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Hi everyone,

Can weight and body image issues fall under the OCD umbrella?

I ask because I have had OCD since childhood, diagnosed 15 years ago. I have done well using medication and CBT for my OCD obsessions relating to fearing I have cheated and forgot, HIV, harm, fear of pregnancy from the toilet seat and a few more but it has dawned on me that i seem to have an obsession with my weight, in particular dieting.

From a relatively young age I have 'dieted'. I have starved myself thin, made myself sick slim and done ever diet there ever is. I have been every size from a size 8 to a size 24. I have spent a fortune joining weight loss clubs, losing weight, having a bad week, feeling ashamed and disgusted with myself only to not go back and re-joining another class in a different town.

Fast forward to now and I had a baby 7 weeks ago. I am now a stone lighter than before pregnancy as I didn't gain much during pregnancy (I had a high BMI to start with so could afford not to and I was monitored throughout) but the obsession with dieting is back. I am analysing, searching the Internet for information, not eating much one day and eating too much the next. Feeling ashamed, guilty, disgusted with myself ... questioning myself, ruminating, thinking it through all day every day, feeling I have failed blah blah blah and the cycle continues. It is creating anxiety and making me feel I can never reach my goals then destined to be fat forever, unattractive, judged etc.

Is this an OCD thought and maybe I should treat it as such or is this something else? This isn't seeking reassurance I genuinely wonder if I have been dealing with this wrong all these years?

Thanks for reading 

Michelle. 

Edited by Serenity77
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Hi Serenity, 

I've been the same in the past. Starved myself to 6stone, ballooned to 18stone and every size in between. 

I was Bulimic for a large portion of my teen years too.

I'm not sure if my dieting and eating habits are under the OCD umbrella or not.

What I do know is I am a comfort eater. I will eat when I'm stressed or tired. I eat when I'm happy and I eat when I'm sad! I won't eat when I'm having a major OCD/anxiety episode or feeling depressed. Anywho you see what I mean.

I now have to break that behaviour pattern and the emotional attachment I have to food. 

Like PB said, Snowbear is great for all that stuff, she helped me when my bulimia seemed to be rearing it's head again.

Didn't want to read and run though, hope this helps a bit x

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Hi Serenity/ Michelle,

First of all...

On 14/10/2016 at 21:54, Serenity77 said:

I had a baby 7 weeks ago

Congratulations! :baby2:

On 14/10/2016 at 21:54, Serenity77 said:

Can weight and body image issues fall under the OCD umbrella?

I am analysing, searching the Internet for information... questioning myself, ruminating, thinking it through all day every day

Any topic on the planet can fall under the OCD umbrella. Doesn't matter what it is, if you're searching for answers/information and carrying out other compulsive behaviours then it's OCD.

It's important to note not everybody with weight issues has OCD. However, 'yo-yo dieters' , bulimics and anorexics all tend to suffer from compulsive behaviours in a similar way to those caused by obsessive thinking so it's on the same spectrum of behavioural disorders even when the obsessive thinking part (OCD) is absent.

Weight and body image issues are often complicated by a lot of emotional baggage stemming from negative life experiences. (Not all of which necessarily related to food or weight.) Over time these experiences resulted in the adoption of core beliefs such as 'I'm not worthy person, I'm a greedy person, I'm a bad person, I have no willpower...'

The list of possible beliefs is long and they are always negative and highly judgemental. Typically people who judge themselves really harshly are paradoxically tolerant of 'faults' in everybody else, but hold themselves to an impossible standard of perfection. And their idea of perfection is based on a faulty belief that slim equals self-controlled, good, worthy etc.

We all know logically that someone's weight or body shape has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the kind of person they are. But the belief in slim equals good, fat equals bad is absorbed subconsciously through media, family, peer pressure... Over time the idea is no longer questioned or analysed logically but becomes part of the person's core belief system. 

Each core belief comes with an emotion attached. 'I'm a good/worthy/strong person' is typically associated with joyful and uplifting emotions which bring self-confidence.   :flex: 

The opposite (bad/unworthy/greedy) is usually associated with shameful or guilty feelings and leads to loss of confidence and low self-esteem. :( 

Quote

Feeling ashamed, guilty, disgusted with myself ...feeling I have failed.... It is creating anxiety and making me feel I can never reach my goals then destined to be fat forever, unattractive, judged etc.

The idea that one setback means 'I'll never reach my goals' is another faulty core belief. 

The very words, 'Destined to be fat forever, unattractive, judged' ...contains a judgemental belief that fat equals unattractive. :ohmy:  And that being fat is something others have the right to judge (and find fault with.) 

The only person passing judgement here is yourself. 

Cognitive therapy can help you to accept the idea 'fat' doesn't mean 'bad person'. Break that link in your belief system and you stop judging yourself as a failure based solely on your weight. (Hopefully you stop judging yourself altogether! Being judgemental isn't a helpful behaviour to indulge in over anything. :no: ) 

A good therapist will help you see the positives in your personality and achieve a more balanced view of yourself using a more appropriate base than body image. For example maybe you're a good listener and supportive of others, or generous with your money and time... the sort of qualities which make the world go round in a way that fat/slimness doesn't. 

When you can say, 'I'm overweight, so what?'  or ' I'm a greedy piggy and love my food! Doesn't make me a bad person...' then the OCD has nothing to latch onto and the obsessions stop, the compulsive urges vanish. 

Once your body image ceases to be how you define yourself you are free to discover your true nature and to start living your life without being ruled by food or arbitrary body weight regulations. If you're like me (and millions of others who've corrected the faulty core beliefs around body weight) your life stops revolving around food such that eating becomes a genuine pleasure instead of a guilty passtime, and something you don't even have to consciously control in order to stay on top of it. 

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