Hi, I am new here and I’m not sure how or where to start, but I am beginning to realize I may have an eating disorder. This really shouldn’t come as a surprise to me because growing up I was on Adderall which caused me to have no appetite. But when I stopped taking it, I ate so much so quickly I gained a lot of weight. Now, it’s been 13 years since I stopped taking the adderall and I’ve come to realize I spend a lot of days either snacking all day with no real meals, binging several times a day, or not eating at all. So now I’m just lost on where to go and what to do.
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That's rather difficult. Have you spoken with your doctor about this, a nutritionist, or a therapist? I know it's hard to get on track. I had eating disorders when I was younger, all of them, you could list, I had em. But this may or may not help you. When I was a kid, I couldn't hold a lot of food in my tummy at once so I'd eat small amounts and then get hungry soon after. So for snacks my mother made me eat healthy. But she was worried about my not being able to eat a regular meal. So she asked my doctor and he said, it's okay to eat smaller amounts thru the day rather than big meals. So I'm wondering firstly if you could ask your doctor. Then secondly, I'm thinking since your metabolism is used to how you eat, then you may be better off keeping doing that, but make your snacks healthy and then focus on addressing the binging, which is your main problem. The binging - Have you ever thought about journaling your feelings/emotions when you want to binge to see if there's a pattern of why you eat? Or do you already know why you're doing it? For me it was stressors. So I had to find a healthy way to deal with the stress.
I don’t think your not eating is a good idea either. I’ve read a lot about how dieting or fasting can make a person be more likely to want to binge. So then there’s the concept a person can lose weight with these diets that use several small meals a day. It’s all over the internet. But I think it’s better to try and address the binging before you attempt to do that or maybe during your addressing the binging. But it’s more important to focus on eating healthy than reduction dieting so you can be used to a healthy lifestyle eating plan rather than ending up yo yo dieting.