Expert: Melissa - 2/27/2009

Question
Im 20 year old lad and for the last say 4 days i havent really eaten. Everytime i think of food, it makes me feel pshically sick, and when i do take a bite of something, i wanna be sick then and there. Im not upset about my weight so aint planning on loosing any, nor am i doing it to punish myself.  I keep getting like a empty feel, but thats in my chest and not my stomach, could this be linked? or have i got an eating disorder?

Answer
To meet the criteria of a diagnosis for anorexia, you must:

1.Body weight is maintained at least 15% below that expected (either lost or never achieved), or Quetelet's body-mass index is 17.5 or less. Prepubertal patients may show failure to make the expected weight gain during the period of growth.
2.The weight loss is self-induced by avoidance of "fattening foods" and one or more of the following: self-induced vomiting; self-induced purging; excessive exercise; use of appetite suppressants and/or diuretics.
3.There is body-image distortion in the form of a specific psychopathology whereby a dread of fatness persists as an intrusive, overvalued idea and the patient imposes a low weight threshold on himself or herself.
So since you are not purposely trying not to eat in order to control your weight and you don't have a distortion of body image I would say it's not anorexia or any other eating disorder.
But you should definitely see a doctor if you have no appetite and can't eat.