Have you ever been told "You don't look like you have an eating disorder."?
I want to make something clear. Even if you aren't 'tiny' or even average weight does NOT mean your eating disorder/condition is any less valid. Litterally anyone can have an eating disorder. Never look at someone and think that just because they aren't overweight means they don't starve themselves or purge behind closed doors. You never know when someone started. That's why I think saying the criteria for Anorexia Nervosa is being underweight isn't what your conseption of an eating disorder should be based around. Someone could have started at 300 pounds and shrunk down to 200 in a very short amount of time. And with some eating disorders people more times than not don't even lose weight. Especially binge eating disorder where you more times than not gain. Even Bulimics tend to be average and even overweight.
If you think you have an eating disorder don't feel ashamed to talk about it because you don't feel like you match up with a stereotype. There is nothing wrong with getting help. And every eating disorder starts somewhere, it may not seem bad to others now but it will slowly get worse and worse as long as the issues are swept under the carpet.
You are valid. You are not "too big" to have an eating disorder.
You don't have to look like you have an eating disorder to actually have an eating disorder, because your eating disorder doesn't define you.
Don't be ashamed.
You're not insignificant.
People want to help you
And hopefully one of those people will one day be you.
@TaintedVeins - Literally everything you said here is so perfect, so necessary, and so true. I think it's unbelievably harmful to people when someone second guesses if their disorder is real because of their size, and equally or more harmful when that thought invades their own mind. I know for me, one of the biggest challenges in getting the help I needed was feeling that I wasn't thin enough for help yet, and I can't even imagine how different my life would have been if I felt I could get help when I first needed it.
So thank you for posting this and for the reminder to everyone! And to you, if you ever need this reminder yourself, don't hesitate to reach out to me.
I feel like this all the time. Like if I were thinner, then I'd have an ED. And I usually don't act like I have one either. Like I don't have food/eating behaviours so in my mind, clearly I don't have an ED and shouldn't be in treatment. (I am in treatment, but often feel like I shouldn't be there/don't need it.)