Is EDNOS a Critical Diagnosis?
So you’ve got the big three sisters: anorexia, bulimia and binge eating. Then also exists the cousin of the big three, EDNOS.
Inherent in the first two at least is a perfectionism trait - most anorexics and bulimics can be extremely good at what they do, both on and off the ED court. In fact all three major disorders are accompanied by a sense of failure. It’s especially well documented conjunction with BED - guilt during a binge period is one of the main symptoms; the binge cycle of bulimia is also full of guilt for many sufferers - for over eating to the point of feeling the need to purge. Anorexics, well, sometimes there’s guilt for the pain that the disorder has brought to friends and family - this is especially prevalent during relapse and recovery.
So, why is it that this cousin, this EDNOS, is by definition akin to failing at being truly a person with an eating disorder?
Doesn’t that set up the people diagnosed with it to further spiral downwards? I mean, I would be diagnosed as EDNOS at the moment, based on my lack of DSM-IV requirements for an anorexic diagnosis - and there’s this voice inside of me that says (very quietly, mind you)
You can’t even be anorexic properly. You get an F in eating disorders. Now pull up your socks and really put 110% into it.
Is this a good thing? How do you think that this voice could be eliminated, outside of treatment? Is a renaming of EDNOS required?
EDNOS, Binge Eating Disorder, Anorexia, Bulimia, Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
August 15th, 2007 at 12:43 am
[...] month ago, I wrote about being technically, by-the-books, EDNOS. Times change swiftly and I now meet three out of four of the DSMIV criterion for diagnosis of [...]
September 5th, 2008 at 9:27 am
I’m a young man of 25 and I believe that
after all my years of suffering that it
comes to the conclusion that I may have
this ‘ed-nos thing’. I’ve been struggling
on and off since i was 15. Been passed
around from doctor to doctor in a really
non-caring approach and treated more like a
case study rather than a person, and for the
first time I don’t feel so alone or like
such a ‘failed anorexic’ after hearing so
many other stories. I’ve been down the road
of the bulimic episodes, done every purging
behavior known to man, had my weight range
across nearly a hundred pounds between it’s
highest and lowest (and i’m NOT going to say
how much i weigh or weighed at my lowest
becuase 1. I don’t want to ‘trigger’ anybody
s raw nerves nor do i want to hear that
bullshit feedback of ‘Oh that’s not too
critically low’ because that IS EXACTLY what
ENABLES and sets back the recovery of us
ED-NOS’ or whatever you wanna call it.
After all we’re ALL MENTAL ILLNESSES
regardless of what our diagnosis is and should all be treated equally as severe and
as people.
December 7th, 2009 at 8:43 pm
This post was the best thing I’ve read in a long time. I’m ednos, and “You can’t even be anorexic properly. You get an F in eating disorders. Now pull up your socks and really put 110% into it.” is the EPITOME of how I feel, every day. You can’t restrict well enough to be anorexic, you don’t like to purge, so you feel like wow, I even fail at having an eating disorder which pushes you to spiral FURTHER down. Thank you so much for posting this, I thought I was the only one!
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May 25th, 2010 at 10:10 pm
Wow, I think you hit right on the nose the types of feelings that I have been having. It’s also the reason I don’t get treatment for myself.. EDNOS is so under-estimated that it makes it seem like it’s “no biggie” and makes me embarrased to even ask for the help I could really use. I’ve have an ED from the time I was about 10 I’ve “visited” all the titles, but right now I’m in the EDNOS category. Thanks for writing this though, it helped me to not feel so alone.
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