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What is Reverse Anorexia?

There is an eating disorder and body image disorder sometimes called reverse anorexia which gets left out of the eating disorder and body positivity worlds. Usually it stems from people who are naturally skinny being made to feel like they have to be bigger and eat more, which often comes from how society treats skinny people, but it can also be internal. Sometimes it’s an overcorrection from society assuming that skinny people are anorexic, so someone might overeat to make sure they aren’t starving themselves or to prove to others they aren’t. It can also be based off of personal control or obsessive compulsion.

It’s called reverse anorexia because it has similar symptoms of anorexia but in the opposite direction. For example, instead of seeing yourself as too big and starving yourself to control food intake and lose weight, you see yourself as too small and overeat to control food intake and gain weight. While the term reverse anorexia has been used more for men who want to be more muscular, it also can refer to wanting to gain fat, and people of all genders can have it. Here are some of the symptoms:

*Feeling fear of being skinny, having bones showing, or losing weight *Feeling fear of not eating enough, being malnutritioned, having the effects of not getting enough nutrition such as passing out, being hungry, or feeling empty *Obsessing over your small frame or bones sticking out, in hopes of getting bigger *Having nightmares about being skinny or having bones showing *Eating when you aren’t hungry *Eating on routine, around the clock, or always making sure you eat at least 3 big meals a day or many meals throughout the day, even when your body is never hungry for that much *Feeling like you should eat big portions and finish your plate, and not stopping eating when you are full *Eating so much you accidentally puke because your stomach can’t fit all of the food in it *Eating junk foods in hopes of gaining weight, and avoiding healthy foods in fear of losing weight or in fear of comments from people. Feeling like you are doing the right thing by binging on junk food *Feeling a sense of wanting control when it comes to eating or weight, which comes out in forcing yourself to eat more than you are hungry, or trying different things to get bigger *Confusing the feelings of being full and being hungry, to where you think you are hungry when you are full or when you just ate *Wearing baggy clothes, layers, or long sleeves or pants even in the summer to hide your small body or look bulkier *Wearing less clothing when you have gained weight because you are more comfortable in a bigger body *Using weight gainer supplements *Taking black market pills that are advertised to “give you bigger curves” *Seeing yourself as skinnier than you actually are *Feeling fear of your clothes becoming looser because it means you have lost weight *Loving it when you have gained weight, and hating it when you have lost weight *Feeling good and encouraged to continue when people say you “look healthy” when you’ve gained weight *Loving it when people say you “look curvy” because they always mean that as a compliment and as a way to say you’ve gotten bigger, so it’s like a way of saying “you look better” *Liking it when people watch you eat because it shows them you aren’t starving yourself *Liking it when people compliment how much you’ve eaten, such as, “Oh good job! You finished your plate” *Hating it when people watch you eat because you’re afraid of people watching and judging to see if you eat it all, or it triggers you to eat more if they tell you to eat a cheeseburger instead of a salad or tell you that you didn’t eat enough *Avoiding weighing yourself so that you can convince yourself you’re fine *Constantly weighing yourself in hopes of gaining weight. Feeling fear of the scale going down. Loving it when you see bigger numbers on the scale *Obsessively looking in the mirror to check your physical appearance *Regularly measuring different parts of your body with measuring tape to make sure you don’t get smaller or to check progress with getting bigger *Feeling fear or anxiousness about not physically taking up enough space, especially when sitting next to someone or being near people *Avoiding exercising for fear of losing any weight *Trying to find exercises that say they will make you look bigger in the parts of your body you feel are too small *Anxiousness when going clothes shopping and having to buy the smallest sizes *Avoiding social interactions due to self consciousness about your weight or the way you look *Avoiding counting calories so that you can be in denial of just how much you are overeating, or to prove to yourself or others that you aren’t anorexic *Counting calories to make sure you are getting a lot *Feeling fear of getting an illness or vomiting, since people often lose weight when sick *Feeling anxious when you have taken a large bowel movement, or fear that you will take a large bowel movement, because it means you have lost some weight *Getting plastic surgery or a fat transfer surgery to try to appear bigger (continued in comments...)

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