Nut allergy related eating disorders - 2006/10/18 23:49
Hey,
I was just wondering if anyone else has been in a similar situation to what I have been dealing with?
I have a serious nut allergy & have always been relativly careful, until a few years a go when I had a reaction to some bread that hadnt been properly labelled. After this, I was scared to eat, & when I did eat, I panicked & thought I was having a reaction. I ended up on a usual day eating just a bananna. At its worst, I went for 5 days without eating. Sometimes after eating I wanted to be sick just incase there was a trace of nut on something id eaten or drank. It was affecting my sociasl life, I fell down to a size 6 & It was making me ill, but I didn't know what to do. I went to the doctors but they made me feel like I was wierd. I felt like giving up & just trying to accept I wasn't going to get better, even deciding i liked my new size & didnt want to gain weight. This was bad because now I had 2 reasons in my mind for not eating. But my friend encouraged me to go back & tell them what I wanted. After going back several times, I made them reffer me to the allergy clinic, who in turn reffered me to a dietician. The dietician has been really helpful, & although I am still not eating properly, I am eating things i wouldn't have touched 6 months ago & I am starting to feel better in myself.
I think it would have helped if I had had other people to talk to who understood, but I don't know anyone else who has the same allergy & have only just discovered online communities. If anyone else is going through a similar situation, please get in touch as it really helps totalk about it.
Holly x
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alexism
Fresh Boarder
Re:Nut allergy related eating disorders - 2007/04/26 21:47
Ridiculously late to respond to this, but I do think that nut (and allergy-related) eating disorders are more common than people think.
I've had many occasions where I've eaten something and thought "That tasted a bit odd", then "Is my heart beating faster?", "Christ, it *is* beating faster, and now I'm having trouble breathing!", etc. It's easy to create a reaction out of nowhere because the early stages (at least for me) resemble what I've read about panic attacks: awareness of heart beating, problems breathing, feeling of doom, etc.
It's not surprising that kind of experience can lead to avoiding all foods that are not known to be absolutely safe, and to eating disorders. I've also spent days not eating when it's not been safe to do so, but as a slightly podgy bloke I'm relatively immune from eating disorders
Anyway, Holly, hope things are still going well with you, and I suspect that most peanut allergy sufferers can relate to your experiences at some level.
