Anorexia + Depression
Depressive symptoms can be exacerbated in anorexia due to both the effect starvation has on the brain and feelings such as self-hatred, guilt about eating, etc. Luckily, the connection between anorexia and depression seems to fade after a healthy weight is restored for a significant period of time.
(International Journal of Eating Disorders) (Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry)
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Symptoms found in both depression and anorexia: (according to Psychosomatic Medicine)
- reduced interest in activities that one previously enjoyed
- If you’re spending all your time thinking about food, counting calories, and exercising, you have less time to do other activities.
- Starvation could also lead to you lacking the energy to participate in other activities.
- difficulties experiencing pleasure
- self-destructive tendencies
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I definitely experienced symptoms of depression when I was dealing with anorexia and recovery. During anorexia, I derived all of my pleasure from counting calories and planning my work outs, so I did not find joy in other things. Starving myself for long periods of time is a destructive behavior that is similar to the maladaptive components of depression.
During recovery, I constantly felt fat, which caused bouts of depression. While there were definitely parts of anorexia that made me miserable, I largely felt much worse about myself and my life during recovery than I did during anorexia. Recovery was SO hard, and any progress I made just worsened my depression because I was gaining weight. Any time I ate something unhealthy or felt like I had eaten too much in a certain day, I absolutely hated myself. I was luckily able to slowly find pleasure and happiness in aspects of my life that did not involve how much I weighed or what my body looked like, but it was a tough process.