Recovery and New Mom

Hello! First post here. I am a new mom (4 month old), and have struggled with anorexia/bulimia for 14 years. Prior to getting pregnant I was really struggling and was underweight. I had been in therapy for 2 years at that point and throughout most of my treatment my therapist had been encouraging residential or inpatient and I just couldn't bring myself to do it for all the usual reason, job, wedding planning, and my grad school degree along with "I don't need that much help." Well I was doing slightly better when I got pregnant but still acting on some behaviors and trying to weight restore. I get pregnant and gain 65lbs!!! 65!!! so my body image is in the toilet now since i've only lost half of it at this point. My therapist of 2 years retired when i was 5 months pregnant, and she was the first therapist I had had that I was able to open up to. I did pretty well considering I had a baby during one of my last semesters of grad school, no postpartum depression and handled baby and school well. But not now. I am overwhelmed with anxiety about my upcoming semester, I'm restricting, I'm obsessing, I worry incessantly about people close to me dying. I went and got prescribed diet pills. UGH and my husband hates discussing ED because its really the only thing we fight about. I just needed somewhere to vent. I miss my therapist and feeling like I had a place to unload all these feelings, worries etc.

You might be struggling with some post natal depression? Asked to be referred to your mental health services and get assessed to make sure. Then if you found therapy helpful look for another therapist so you have somewhere to offload.
Are their any ED support groups local to you? Every time you have an ED thought, which I know will be all the time! try to refocus on your baby. No matter what weight you are, you brought a little life into this world and that makes you truly beautiful. Stay away from scales (easier said than done) calorie counting (its probably second nature) but remember your hormones will be all over the place still. Good luck x

I would definitely get another T. They are wonderful to have to talk about things we just cant tslk about with others.

I had my daughter 10 months before graduating with my degree then went right into my computer engineering career. I understand the stress & for me, I lose my appetite when Im stressed. Still do even at my age now. It would be good to have a T to talk through the stresses with.

I was so concerned about not gaining weight when I was pregnant I had gained 25 pounds then lost 10 the last month when I found out I had to have a c-section because I was too small to have a baby naturally. Lol..she was 8 pounds 2 ounces of the 15 pounds I ended up gaining....but I swam & exercised the whole pregnacy....was at a very healthy weight & had promised myself NO JUNK FOOD allowed in the house the whole 9 months.

Just go back to normal healthy eating & you will get back to where you want to be....i understand the stress effecting the appetite though. Hope for it to be short term & when your next semester starts the stress will be less & get a T to talk it through with