Have you ever had an “Ana buddy” in real life, and if so what was it like?
When I was anorexic there was a huge Ana community on the Internet. I hope nowadays there is not much left.I had a blog where I wrote about my Ana way of life, if you will call it like that. Through my blog I met a girl who also had eating disorders and since we happened to live pretty close we met in real life. We met a couple times, and then never again, but we stayed in contact. So I guess we can say she was a real life Ana buddy: unfortunately I had a lot of virtual Ana buddies and they were a much worse influence than her, I think.I heard from her recently and I know that she is still struggling. I hope she will completely recover one day.I am at an healthy weight and I don’t try to starve myself or purge myself anymore but my anorexic years definitely left a trace. I am talking about physical scars as well, but the worst scarring is not physical.That said, I still consider myself recovered; in my opinion it’s just normal not to be able to erase years and years of self loathing like it was nothing, but it doesn’t mean I am still in it. I am planning to go to a dietician soon to get a balanced diet to follow to avoid eating too little or too much and I have all the psychological support I need, so I am not concerned.
I'm 17-years-old and I'm very obese and depressed. I always think if I were skinny, I’d be happy. I've been stuck in my room for 2 weeks. What should I do?
Okay, I was 317+lbs at 26 years old. I thought losing weight would make me happy too. I thought it would change how I felt about myself. I thought it would fix my depression, I thought I’d be happier, extroverted. I thought I would turn into everything I admired about other people, who were also ‘skinny’. I thought it was all my weight, and for a while, I blamed my weight. I blamed it for my depression. This was wrong. I was wrong.Being skinny does not equate happiness. Being healthy though, will help you become happier.Picture from my IG.So the left picture is last year and the right picture was taken a few days ago. In all honesty, losing weight made me a bit more cynical and depressed for a while because people and society began treating me differently because I looked better. I started getting more attention I didn’t get beforehand, and it made me upset. Not because I always wanted attention, but because I was invisible, and I actually liked being invisible. Losing the weight was a huge reminder for me just how shallow society is.When I made the decision to not care about what society thinks, I became happier as a person. Losing the weight made me healthier physically, but mentally and emotionally, I was still very, very unhealthy. I was still in a very bad place and I still am some days.Losing weight will make you healthier physically, but depression is a different kind of illness. You’ll have to work on your mentality for that. The thing is, losing weight is a mental and emotional battle as well as a physical one.Happiness is a choice and if you want to be happy, the only one stopping you is you. Decide what you want to do. Where you want to go from here. You want to lose the weight? Work on losing the weight. Focus on yourself. Change your attitude and your mindset. It’s easier said than done, sure, but as is anything else.Edit: Forgot to finish my answer.