“Anorexia no longer just a teen disease”

23rd July 2007

“Anorexia no longer just a teen disease” - Uh, duh.

posted in Book Reviews, Eating Disorders |

OK, so I haven’t even left the state yet and I’m already posting another story despite my promised absence. But, I couldn’t let this one go unposted, as I am one who experienced an adult-onset eating disorder.

The Associated Press reports today on “More Women Over 20 Battling Eating Disorders.”

More adult women than ever are seeking help for an eating disorder, reports the article. The Eating Disorders Institute is building a new facility, set to open in 2009, that will offer a treatment track for mature patients.

In the Minneapolis suburb of St. Louis Park, Park Nicollet Health Services’ Eating Disorders Institute saw 43 patients age 38 in 2003 — about 9 percent of its total patients. For the first six months of this year, the institute has treated nearly 500 patients over 38, about 35 percent of its total.

The Renfrew Center, a network of treatment centers in the eastern U.S., said about 20 percent of the 522 patients treated at its Philadelphia center in 2005 were 30 or older. In 2006, about 13 percent of the 600 patients were in that age group.

Most disorders often peak in a woman’s teens and early 20s, says Dr. Donald McAlpine, director of an eating disorders clinic at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. And as author Trisha Gura discovered, they don’t just disappear with the right to vote. Gura’s book, Lying in Weight: The Hidden Epidemic of Eating Disorders in Adult Women, was just released earlier this year.

Read The-F-Word’s interview with Gura here. Or, another book to check out is Aimee Liu’s latest, Gaining: The Truth About Life After Eating Disorders.

Okay, on to vacation. I swear.

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1 On July 23rd, 2007, Harriet

said:

Um, Gura’s book is about as scientific as a man-on-the-street interview. And Aimee Liu, with all due respect, is very invested in the idea that eating disorders are about control and perfectionism. Not to invalidate her experience, but again, this is not a scientific conclusion bur rather one that comes from her own psychology.

Anorexics who experience true and full recovery–reaching a high enough weight, maintaining that weight for months to years–do not tend to relapse.

Gura and Liu would have you believe that once you’ve had an e.d., you are always “in recovery.” From my research I don’t believe this is so. You can recover fully, especially if you receive good treatment in adolescence.

I want people to know that an e.d. is not a life sentence.

posted on July 23rd, 2007 at 11:13 pm

2 On July 27th, 2007, Rachel

Actually, I found Gura’s book to be quite beneficial and comprehensive - the woman does have a Ph.D., after all, so I think she knows a bit about what she’s writing about. And if her book seems like a man-on-the-street interview, it’s because, in a sense, it is. Gura interviews scores of women of all ages and from all walks of life to reveal a broad look at adult women with eating disorders.

I’m glad your daughter seems to have recovered fully Harriet, but her experiences don’t mirror all experiences of ED sufferers. Just as diverse as the people are who have eating disorders, are the disorders themselves. The behaviors might be similar, but the psychology behind the disorders are very, very different. And keep in mind, not every ED sufferer has access to the treatment your daughter had and I’m sure continues to have access to. In a perfect world, everyone would have health insurance which validates eating disorders as the very deadly and serious psychiatric illnesses they are, but this isn’t a perfect world and for all too many, eating disorders are a solitary battle.

While eating disorders aren’t a life sentence necessarily, for many maintenance of the disorder and the temptation to backslide into unhealthy behaviors is a lifetime struggle. I don’t think we ought to discount the efforts and struggles that these men and women face either, by holding up those who claim to have been “cured” from their eating disorders and saying “She did it - why can’t you?”

posted on July 27th, 2007 at 11:01 am

3 On July 28th, 2007, Harriet

I would never discount the struggles or the bravery of those who continue to suffer with anorexia. And I am not at all saying that it’s their fault if they continue to suffer. I am humbled by the pain that I KNOW they go through. And I am deeply saddened by the fact that it doesn’t have to be that way.

If we treated eating disorders promptly and aggressively in adolescence when they develop, we could in fact cure most people. Notice there are no quotes around the word cure. I mean full recovery. It does happen, you know, and most of the adults I know now who had anorexia and who did recover fully did so because they were weight restored relatively quickly–within a year or two of developing the illness.

The psychology of the disease comes later. It’s a byproduct of the disease itself and the way it distors the realities of those who suffer from it, and also from the very human wish to ascribe meaning to our experiences. Look at the Minnesota Starvation Study. Those healthy male volunteers developed all of the same psychological distortions that people with anorexia do–as byproducts of their starvation. The starving came first; the depression, anxiety, OCD, obsessions, need to control, and other psychological symptoms came LATER. Don’t take my word for it–read the study. It’s fascinating. Eating disorders are not diverse at all. People with anorexia all sound frighteningly alike and experience very similar trajectories.

I know that my daughter’s experiences don’t mirror all people’s experiences with anorexia. But they could. About 90% of those who are re-fed relatively quickly, and who reach and maintain a high enough weight, do recover fully. It’s not perfect, but it’s a damn sight better than the statistics bandied about–about a third of all anorexics recover fully. That’s not good enough.

Those adult women Gura interviewed? If they’d been re-fed as teenagers, they wouldn’t be the walking wounded today. It’s a crime that so many people are allowed to suffer needlessly. My mission is to prevent that from happening to others. And to dispel both the stigma and the mystique of anorexia.

My daughter didn’t get special treatment, believe me. And she receives no treatment no because she truly IS recovered. Of course time will tell the whole story–but I can say with 100% certainty that she has been healthy and happy and free of the anorexia for the last year, since shortly after becoming weight restored.

What she mainly had that most people with anorexia don’t have is someone outside of herself who made her eat, day in and day out. Who made sure she kept eating until she got to not just a medically safe weight but a truly healthy weight for her. And a doctor who supported that instead of saying something like “It’s no big deal, she’ll grow out of it” or “Let’s wait and see what happens.”

The latest research on anorexia and bulimia show that they are largely genetically determined. That they are biologically based illnesses. That you can predict pretty much exactly what will happen to the human brain and body if deprived of food over a long period of time. And that if you reverse that starvation before it becomes deeply entrenched and part of a developing adolescent’s identity, they can recover and go on with their lives. They can fully recover.

I want people to know there is hope.

posted on July 28th, 2007 at 1:05 am

4 On July 28th, 2007, Jackie

There was a book I read by Anne Snyder in high school called Goodbye, Paper Doll. It was a very real book, about Anorexia/Bulemia. Not only did it help me feel more empathy for people who suffered those diseases, it also helped me realize that I was starting to go down that road myself.

The book is unfortunetly out of print, I barrowed it from the school’s library. There are a few whole-sellers at Amazon.com selling some copies:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw/104-9530979-9784765?initialSearch=1&url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Goodbye+Paper+Doll

I would suggest that if you haven’t read you read it. It really brings you into the reality of someone suffering from the disorder.

posted on July 28th, 2007 at 2:11 am