During this past year, my parents have been fighting a lot and my sister moved out of state with the military. My coping mechanism for the stress is not eating. During the school year I would tell my mother I had breakfast and she would believe me and give me lunch money for later that day. Instead of eating, I would either do homework, say I had to study for a test, lie to my friends that I had a big breakfast, or avoid the cafeteria at lunch. I would only eat a light dinner. For example, half of a lean chicken breast with a small salad and salsa because it didn't contain any fats. I was fine for a month before hand but then started having problems.
Around Christmas time, I started to have really bad pains in my higher and right abdomen. I thought maybe I was having problems with digestion and just dealt with the pain and took a few tums. As time progressed, I started having more "stomach aches." It got to the point where I stopped eating at all because the pain was so severe. Just this past month, I went to the doctor because the pain got so bad I had to sleep at my desk or would sleep next to the toilet and I was missing a lot of school. It got to the point where I was scared to eat for fear of the unendurable pain, and just gave up on food all together.
The doctor said I might have a problem with my gall bladder and scheduled me for an ultrasound in a month. I went home and had the worst pain of my life. We called my doctor's home number and she said to take me to the emergency room. Once at the ER, they ran some blood tests and did an ultrasound. I fortunately didnât eat anything before the tests. Anyway, turns out I had gall stones and was sent to a pediatric surgeon at another hospital to get checked out and scheduled for surgery. This was from losing too much weight too fast. I easily lost 20 pounds before the surgery and even more afterwards.
After I had the surgery, I still stuck to not eating. My body got used to only having one meal. Now I am in summer school and lie to my mother saying I had breakfast and eat a small but healthful light lunch. When I do this I am still full from the lunch and donât eat any dinner. I keep doing excessive exercises and constantly think about how I can lose weight? Do I have an eating disorder?