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To better understand how you can prevent and look out for an eating disorder in a friend, your child, a student, or a patient if you are a doctor, I have added some comments that my friends have been gracious enough to let me print here in cyberspace. Each one of them suffers from an eating disorder.
One comment from a sufferer shows just how easily it is to be caught into the trap of an eating disorder:
"I thought I could control this, I thought it was my control. Because I couldn't see myself right I believed that my feelings about myself were actual facts, so I kept on losing weight. I was always regarded as the 'perfect' child. No one thought that I could possibly have an eating disorder, not perfect little Veronica. I didn't tell anyone about my problem with food for fear that they would think I was a psycho or hate me for having this problem, or just problems in general. For that I've been in and out of hospitals and I've ruined my life. It was only until my third hospitalization that I realized just how much I was truly out of control, and just how much the eating disorder was. It's too bad I couldn't have just realized this about 3 years ago. Maybe it wouldn't have been so hard to recover then."
A male victim recalls how his eating disorder, bulimia, started and how it progressed:
"We had to do a report in health class on eating disorders and I learned that you could lose some kind of weight by puking up what you ate (bulimia, binging and purging). I totally forgot about the medical problems that you get from it, which was what our whole reports were about. I just started doing it. I was caught once by a family member, but they figured that it was no big deal and when my folks found out that I was doing it everyday, they didn't really do anything. I figured they just didn't give a damn about me and I got even worse. The thing is, I never thought I'd be this bad. I thought I could start and stop, but I was so stupid in thinking that 'cause this is an addiction. I should've listened to what my other friend (who also has an ED) had told me in the beginning, but I was too hell-bent on doing my own thing and now I'm stuck with this without a clue as to how to stop."
"I wanted to be liked, that's all I wanted. I guess instead of getting other people to like me, I should have gotten myself to like me. Only, I didn't have a 'me'. I never knew what I liked or what I wanted to do, or what I should be. I just went with what others thought was best because I was too afraid to have a difference of opinion and cause conflict. I thought others would think that I was stupid for what I may like. When the eating disorder came along, I thought that that was finally 'me'. I was a starver, a bag of bones. The ED told me that if I just lost more and more weight that with each fallen pound, someone would finally like me. But with each pound lost, I started feeling worse and worse. I did get more attention, but then it got out of control and my friends and family went away because my obsession caused me to be depressed and isolate myself.
I haven't recovered yet. I've been to treatment and I've had doctors tell me I'm going to have to be hospitalized or I'll die, but I just can't stop. Who am I without the anorexia?"
As I've said so many times, recovery IS always possible. When an eating disorder does form there is no need to blame yourself or those around you - the most important thing is to work towards recovery. I only made this page in hopes that as a parent, friend, or teacher you can look within yourself and at others and be able to recognize someone that is on the verge of developing a full-blown eating disorder. Eating disorders prevention truly is the key.
next: Articles on Eating Disorders and Others
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