Quote:
Originally Posted by ShortNCuddlyAm
Well, as this is the vent and rant thread, and whilst we're talking about weight...
I am overweight. I lost a bit when I got depressed most recently, then my appetite vanished, I more-or-less stopped eating (less than 800 calories a day, most days, some days a lot less than that). During that period, I lost a little more weight - not much, and it came off very, very slowly, and then nothing for a couple of months. Every time I saw a doc, I mentioned it to them, and I swear I could see them disbelieve what I was saying, and thinking that as a fat woman I must be lying when I said I was hardly eating yet not losing weight. Occasionally they would praise me for losing weight slowly! I finally saw a nutrionist, who took one look at my meals for the previous week and told me in no uncertain terms that I was starving myself. With her help, we worked out a meal plan I thought I could stick to and, after a week long panic attack at the thought of eating as much food as was on the plan in one day, I did. This was about 2 months ago - in which time I've lost around a stone. I know GPs have a certain amount of time to see a patient, but WHY do they make these assumptions? It didn't take long for the nutrionist to spot the problem with the right information, so why not a sodding doctor?
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I went through a bout like that while I was in law school. I was horribly depressed, and just stopped eating. One or two bites would practically make me gag. After about a year, I was down to 103 (size 3) and would have made Kate Moss look like a linebacker.
I knew there was a problem. I could see bones sticking out everywhere. People kept telling me that I had a "body image" problem. I didn't. I knew I looked like a stick, and I knew that I was starving to death, but I just didn't care.
It probably didn't help matters any that, in order to counteract the depression, I used to hop on my bicycle and pedal 50 or 60 miles to the beach and back every Sunday.
Anyway, I finally found a doctor who understood what was going on. He put me on medication for the depression and told me to tell anyone who gave me any lip about my weight to just stuff it. Being anorectic isn't the same as having anorexia nervosa.
Eh, what it comes down to is, there are basically seven types of people in the world:
1. People who are carrying more weight than their bodies can tolerate and that are miserable about it;
2. People who are carrying more weight than their bodies can tolerate and that are ok with it;
3. People who are at a weight that is above or below where they should be according to cultural norms (but where their body functions just fine) and they are miserable about it;
4. People who are at a weight that is above or below where they should be according to cultural norms (but where their body functions just fine) and they are OK with it (very rare beast);
5. People who are carrying less weight than their bodies can tolerate and are miserable about it;
6. People who are carrying less weight than their bodies can tolerate and that are ok with it; and
7. Perfect people who should be shot on sight.
I'm working towards becoming a type 4. It's a life long effort.
