Anorexia

[Feelslikebrick]

I am in recovery for anorexia. I am struggling in it and am trying to up my calories but I’m also addicted to seeing the scale go down.
What is a Christian approach to eating disorders? All answers are welcome.
Especially if you have passages that can be applied to this situation. I need conviction and repentance for this addiction/disorder.

Any help is appreciated. Thank you.
Melissa

 

[Bluerose31]

I am in recovery for anorexia. I am struggling in it and am trying to up my calories but I’m also addicted to seeing the scale go down.
What is a Christian approach to eating disorders? All answers are welcome.
Especially if you have passages that can be applied to this situation. I need conviction and repentance for this addiction/disorder.

Any help is appreciated. Thank you.
Melissa

I will pray for you that you heal from your anorexia. Hugs and love

 

[Brightmoon]

I was a dance fiend when I was younger and very very rarely I’d dance until my feet bled( barefoot not on pointe) . My weight was very low and I’d started growing a patch of fur on my calves from not having body fat. I never dieted; it was the physical activity that kept my weight down . Don’t get me wrong . Dancers eat a lot just to fuel all that movement . I once ate half of a # lb turkey and didn’t gain an #.

I guess I’m suggesting that you get some moderate exercise if your doctor okays it because the activity will help calm you down. Moderate,not professional dancer type exercise . It’s too much

Repentance ! No ! What you also need is to stop being so hard on your self. Being unkind to who you are isn’t going to help at this point.

 

[megan_26]

"Don’t you know that your body is a temple that belongs to the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit, whom you received from God, lives in you. You don’t belong to yourselves. You were bought for a price. So bring glory to God in the way you use your body."
1 Corinthians 6:19-20

I have battled with eating disorders, specifically binge eating. It's hard, I understand the struggle well. If you haven't spoken to a doctor, I would suggest doing that. Also pray and mediate on it. Ask God to give you the strength to overcome it. If you believe that he will, he will.

"Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart."
Psalm 37:4
"Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you."
Matthew 7:7
"The Lord is near all who call out to Him, all who call out to Him with integrity."
Psalm 145:18

Also remember that you are beautiful and wonderful because God made you that way. I firmly believe that he will take your struggles from you, you need only trust and be patient. I will be praying for you!

"My darling, everything about you is beautiful, and there is nothing at all wrong with you."
Song of Solomon 4:7
"I will praise You because I have been remarkably and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful, and I know this very well."
Psalm 139:14

 

[SANTOSO]

I am in recovery for anorexia. I am struggling in it and am trying to up my calories but I’m also addicted to seeing the scale go down.
What is a Christian approach to eating disorders? All answers are welcome.
Especially if you have passages that can be applied to this situation. I need conviction and repentance for this addiction/disorder.

Any help is appreciated. Thank you.
Melissa

In my childhood days, I may be called having eating disorder. I don’t have much weight. I had gone to many doctors. Until I meet this doctor, who don’t prescribe me medicine but give me a good advice. If you cannot eat a lot, just eat often. So if you eat three times a day ; try to eat 5 times a day or more ; it is okay that if you eat a small portion eventually your capacity will increase. When I follow that advice, my body adjust to the new metabolism; I begin to put on weight. When I have gained the appropriate weight, it is much easier. When I am overweight, I know how to reduce my portion and frequency of eating to get back my appropriate weight.

If you need healing, follow what our Heavenly Father have said:

My son, be attentive to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. -Proverbs 4:20
Let them not escape from your sight; keep them within your heart. -Proverbs 4:21
For they are life to those who find them, and HEALING TO ALL THEIR FLESH. -Proverbs 4:22

 

[Fish55]

Hi, I just prayed for you. Megan is right.
Maybe you can reduce the number of times you look at entertainment news and models, if you are surfing those websites.

 

[Cormack]

Especially if you have passages that can be applied to this situation.

Maybe this will help in a wider way… from 1 Timothy 4

They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth. For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer.
​

Be thankful and always seek out help for your troubles.

 

[timf]

Many times eating disorders are related to control issues. A person may have anxieties or other concerns and begin a practice that comes to be the way they exert control over those anxieties. This can "lock in" a particular action and be difficult to break through.

One element that can work to lock in an action is a fear for what might happen if the action were stopped or changed. As a Christian there is one way to approach reducing fear that many unsaved people might not be able to avail themselves of;

1Jn 4:18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.

Since love is essentially selflessness;

1Co 13:4 Love suffereth long, and is kind; love envieth not; love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
1Co 13:5 doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not its own, is not provoked, taketh not account of evil;
1Co 13:6 rejoiceth not in unrighteousness, but rejoiceth with the truth;
1Co 13:7 beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

A person can confront fear by considering scenarios where selflessness could be applied to a fear.

If a person has come to fear weight gain, they might imagine what would happen if they they gained so much weight that their health was imperiled and they died. They would be with Jesus earlier than expected.

Another mental exercise might be to consider weight gain that caused many to ignore and disregard them. They might find the advantages of having the superficial and shallow pass them by.

There are different tactics one can use to confront and reduce fears. If these have contributed to the development of a locking mechanism on an unhealthy action, it may be useful work at the mental imagery that sustains the fear strengthening the lock.