Food! Everyone needs it to live, and as human beings, we love it! We all have our guidelines, our favourites and our least favourites. Food can be your best friend. What goes on inside someone's head when the fork load of vitality is their worst enemy? When the thought of gaining weight is the most terrifying thing? When the mouthful of food has been demonised by the authority figure, the monster that is inside their head? The monster that is... Anorexia.
Eating disorders affect 1.6 million people in the UK according to the estimation provided by B-eat, a UK wide eating disorder help and support network. There are four types of eating disorders, Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia Nervosa, Binge eating disorder and EDNOS (eating disorder not otherwise specified). People with EDNOS are people who do not meet the criteria for anorexia or bulimia but show characteristics of one or more of the 3 main disorders. People between the ages of 15 and 30 will be affected by an eating disorder, 25% of these cases are male adolescents, although the condition is more common in women and girls, it can also occur in boys and men.
Eating disorders are a very sensitive and very personal topic, a very painful experience for the victim.
Anorexia Nervosa is characterized by obsessive calorie counting, weight loss through purging, starving or use of laxatives or appetite suppressants and an extreme fear of gaining weight. It is seen as an attempt to have control over something in life when other elements of life seem uncontrollable, often linked to anxiety, depression, body dysmorphic disorder, obsession compulsion and perfectionism. It is more common in women but men are also being affected by it. Anorexia is becoming increasingly common in industrialised countries where cultural ideas play a significant role in encouraging women to be thin.
From some perceptions it is seen as a coping mechanism for deeper emotional problems. Distorted body image is a common factor in eating disorders, people with eating disorders commonly have body dysmorphic disorder (BDD). BDD is not like just having a fat day, it is in fact much more serious than that. It is an anxiety disorder that causes people to have a distorted image of themselves, more commonly the face, but they may see other parts of their body as distorted and try to conceal their perceived imperfection, causing them to worry about their appearance and compare theirs to others constantly.
Puberty seems to play a big role in the way people feel about their bodies. When bodies are changing physically and hormonally, it brings a multitude of confusing, new emotions to the surface and when you are young and easily influenced, young girls seeing skinny, glamorous, successful women in magazines and television programs and think the way they look is the key to success.
From my own experience, emotional problems with weight are extremely hard to deal with when all around you are adverts about eating healthy and men eating crisps and bloating until the buttons pop off their shirts.
As a youngster I was always sensitive about my weight and the way I looked. In primary school I was always jealous of the other girls that were thin and pretty, always asking my mum and grandparents for reassurance when I felt sad and cried about thinking I was fat. Nothing could reassure me. I remember one day in primary 7, coming out of P.E and a boy walking behind me commented on the size of my bum! He said it looked like I had 4 bums and since that day I weighed myself and tried to diet. In high school, I never joined in P.E because I was so sensitive about my weight and was teased by other girls about my weight, I was 14 years old and weighed 10 stone and was a size 14. Healthy and in proportion for my age and height. The mirror told me different. Every time I saw myself in front of the mirror, clothed or not I saw folds upon folds of fat hanging over my clothing. Truly disgusted with the sight of myself, I cried and cried and exercised in secret until my whole body hurt.
At age 16, size 10, I started going to college, those were the years when I really could control my weight. At college we weren't monitored at lunch times like we were at school, I ate very little or nothing at all to try and lose my “excess weight” only drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes with the occasional sandwich here and there. Food haunted my every thought and my whole life was based around when I was next going to eat. When I did eat, I felt disgusting afterwards, like I could feel my stomach expanding and folding over my trousers. Hunger pangs were a sign that I was winning, every time I did exercise, and felt so hungry to the point where I was almost passing out I felt beautiful! It was never ever enough.
We know weight loss is a choice, and we do it out of our own free will but when anorexia surfaces, does the disease win because we listen to the voice in our head?
We may look for someone or something to blame for our disorders, it is hard to break away from the taunting voice of anorexia, especially when it seems like it’s the only friend you have that keeps you in control and it can become part of an emotional attachment to the disease. Having an emotional attachment to your disorder does not make you a bad person, it becomes part of you.
From some perceptions it is seen as a coping mechanism for deeper emotional problems. Distorted body image is a common factor in eating disorders, people with eating disorders commonly have body dysmorphic disorder (BDD). BDD is not like just having a fat day, it is in fact much more serious than that. It is an anxiety disorder that causes people to have a distorted image of themselves, more commonly the face, but they may see other parts of their body as distorted and try to conceal their perceived imperfection, causing them to worry about their appearance and compare theirs to others constantly.
Puberty seems to play a big role in the way people feel about their bodies. When bodies are changing physically and hormonally, it brings a multitude of confusing, new emotions to the surface and when you are young and easily influenced, young girls seeing skinny, glamorous, successful women in magazines and television programs and think the way they look is the key to success.
From my own experience, emotional problems with weight are extremely hard to deal with when all around you are adverts about eating healthy and men eating crisps and bloating until the buttons pop off their shirts.
As a youngster I was always sensitive about my weight and the way I looked. In primary school I was always jealous of the other girls that were thin and pretty, always asking my mum and grandparents for reassurance when I felt sad and cried about thinking I was fat. Nothing could reassure me. I remember one day in primary 7, coming out of P.E and a boy walking behind me commented on the size of my bum! He said it looked like I had 4 bums and since that day I weighed myself and tried to diet. In high school, I never joined in P.E because I was so sensitive about my weight and was teased by other girls about my weight, I was 14 years old and weighed 10 stone and was a size 14. Healthy and in proportion for my age and height. The mirror told me different. Every time I saw myself in front of the mirror, clothed or not I saw folds upon folds of fat hanging over my clothing. Truly disgusted with the sight of myself, I cried and cried and exercised in secret until my whole body hurt.
At age 16, size 10, I started going to college, those were the years when I really could control my weight. At college we weren't monitored at lunch times like we were at school, I ate very little or nothing at all to try and lose my “excess weight” only drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes with the occasional sandwich here and there. Food haunted my every thought and my whole life was based around when I was next going to eat. When I did eat, I felt disgusting afterwards, like I could feel my stomach expanding and folding over my trousers. Hunger pangs were a sign that I was winning, every time I did exercise, and felt so hungry to the point where I was almost passing out I felt beautiful! It was never ever enough.
