so confused-need to understand what is happening to me

I have been told by a mental health professional that I am anorexic, and yes I am currently badly underweight. The thing is, I never wanted to get myself this thin. I wasn't convinced I was fat. I am one of those people that was blessed with a very healthy metabolism, and my weight never was much an an issue. I ate what I wanted, and it just maintanied itself naturally.

In short what happened was clinical depression. I completely lost my appetite as a result of it. I was told I was anorexic when I got the depression diagnosis. I was down to under 100 pounds at that point. The good news was that once I was getting the depression addressed I was doing a good job putting the weight back on. I was almost back to a healthy weight.

Then I got a blasted staph infection that I have been struggling with for most of this year. It is still not completely gone but I'm getting close. Between being so sick from that, and being so sick from all the antibiotics I am right back where I started.

I want so desperately to get myself health again. I really feel I need some help with this instead of trying to figure out the right things to do on my own. I know the easy answer is "just start eating again" but I have lost interest in food and eating. It's become a chore. I should probably be under a doctors care for this, but I have no health insurance, and do not qualify for medicaid. I sure can't afford to pay for treatent out of pocket, so I started searching the
web for at least a support group or something.

The problem is evrything, I mean EVERYTHING out there talks about anorexia as an obsession with weight loss, and a poor body image ect. and that is not what happened to me. Right now don't even know if I am anorexic or if that is just a convienient word that thrown out during my diagnosis.

Please, I just need some answers and input so I can understand what is happening wth me, so I can start figuring out the right thing to do.

Submitted by Heard What You ... on Sat, 05/09/2009 - 09:57.

Anorexia means no appetite.
Anorexia nervosa means an obsession with food and weight with a constant fear of being overweight.

You have anorexia, not anorexia nervosa.
As soon as you are able to get over all the stress and infections, just eat whenever you remember to. Eat even though it seems like a chore. You'll put on the weight again.

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