Eating disorders? (Recovered, in recovery, or active.)

[dirtyhippiegirl, BSN, RN]

I had a pretty bad eating disorder for most of my teenaged years. I'm 27 now -- have been fully weight restored for about five years, have considered myself in almost complete recovery for about three years.

I kind of figured going into nursing --) you get any amount of women together in one spot and you're certain to have some sort of disordered eating issues, etc. Never had any issues in nursing school but I've been in my current hospital job for just over three months now and the eating issues of the various RNs on my unit + my own are starting to gnaw at me. Seems like everyone is always dieting. Walking laps or doing stairs during down time. Actively comparing themselves against each other and other staff. I work with two other nurses whose BMI I would estimate at around 14-15. The medical student on our unit right now is positively skeletal.

Doesn't help that working night shift isn't doing anything for my appetite. I'm just not hungry.

Anyone have any experiences with this? Advice?

[cardiacrocks, BSN, RN]

I am also a recovering anorexic with bulimic tendencies. I've been in recovery for about 15 years now. I also started working as an RN 8 months ago. If you are struggling you need to get into some therapy. You do not have to do this alone. You are always anorexic, ALWAYS. I still weigh myself daily, however, I keep it all in check, I do not want to go down that road again, it was horrible, ruined 10 years of life dealing with the disorder. You need to realize the disorder is too much to handle and you need to reach out for some help. Coming on here is one way, but you need therapy, it helped me. I had a therapist that didn't deal with the eating disorder but rather with the issues that surrounding the disorder. I was hospitalized where I learned more tricks of the trade, so I swore I'd never go back into the hospital and I haven't. I was in therapy for about 7 years and I feel I have it in check. Do yourself a favor and call a therapist today, don't wait till it's out of hand. Please keep us posted. You are no help to anyone including your patients if you are sick. Good luck.

[KelRN215, BSN, RN]

Working in an environment with all women is challenging when you have this history. I struggled with anorexia and (more often) bulimia from 17-21. I'm 28 now and barely even think about that time in my life but it is difficult at work sometimes. Especially because, as you said, women at work LOVE to talk about their latest diets, how much weight they lost, etc. Something that infuriates me is that every year, my co-workers think it's a good idea to organize a "biggest loser" competition... and the same people participate every year! Because it's such a healthy way to live your life to crash diet for 3-4 months at the beginning of every year to compete with your co-workers, gain all the weight back and then turn around and do it all over again the next year. And then they have a poster hanging in the backroom listing what percentage of their body weight they've lost. I just try to ignore it and remind myself of how horrible my life was those years. If anyone asks me why I'm not participating, I just give some line like, "I don't believe in competitive dieting." I leave out the part that I once participated in an unspoken competitive dieting competition with my friends... that quickly turned into a "who has the worst eating disorder?" competition. It is not something I care to relive... ever.