Hello everyone,
I’ll start by saying I’ve had an unhealthy relationship with food/body image since my teen years (I’m now 35). I’ve been on an almost constant starvation/binge cycle and have at various points over the years been underweight or overweight/bordering on obese. I’ve never sought professional help so not sure if I meet the diagnostic criteria for eating disorders, but I definitely have disordered eating iyswim.
Anyway, over the past couple of years I’ve become a lot more accepting of myself, while my weight has fluctuated a bit it’s not to the extremes it used to be, and working on acknowledging that my size doesn’t define me as a person. (Totally a proponent of women being beautiful at any size btw, just hard to uncouple that with negative self thought).
So now, while not completely ‘cured’, I’ve been in a much better place in the last three years or so. The issue that I’m having though is that since becoming pregnant - currently 18 weeks - I’m really struggling with the attention on my body. While I know that it’s well intentioned, it really makes me anxious having people comment on the size of my bump. It’s a real headfuck when family who’ve historically commented positively when I’ve been a lower weights, are now ‘praising’ me for my growing belly.
Not really sure what I’m hoping to get out of this thread tbh, possibly just needed to vent. But also want to know whether this is a common feeling in pregnancy or whether this stems from my historic ‘issues’.