Anorexia
Anorexia is driven by some of the same internal conflicts and turmoil that bulimics have. I put them into the same psychotherapy group I did daily at the in-patient hospitals, even though many on the staff told me that the bulimics would scare the anorectics with their focus on food. I found it extremely beneficial to place them together. Both bulimics and anorectics are absolutely consumed with thoughts about food. I am treating an anorectic currently who said to me this week: I know my friend has an eating disorder too, she is completely obsessed with food, she can talk about nothing else but that. I need to get away from her now that I am in treatment. These two disorders have a love-hate relationship with food. It is an intense one.
One may surmise that anorectics hate food and don’t want to go near it. That is not true. Anorectics think about it, want it, and work hard at figuring out a myriad of ways to stay away from it. Think about the analogy of a relationship. If a person has broken up with someone they love very much, they still think about them all day long, every day and everything reminds them of that person. Same thing goes on with the anorectic. She looks at food, longs for food, wonders how little she can eat and still stay as thin as she wants.
One important sign to look for in anorectics is that they lose a lot of weight in a short time. They deny that they are thin and they are not yet thin enough, according to them. No one can convince them that they are too thin, they do not “see” that and only want to become thinner, when they are in the midst of the disorder. Another sign to take note of is that they wear loose clothes so no one really knows how thin they are. They are extremely distorted in the views they have of their body. When I worked at the teaching hospital as well as the hospital program I developed and then directed, I would have anorectics draw how they saw their bodies and then have them lie down on another sheet of paper, outlining their bodies for them. They refused to see the difference, they continued to insist that the picture they drew was the accurate one.
Anorectics exercise excessively. They will push themselves to a dangerous edge with the exercising. They never think they have exercised enough given the food they have consumed in a day - which may only be a piece of lettuce and a carrot.
Anorectics, in truth, are a bit easier to spot because of the signs that are difficult to hide. Additional ones include that they don’t eat with you, they say they are never hungry and they always seem to find some place they need to be or go around meal time.
When you begin to see that someone (or yourself) is lessening their input of food and then the next day eating even less and so it goes throughout a few weeks, it is time to take action.
Even when I have had patients I have placed in a medical hospital because they were dangerously thin (58 pounds, 20 year old), I would walk in and ask how they were feeling that day and they would respond: I feel fat. Anorectics, even more than bulimics, although true for both, do not know how to verbalize feelings, they usually use that phrase for any feeling they have.
If you have or anyone you know has any of these signs (or others that you notice), first get them to a physician for a physical to be sure their blood count is within normal limits, then place them with a professional. Don’t start with a nutritionist because then it becomes a power struggle around food when food is never, and I mean never, the real issue. Eating disorders are a symptom of deeper, significant, unhealed wounds that must be addressed if the person is to move beyond this painful and yet pervasive situation in their lives.
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One may surmise that anorectics hate food and don’t want to go near it. That is not true. Anorectics think about it, want it, and work hard at figuring out a myriad of ways to stay away from it. Think about the analogy of a relationship. If a person has broken up with someone they love very much, they still think about them all day long, every day and everything reminds them of that person. Same thing goes on with the anorectic. She looks at food, longs for food, wonders how little she can eat and still stay as thin as she wants.
One important sign to look for in anorectics is that they lose a lot of weight in a short time. They deny that they are thin and they are not yet thin enough, according to them. No one can convince them that they are too thin, they do not “see” that and only want to become thinner, when they are in the midst of the disorder. Another sign to take note of is that they wear loose clothes so no one really knows how thin they are. They are extremely distorted in the views they have of their body. When I worked at the teaching hospital as well as the hospital program I developed and then directed, I would have anorectics draw how they saw their bodies and then have them lie down on another sheet of paper, outlining their bodies for them. They refused to see the difference, they continued to insist that the picture they drew was the accurate one.
Anorectics exercise excessively. They will push themselves to a dangerous edge with the exercising. They never think they have exercised enough given the food they have consumed in a day - which may only be a piece of lettuce and a carrot.
Anorectics, in truth, are a bit easier to spot because of the signs that are difficult to hide. Additional ones include that they don’t eat with you, they say they are never hungry and they always seem to find some place they need to be or go around meal time.
When you begin to see that someone (or yourself) is lessening their input of food and then the next day eating even less and so it goes throughout a few weeks, it is time to take action.
Even when I have had patients I have placed in a medical hospital because they were dangerously thin (58 pounds, 20 year old), I would walk in and ask how they were feeling that day and they would respond: I feel fat. Anorectics, even more than bulimics, although true for both, do not know how to verbalize feelings, they usually use that phrase for any feeling they have.
If you have or anyone you know has any of these signs (or others that you notice), first get them to a physician for a physical to be sure their blood count is within normal limits, then place them with a professional. Don’t start with a nutritionist because then it becomes a power struggle around food when food is never, and I mean never, the real issue. Eating disorders are a symptom of deeper, significant, unhealed wounds that must be addressed if the person is to move beyond this painful and yet pervasive situation in their lives.
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