Struggling with the physical effects of treatment
Apologies for how long this rant is -
I'm currently working on recovering from ARFID. I have definitely had ARFID my entire life, but was only officially diagnosed within the last year. After getting my diagnosis, I pretty immediately joined an outpatient program and was in that for ~3 months. It was intense but successful; I was able to gain a substantial amount of weight, and my anxiety around eating improved immensely. However, I am now ~5 months out from discharge and struggling to deal with the bodily effects of weight restoration. I am looking for some encouragement I guess.
I recognize that where I was before was not a good place to be. I was incredibly anxious and very underweight, but I was also stable. My weight had been stable for years, and my digestion and periods were super regular/predictable. Not anymore! Without going into too much detail, the digestive effects of weight restoration were really horrible for me, and the problems have not gone away. And now my period is very unpredictable and waaaay worse in terms of digestion and cramps. I'm dealing with a lot of things that I have never experienced before in my life.
I had a check-in with the clinic I went to (my weight has been stable since discharge) and basically a lot of my tests (metabolism/body comp stuff), which had consistently improved while in the program, were worse than before I started the program. This was super discouraging. They have now set a new weight goal for me and want me to gain about the same amount of weight again.
What's been frustrating is the messaging I feel like I keep getting that once I am just getting regular proper nutrition (which I feel like I've had for months) and hit the right weight for my body, whatever the heck that is, all of these problems will just resolve and go away. To me right now, it feels like the rapid weight gain is what caused all these problems, and I feel like I've just been left with them. I do want to say that I'm obviously a biased narrator here. I have a nutritionist, therapist, and PC who are all wonderful and are doing their best to help me. Whenever I try to bring any of this up with friends/family (none of whom have EDs) it always comes to something like - but don't you feel so much better now? Aren't you glad you did it? Yes, I am glad I did it, but I also don't physically feel great right now, and I feel like people don't want to hear that.
What I want to know is, did anyone else have similar bodily issues during treatment, and was there anything in particular that helped you through it? Also, did your problems sort of magically resolve after a long period of time or a certain amount of weight gain? Thanks to anyone who took the time to read all this.