Eating disorders

[lorihart]

I had to share this story, its so sad.
DH plays hockey with this guy (a police officer, who is newly married).And he thought it would be a good idea for us to do the couple thing sometime. I only knew him to see him and I didn't know her at all. I finally meant them when we were out for dinner one evening but she was sort of sloutched over behind the table. From what I could see, she appeared to be tall and slim.We never did get together b/c this guy is super busy with work.
Over the last month I have heard that she has a eating disorder.She is 5'8 and weighed 84 lbs. She was now on 24 hour watch and her parents were staying with her.
As of Fri, she has been admitted to the hospital. She is now 79 lbs and things don't look to good.
Its so sad b/c it is such a bad illness. They are such a young couple(like ourselves) just starting out and she may not live to see her next b-day if she doesn't get the help she needs.
Then I went to the grocery store yesterday and I saw another lady that I haven't seen in a while.She didn't notice me and I really didn't have time for a conversation anyway. When she turned around and started walking away from me, I looked at her. She had her shorts on and her two legs were sickly, and so were her arms. Diffently another eating disorder.
Its just so sad.I don't fully understand it b/c I have never had to deal with this problem. But it must be a terrible thing to go through and to overcome, if you make it that far.
Lori

 

[Dorothy]

A 12 year girl on my daughter's swim team started losing weight. At first it was ok, because she was a teeny bit plump. Then the team took a break, and she was not seen for about a month. She came back and everyone was shocked. She was thin and frail and looked so bad, eyes sunken in, and her swimming performance was really bad. Her parents have been getting her help, and I heard in late July she was starting to look better. She is a perfectionist, with a very overbearing perfectionist Dad. I hope she can conquer this now.

 

[singinggoddess]

Lori, that is so horrible. It is such a waste of life to live like that. I remember when my favorite singer when I was a little girl(Karen Carpenter) from the group the Carpenters, died of heart failure due to the stress on her heart from having anerexia for most of her adult life. I just never stopped thinking about her and what she was thinking and how horrible for her to live like that. I just fear for so many young girls that have this horrible disease or have food issues. I have three little girls and I just pray that I can raise them to love their bodies and not hate them. They now have web-sites that talk about how cool it is to be anna, that is the slang term or cool term for anerexics. Isn't that sick. I don't fully understand it either. She is definitely in my thoughts and prayers.

Susan

 

[lisaannjam]

Lori...so very sorry to hear that. It is such a waste of the beautiful life full of possibilities ahead of her. I know it's such a difficult thing to overcome. By the way...I'm praying for you and DH and hope things are getting a little easier for you!!!

 

[lorihart]

Thanks so much! Sometimes I can't beleive that people around here remember what I posted monthes ago. But I remember everything (pretty much) so why shouldn't someone else.
Things are o.k. There hasn't been much work thrown his way this summer but he was still getting paid from his last job anyway. I am hoping that when everyone gets settled back to work after their summer holidays, they may start looking through the resumes sitting on their desk. Other then that he is upbeat and much happier.He is not as tired as he had been for monthes.
Thanks again,
Lori

 

[Kit_]

Lori,

I am so sorry to hear about this about your friend's wife. I'll keep both of them in my thoughts and send good vibes. I deal with eating disorders patients a lot, and it really is hard to get over the illness. Here is a little bit of an outsider’s inside view; I guess you’d call it. I had one woman who bonded with me, and then started to refuse to eat unless I said it was ok, so the nurses would call me every time they brought her in something to eat, and I had to assure her, that after eating it, she wouldn't look like she weighed 500 pounds. Luckily after some work she was able to eat without my permission, but it took 3 months in the mean time. Luckily I figured out a plan and would get the menus from the kitchen as to what they would have available that week, and then I'd just would copy it down wit and tell her I wanted her to eat everything on my list. Generally we set a calorie limit so they don’t go into shock and then let them order what they’d like, or just give them whatever is planned for physically ill patients.

But I think eating disorders is one illness that makes people as stubborn as anyone could ever be. I still work at the hospital part time, due to the strange way they hired me in to work with the sports teams, I was too certified and too many degrees to work with the sports teams, but that’s where I wanted and was needed, so the hospital hired me part time which allowed the sports teams to hire me, full time. Generally I'm in the eating disorder ward, or running the computer animations and showing people how they hurt themselves, or showing doctor if they put the piece of metal in someone how and what it would affect the person body and muscles. But I found another use for computer skills with eating disorders, is to print a picture of the person, and then doing some graphic work and make them look slim but at a normal weight, something that they should be looking like. And then making them compare the two and understand that they don't look like the slim picture but the one that is a body of all bones. As in their minds a lot of times if you hear them talk you'd think they'd weigh 300 pounds not 80. And they'll go on for hours about not being able to eat one carrot stick as it will make them so fat, and they already weigh soo much, and they just don't want to weigh any more. And these are women who are much taller and weigh much less then I do. And the funny thing is, they’ll all tell me how tiny I am, and would love to be as skinny as I am. This disease screw up your ability to look in the mirror and see your body as it is. They can't tell that they aren't fat, it takes a lot of work to get them to that step, and when you do. The battle has just begun, as now you got to battle that fear of getting fat, if they eat something, as now they realize they are skinny, but that fear of weigh 300 pounds if they eat that food or allow that food to stay in there body, is the toughest to fight. And it can really be frustrating, for anyone who is around them and trying to help, as well as the person with the disorder. As how do you convince someone who sees a carrot stick as fattening that it’s not, and they need to eat it. There thoughts are really irrational and they truly believe it, and it’s hard to fight irrational with logic at times as belief is just so powerful.

Kit

 

[Imafitnessfreak]

I am sorry to hear of all your stories! That is so sad! It sounds like the little girl on the swim team is striving for some type of "control" since her dad is the way he is. We can always "control" our body and weight...right? That is too bad!

Kit, That has to be an incredibly difficult part of your job. I am sure you get close to some of these ladies and want so much to help them when this disease is so hard to overcome...and to watch them waste away when you want so badly to help them! Has to be hard!

 

[lorihart]

It is very sad, isn't it? Any disorder is really.We should be so lucky to make it through this life without dealing with any of the problems that can happen to us. I just hope she gets the help she needs. I am not so sure that the hospital here is equipt to deal with her problem.
I to have a daugther and I try to portray an image of healthy living. Although one of the reasons I exercise is to keep my weight in check but she doesn't need to know that. I just tell her I exercise to be healthy.
Lori

 

[Dorothy]

>I am sorry to hear of all your stories! That is so sad! It
>sounds like the little girl on the swim team is striving for
>some type of "control" since her dad is the way he is. We can
>always "control" our body and weight...right? That is too
>bad!
>
>Kit, That has to be an incredibly difficult part of your job.
>I am sure you get close to some of these ladies and want so
>much to help them when this disease is so hard to
>overcome...and to watch them waste away when you want so badly
>to help them! Has to be hard!


The affect on some of her friends was sad. One friend talked to her parents about what she could do to help. She could not understand why her friend was doing this to herself. I hope when I see the girl in the fall, she will be much better.