OCD, etc) before anything will improve.

I read somewhere that an estimated 2% of men and 3.5% of women in the US are diagnosable with binge eating disorder, and don't know it. BED is basically bulimia minus the purging; the symptoms/feelings/etc are basically the same. It's usually very hard for these people to seek/receive treatment, because of society's view of fat people. We as a culture like to blame overweight people for their condition, though very often it's not their fault, and they would honestly improve with therapy to deal with their depression and anxiety issues...
Very sad, imo.


(EDs used to be one of my "special interests," in case anybody can't already tell... Sorry lol.)

lol thank you very informative though...

The depression/anxiety isnt reeally the root causes i think though its kind of a result of feeling sad or not very well and the mind/body is just out of energy to deal with it and then you get stuck. Mind reacting with negative thoughts from the body being tense, then the mind not looking after the body...

Do you still think its a mindset that raises the first fist of fury or the body because i know we are suppost to have allergies to certain foods.

You don't have to be female to have an eating disorder... I'm a guy and I became bulimic when I was 27.

Depends on the person. For me it was the mindset, but I do know that food allergies or special diets can lead to eating disorders, as the person cuts out more and more from what they're "allowed" to eat. I have a friend who's a raw vegan, and I'm really worried about him. The kinds of foods he eats aren't what's killing him, it's that he doesn't eat very much or very often. That would be ok if he were eating a roast beef sandwich, but if he's eating a raw salad, then it gets sort of dangerous...



I hate this about society. Men are affected by EDs too, and because of the whole "only girls do it" thing, it makes me that much harder for men to seek the help they need...
I hope you are past that stage in your life, or at least seeking recovery. Bulimia is especially hard to beat, imo, because it's not only about control, it's about the loss of control, and the addiction to purging. I hope you're doing ok.

me three

I WANT FOOD, NOW!! !!

I had an eating disorder for about 11 years, bulemia.
For me it started by trying to fit in better, which didn't help anyway. Then it became a way of dealing with stress.
It wasn't until I was married two years that I was able to stop, realizing that my husband accepted me and loved me the way I was.