Parents and friends

[Possuman]

So I had a really intense exercise addiction/ anaoxia (two go hand in hand) and it is worn off on my parents. It's so weird. Since getting help and recovery I can't stand to do any exercise, I think I've done enough for one lifetime.
But they're really into weight loss and push me to exercise. Like 7 hour hikes (nope). Also they started to uses the same diet talk, talking about losing weight and being fat. It's super triggering, but also really sad that maybe my obsession with "health" has made them unhappy. Either that or I'm super sensitive to diet culture. Maybe it's been there all along and I'm just noticing it now. Honestly just wondering if anybody else has experienced this, like I see eating disorder behaviours all the time in my friends/ family and I hope it wasn't me that introduced it to them. idk

[romantic_thi3f]

Hi Possuman,

Thank you for your post. I'm totally bummed that you are in this situation because I know how things can be when they're not supportive or don't really align with what you need in your recovery.

I don't really know how it came to be whether it was your parents or yourself and where your parents got these ideas from. It may also be that your parents feel like they are trying to help, or even that they're not sure what your recovery looks like where as when you were exercising it was predictable ? I don't know if that makes sense.

What happens when your parents say something about weight loss or exercise? What is that like for you?

I hope that you're able to find some support in these forums, or use some of the support thats helped you so far.

rt

[quirkywords]

Possuman welcome to the forum. What a fascinating observation for a thread.

Not so much with eating disorders but with relationships ever since I did marriage counselling years ago, I found I was analysing everyones relationships. Also I was diagnosing people as depressed and having bipolar.Not sure if that is what you mean.

[SarahZ]

Hi Possuman,

Thanks for reaching out. I'm so sorry you are experiencing this right now - it must feel super confusing. When people around you are discussing things not aligned with your recovery I can't imagine how frustrating that must be. I do see where romantic_thi3f is coming from and think that could be a possibility. Maybe your parents think this is a healthy way to re-introduce you back to healthy levels of exercise? especially due to COVID, maybe they feel being cooped up at home isn't good for your mental health? However, 7 hour hikes do sound really extreme! Have you talked to your parents about how you feel when they mention these triggering topics?

Wishing you all the best and here if you ever need to talk 🙂

[Possuman]

Hey, thank you everyone for responding to me! Yall are so nice. I decided to confront my parents about it and they told me that they just enjoyed being with me and bonding when we were going on walks. I nearly cried 🥺. I guess I was over anaylsing everything. I told them to stop talking about weight loss though. Like seriously I'm just happy to be alive during covid and people are complaining about quarantine weight gain...

[romantic_thi3f]

Hi Possuman,

Aw I am so happy to read this post this morning and hearing how things went with your parents! Yay for them and for you for bringing it up!

I hope they start to cut down on the weight loss talk. Maybe they might not realise how much they are doing it - maybe you can call them out on it too and let them know how they can better support you.

🙂 rt