Anorexic friend causing relapse
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Anorexic friend causing relapse
| Tue, 06-22-2004 - 8:16pm |
I have this group of friends I've been pretty close to for a few years, but I'm realizing that they all totally deny their problems, and never share anything personal. For example, one friend recently lost 30 pounds off her already slim figure, and looks positively unhealthy. I know that this friend has had a history of anorexia in the past, plus right before she lost all the weight, she was complaining a lot about her size and putting herself on restrictive diets. When I have talked to her about it she denies having an eating disorder, and says she has stomach probs which don't allow her to eat. I don't know if I believe her. However, she seems really proud of her weight loss. Then she deflects it back on me, and says maybe I have an eating disorder, or maybe I eat bad food or exercise too much. As a former dancer I myself have had serious body image issues for 15 years, and am trying very hard to recover through therapy etc, but I think I now have a healthy active lifestyle. I used to have a compulsive exercise problem as a teen, and I had stopped getting periods, but now I'm at a healthy weight for my frame. At any rate, any time I get off the phone, I end up feeling bad about myself, like I also need to lose weight at any cost, and I am starting to notice getting into obsessive patterns again. I have been weighing myself 3 or 4 times a week, and then get really depressed because my weight hasn't gone down, and it won't unless I start harming my body again. I almost want to cut off from her because of the effect it is having on me, but I feel like I should be stronger than that and support her instead. But I don't think I have the ability to-am I a bad friend? The worst part is, our mutual friends totally support her eating problems by also denying that she has them, so I'm starting to think I'm crazy.
