This site is not intended to promote eating disorders, or to "help" anyone develop a disorder. Please do not visit if you are in recovery or attempting to recover, because it may be triggering. Also, please do not use this site to try to "get" an eating disorder - you don't want to have to deal with having one in the long run. I don't think it's something you can choose anyway and, if it is, it's not something I'd wish on my worse enemy. There are other, healthy, ways of losing weight and getting into shape, and better ways of facing mental & emotional problems as well. If you can, rely on your friends and family, and get professional help if you need to, but please realize that eating disorders are not a solution, only a beginning and continuation of more problems.
Hi! I hope you like my site. I'm making it as a place to save recipes, writing & inspiration, diets, tips, etc, and maybe eventually to start a blog and/or a message board.
I am calling the site "Not Otherwise Specified", because that's where it seems like society and the media place anybody that doesn't confirm to their standards. They can categorize some of our eating patterns, but most of them overlook the mental aspects, or try to place them into rigid patterns and stereotypes that fail us and still leave us lost and alone. When we don"t fit their specifications, they feel free to either judge us or act like we don"t exist.
My intent is to give us a place free from judgment and to let others suffering from these things to know that they are not alone. I hope that I can give people hope and support when things get hard, and to encourage them to still find joy in life and never give up on the things they want to achieve.
You can call me Rhia. I'm a 26 year old woman, living in the United States. This is my 2nd ed-related website. I ran another site and message board when I was in college, but it got shut down back when the media was wigging out over "pro-ana" online. I don't know a whole lot about running a website, but I'm going to try to make this the best I can.
I've struggled with a few different eating disorders over the course of my life, and am currently very overweight, but diagnosed as ed-nos [mainly bulimic and coe tendencies, but not enough of a pattern to fit formal criteria for either]. I was diagnosed with anorexia in middle school, and [self-diagnosed] bulimic in college. My weight has fluxuated in adult hood [between ages 19-26] from a low of 104 to a high of 312 [I'm 5'11" tall]. I don't know that I've ever had a time since adolescence when I've eaten "normally", more like periods of a healthy weight that feel in between transition from one form of disordered eating to another.
I do realize that eating disorders kill, but this also includes overeating and obesity. I'm disgusted with bulimia myself, and any sort of binging, but it seems like I always end up doing it, so the "choice" I am left with is only to purge or not. When it comes down to it, I am not strong enough to give it up, and I'd rather go with the disorder that at least will help me get some of the food gone and take some of the weight off my body. At least you don't usually face discrimination for being skinny until people figure out you have an ED but, when you're fat, it tends to happen as soon as you walk into the room.
Thanks to those who've given me support over the years, both in person and through the web & on livejournal, and to many of the early ED sites - Blue Dragonfly, Ana's Underground Grotto, & Fading Obsession got me through a lot of dark times.