Branded anorexic for having Crohn's??

Does anyone else have a lot of trouble keeping their weight up with Crohn's?
It's ridiculous how easily I lose weight; I'm slim anyway and when I'm sick I have weighed as little as five, six stone..
Some obnoxious and ignorant people have actually called me anorexic before; not often thank God, but, even so, just once is one time too many! I find it really insulting when people gush, 'Oh you're so thin, I'm jealous,' etc, as I struggle daily to maintain a healthy weight and I hate being so thin...
I pass an NG tube at night in a desperate attempt to get as many calories as possible into me; I've a really poor appetite and find it hard to eat enough during the day to keep me healthy. My doctors say I've a psychological aversion to food cos I'm conditioned into associating food with pain and diarrhoea. Luckily, the NG has been a life-saver and my weight hasn't dropped below seven stone in a year, and at one stage I weighed nearly eight, which is quite healthy for being 5 ft 1! But just wondering if other people find it a daily struggle?

I get the same crap from people not that I'm anorexic just that I'm so thin and that they want to give me some of their fat. My response is always " If I could I would take some" but the truth is I'm starving everyday and all I want to do is eat but my body just cant handle it. In general I just shrug it off because I'm doing just about everything I can to keep on the weight and their just jealous.:tongue:

I am anorexic, I have been for 6 years now, started way before the Crohn's did but I think because of that fact a lot of people are actually more weary of passing comment on my weight. I'm 5ft 9 and I've been down to almost 6 stone before however at the moment I maintain at around 7 and a half. I have been on an NG tube full time in the past, dietician I saw in January thought it was a good idea to go down that route again but I ended up not going with it. I don't get any of the jealousy issues, I realise to most I am sometimes unattractively thin as opposed to just petite and small. Myself though I'd always be happier being that tiny bit thinner.

I think the biggest problem I have encountered with weight and Crohn's is the fact it's just yet another excuse not to eat now because I also know I'll get a worsening in symptoms. I've done the Elemental diet twice now and although I knew that wouldn't upset me I couldn't get past each carton being 215 calories. I just don't think I'm going to win anymore. I've made efforts to get back into counselling but with the NHS the way it is I might aswell not bother because it's always more frustration than it's worth.

I've had a hard time with my weight on and off over the years. Before I was diagnosed I was in Jr. High and had a couple of people come up and ask me if I was anorexic. I was always on the chubby side before Crohn's. I dropped a lot of weight and it didn't matter what I ate I couldn't keep it on. When I look back at the sickly, emaciated teen in the few photos that I have of that period I can't believe that was me.

After I was diagnosed I was put on the NG tube as well, and it helped a lot. If I recall correctly I was on it for 20 hours a day. I didn't like needing to lug the machine around all day but I managed to gain a lot of weight back while I was on it.

CK- I have problems with this now. No one would come up to a stranger and say, “you are too fat,” but people seem to have no trouble telling you that you are too skinny. It makes me really uncomfortable because I would much rather look like I did a few years ago when I had boobs and a butt and looked like a grown up woman. It’s hard for me to feel sexy being so thin. Eating is a struggle for me right now because food makes me hurt. Sometimes it is just easier to just skip it.

As a teenager, I did have problems with Anorexia, partially because it was so easy to hide with this disease (Crohns). I dealt with it for many years, but I got healthy about five years ago and now it is hard for me to be this thin again because it just reminds me of that time.

I think that I developed Anorexia for many reasons, but one of them was the fact that I liked having something that I could control in my life, especially because I felt like I had no control over the Crohns, and it sort of felt like weight was one thing I could control. Of course, it ended up controlling me.

NatalieMT- it must be very hard for you right now because these diseases feed off of each other so much. My heart goes out to you because I have been where you are. There was a time when I thought that I would have rather been thin than happy. All I can say is that nothing really good ever happened for me in my life until I let go of those negative thoughts. Please don’t give up.

I'm a similar situation. I've always been on the thin side but ever since having Crohn's I just can't seem to gain weight no matter how much I eat. Before I was diagnosed my doctor said I was anorexic. He told me all my problems were in my head. After my first hospital stay I weighed only 96 pounds at 5'6''.

Still today I get comments about my weight. Some people have told me they wished they had what I had so they could lose some weight. Others have told me, "You need to gain some weight, here's some bread". That makes me pretty mad.