theagingofanorexia

Eating Disorder Recovery - Sydne's Story

When Sydne started telling me about her journey of recovering from her eating disorder she also confided a bit more about her marriage and her childhood. I understood there was some dysfunction in her family but she appeared so very grounded I though for sure she had come to terms with her childhood. Little did I know.

Chapter 3

Ruthan, I want to tell my story and be able to keep telling it as I grow in my recovery. One reason why I knew you would be the one to tell it to was that you would understand about being vulnerable. I also knew I can tell you and keep within my boundaries and you would not push those boundaries.

I have also talked to the two people at the facility  where I was treated for anorexia. They have been there through it all with me and understand where I have been and the direction I am going once I make that final decision I know I need to make. I know I’m confusing you but in time you will understand.

Remember, you were the one who told me no matter what, the decisions I make are mine to make and no one else. People may not agree with them or like them but they are mine to make.

I guess I just want women to know that no matter what, they can recover. I want their families to remember to just support them and really understand we only expect them to support us and to love us."

Sydne

Sydne was on a mission and I never believed for one minute that she was being altruistic. She truly believes her story may help others… and who know… hopefully it will.

In Chapter 4 more about Sydne’s beginnings.

If you have a story about eating disorders that needs to be told, you can email me at:

ruthanb@balanceyourhealth.com.  I would love to hear from other family members who had to hang on - sometimes to little or nothing - while their loved one gradually recovered... or didn't recover.

With warm regards

Ruthan

www.theagingofanorexia.com          www.upsideofaging.com

Anorexia - One Woman's Story: Chapter 2

This is Sydne’s story – actually her journey – of confronting anorexia nervosa and learning to live with her battles.

At lunch this summer, Sydne told me a little more about her childhood.

"I had very bad eating habits when I was a little girl," said Sydne. "I would make a pouch out of one of my cheeks and save my food. I’d squirrel it away, not chew it, and then spit it out. And there weren’t many foods that I would eat in the first place."

" I wasn’t very big. When I was 8 or 9 years old I wore a size 7 clothes. When I was 11 or 12 I was on a swim team and my body was shaped like a pear. I was upset and I started to lose weight when I entered high school. Everyone commented that I looked great so I just kept losing more weight. I think that was the beginning because I still saw myself as someone with a big belly."

A few months before that one-on-one conversation Sydne had e-mailed me this note. This will tell you how I added another chapter to Sydne’s world. Most of the words are a direct quote from Sydne. I’ve changed a few to make sure everyone and everything is anonymous. Sometimes, I’ve also changed the sentence structure and grammar to make sure her thoughts flow well. I know that if I do something wrong, Sydne will let me know and I’ll correct it for you.

April, 2007

Hi Ruthan

Well, I’m home after 8 weeks but not by choice. Our insurance company had decided they didn’t want to continue paying for my treatment at the Clinic because I was not suicidal and none of my organs were failing. Everything else indicated that I needed to be at the Clinic and they gave me enough information so that I could fight the insurance company which I will do. On Monday I start as an out-patient at the Clinic.

The Director of the Clinic, my therapist and many staff members said that if anyone had to leave 10 weeks before she was ready, they were glad it was me. ‘You are very strong and determine to fight and recover and you will. They also told me to use my voice to fight the insurance companies and to make them aware of how long and hard it is to recover from an eating disorder.

I guess I have found my mission. I want the world to know how hard it is to recover and how long it takes and that this is truly a disease. I am just like an alcoholic or drug addict. In fact, the recovery process is longer for an eating disorder person.

Ruthan, I need your help if possible and if you are willing. Because you are a writer can you help me use my voice? I want to tell my story. I want to tell about my awesome experience at the Clinic, talk about the incredible staff, and talk about the many different women I met. I want people to know how I formed many lasting friendships with each person at the Clinic whether they were patients or a staff member.

I would never have changed that experience for anything! I’m so sorry I could not finish my 18 week stay. One could only imagine what I could have learned. But that chapter of my journey is over and a new one will begin. I am so grateful for that and so excited to see what will lie ahead for me now.

I know this may scare you but I think this is one of the reasons I told you in the first place about my struggle with anorexia because I would have a story to tell and you can help tell it.

I hope I don’t scare you too much.

Sydne

My sister died about 8 months after Sydne wrote this e-mail. Isn’t it strange how things work out sometimes. In the next post Sydne reveals a little more about herself.

Regards,

Ruthan

www.theagingofanorexia.com   

www.upsideofaging.com    www.balanceyourhealth.com

Anorexia - One Woman's Story

Many of you know that I’ve been a freelance writer with a niche in health articles for the past 25 years. Some of you also know that I started this blog shortly after my older sister died this past winter. You can read a post I wrote back then that explains this in more detail at This Link. Here's another link for more of my story: Click here.

What you don’t know is that I am friends with a wonderful woman, age 36, who was diagnosed as anorexic a few years ago, enrolled herself in a facility for treating eating disorders for 3-4 months, and is now back among the real world still fighting her battles with the eating disorder and getting help and support.

My friend’s name is Sydne (pronounced Sidney). That’s not her real name, of course, but that’s the name she wanted me to use. None of the people I write about will be addressed by their real name unless I have their permission.

The next 7 or more posts will be Sydne’s story. I have Sydne’s permission to tell her story using her words along with mine. I will probably post them more frequently than my once a week posts so watch for them.

I first met Sydne when she was 15 years old, a teen working at a summer part time job helping a woman’s locker room attendant at a local golf club. I had no recall about our chats except when Sydne telephone me 16 years later as a young woman in her early 30s and reminded me about some of those conversations.

When Sydne called she was living on the West Coast with husband and child and enjoyed a very responsible position as a regional manager of a large retail store chain. When she first called I was incredulous. She told me how much those conversations had meant to her when she was 15 and 16 and that I empowered her to change the direction of her life.

I had no clue – absolutely none – back then or in the present. Reflecting on my reaction to that first call, I found this underlying feeling of being somewhat responsible for this woman. It was like if you save a life, that life is yours!

My feeling wasn’t nearly that strong, but it was there – an obligation if you will.

That was okay because I liked Sydne and enjoyed our conversations.

For the next few years, we chatted on the phone 4 or 5 times a year and when Sydne visited her family in Michigan, we met for lunch.

Three years ago, Sydne told me she was anorexic. We were having lunch. She was dressed in clothes that hid her extreme thinness. She rolled up her sweater sleeve and showed me her skinny arm. She almost knew where she was with this disease and almost knew where she wanted to go, enough so that she knew she needed help.

She asked me if I were surprised at her announcement. Frankly, I don’t remember how I responded. All I knew was that whatever I said must be supportive because if this young woman had the guts to confront her disease, I would be there for her.

More history about Sydne in the next post.

Fond regards,

Ruthan

I welcome you comments and stories.

Anorexia and Athletes

The topic of anorexia and athletes came to mind yesterday as I was leaving an indoor tennis facility and saw this extremely thin woman walking ahead of me. I’m guessing she was in her late 40’s, maybe mid 50s.

I read an article about a month ago which announced the publication of a new book written by a one time athlete who revealed how she masked her secret of having an eating disorder while training and competing in track events for Great Britain.

She describes how she first began cutting out certain foods that were high calorie to get into good shape for running. She then progressed to eliminating carbohydrates and fats from her diet then cutting out everything that wasn’t certain vegetables, salads or fruits. At the same time she increased her exercise regime.

She spent 2 years as an inpatient in a hospital eating disorder unit.

She explains that other athletes and coaches not only didn’t consider her eating behavior abnormal, they frequently encouraged her to continue her eating style. The reasoning behind this is that a relatively low body weight is beneficial for elite athletes to perform their best. When athletes lose weight the oxygen goes directly to their muscles instead of fueling the surplus fatty tissue.

Allie Outram, author and one time world class cross country champion, claims that most of the other young women on her team also had eating disorders so no one noticed her and her team mates were supporting. She also reports that coaches don’t know much about eating disorders and often encourage team members to lose weight for optimal performance and exercise more.

The book is titled: Running on Empty by Allie Outram. I haven’t read it yet but the reviews were fairly decent. You can order it through Amazon. There’s a link to Amazon on the left side of this page.

I’d be interested in your review of the book. You can e-mail it to ruthanb@balanceyourhealth.com

To a successful and healthy lifestyle,

Ruthan

Anorexia Myths - 4 More Fallacies and Mistaken Beliefs

Anorexia is a condition that describes the behavior of someone who refuses to eat. It is a disease marked by the pathological fear of weight gain which leads to rapid or extreme weight loss. Victims with anorexia restrict or limit their food intake, as well as their behaviors in daily life that good beyond food and eating. For some, it implies an effort to resolve emotional problems through the misuse of food.

In my two posts for this blog I listed and described the first 10 myths, misconceptions and fallacies that we place on anorexia. Click here for the latest post on myths of anorexia.  Click here for the first post on myths about anorexia.Here are 3 more myths that I want to share with you.

11. A "natural" diet pill is a "safe" pill.

Too often we equate the word natural with healthy or safe. Advertisers use that word frequently and often misleadingly when it’s for a food product or supplement or cosmetic product. The truth is often distorted in these ads. Knowing that the primary predictor of an eating disorder is dieting, then the very act of dieting should be avoided. As for diet pills, I believe they can be very risky even for healthy people and everyone should avoid them. My advice: have a cup of coffee with a couple shots of espresso if you need a super charge. Of course, this advice doesn’t hold true for people with heart and circulation problems.

12. Exercise is good – and you can’t overdo a good thing.

Yes you can! You can overdo anything even a good thing! It is not uncommon for an anorexic to purge calories by exercising for long periods of time and even multiple times throughout the day. Excessive exercise can lead to stress fractures, chronic pain, curvature of the spine, osteoporosis, loss of menstrual cycle and even sudden death.

13. People with anorexia (and other eating disorders) are vain.

Victims of the disease may end up looking like those too thin supermodels, but believing that they look good is far from the truth. Anorexics are often disgusted at their bodies and hide their bodies under lose, over-sized clothes.

14. Anorexics are always very thin.

It’s not unusual to here someone who’s at normal weight say, "I’m not thin enough. How could I have an eating disorder?" A lot of overweight people and average people could be anorexic. You don’t have to be skeletal. Weight goes up and down and the eating disorder waxes and wanes in its severity. It’s the eating patterns and attitudes themselves that cause the most danger.

It’s important to keep in mind that an eating disorder usually exists with other things and isn’t just about weight. It’s about self-esteem and developing coping skills. The eating disorder is a way a patient has chosen to deal with those emotional issues. Anorexia is frequently accompanied by anxiety disorders, self-esteem issues, depression or substance abuse.

My challenge to you is to relate additional myths about anorexia. Share them myself and our readers.

Ruthan

Ruthan Brodsky provides content marketing and information products for health care professionals and entrepreneurs who want to expand their service and business.

www.theagingofanorexia.com www.theupsideofaging.com

www.balanceyourhealth.com