[tryinghard]

This has been a really interesting discussion. I haven't started to avoid anything myself since being diagnosed with SA, I don't think it really changed my life in anyway, except feeling a bit annoyed at the psych because I just thought: "What? Another label? How does that help, exactly?" Maybe because I have had so many labels in life they simply stop meaning anything to me - they're just more evidence that I'm mad.

I initially also thought it was really interesting that others didn't know they had a mental health issue until they found out about SA...but then I realised that I did not consider anorexia a mental health issue, nor even exactly an issue, until it got really bad and I looked it up. It's funny what you live with. For me, SA was an obvious 'issue' because it represented an actual change in my personality between the ages of 15 and 16, following some events at that time (abusive relationship coupled with mass rejection and enforced isolation - those things were connected, btw). And that's when SA started; before then I had no fear in social settings and picked up "friends" really easily. The only thing that was off about me socially (although I wouldn't have called it 'off') was that I wasn't particularly socially skilled (but this did not concern me at the time).