Life after an eating disorder

By Anna Moore
Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk

 

Can anorexics, bulimics and binge-eaters ever fully recover, or are they doomed always to obsess about what's on their plates?

Hope McKay can vividly recall the lowest point of her life with an eating disorder, though she tries not to picture it too often.

'I was sitting in Asda car park, having just eaten as much cheap food as I could get in the basket – doughnuts, biscuits, packets of ham, milkshakes – and I was planning what to do next to kill the time. I remembered a restaurant down the road – and went down there for lunch.'
...Continue reading here.
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If you have been in recovery from an eating disorder, what are some of the fears and challenges you may have faced throughout your journey?  What encourages you to continue to pursue recovery?

Israel Association for Eating Disorders

February 4-5, 2013: Israel Association for Eating Disorders to present - Treatment Modalities for Eating Disorders: Consensus and Controversy. Jerusalem, Israel. . International Conference to be To be held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Jerusalem. Abstract submission deadline is August 31, 2012. For further information, contact Rachel Bachner-Melman at msrbach@mscc.huji.ac.il.

Epidemic of eating disorders put on menu of British Govt inquiry

By Matt Chorley
Source: http://www.nzherald.co.nz



Diet firms are exploiting young people's insecurity to sell quick-fix weight-loss plans that do not work, it was claimed yesterday.

Half of girls and a third of boys, with an average age of 14, have dieted to change their body shape. More than one in 10 would take pills to alter their appearance, according to Central YMCA research.

An influential all-party group of MPs will begin a landmark inquiry this week into body image in Britain, including the problems of anorexia, obesity and self-harm.

They will grill diet companies, psychologists, advertisers and ministers on how to tackle the problem.
Jo Swinson, the Lib Dem MP who will chair the inquiry, claimed conflicting messages prompt people to resort to extreme methods in often misguided attempts to match computer-enhanced images. Experts blame a society fixated on appearance, with airbrushing, celebrities and the fashion industry all in the line of fire.

Swinson said: "In the past 15 years, eating disorders have more than doubled.

There is a view that we should tell people they should be really thin because we are getting an obesity problem. But starving ourselves is not a healthy way to lose weight."
...Continue reading here.
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In your opinion, what role does the diet industry play in the development of eating disorders?  How can the epidemic of eating disorders be best addressed?

Managing stress during the holidays

Stress and depression can ruin your holidays and hurt your health. Being realistic, planning ahead and seeking support can help ward off stress and depression. 

 By Mayo Clinic staff

Source: http://www.mayoclinic.com

The holiday season often brings unwelcome guests — stress and depression. And it's no wonder. The holidays present a dizzying array of demands — parties, shopping, baking, cleaning and entertaining, to name just a few.
But with some practical tips, you can minimize the stress that accompanies the holidays. You may even end up enjoying the holidays more than you thought you would.

Tips to prevent holiday stress and depression

When stress is at its peak, it's hard to stop and regroup. Try to prevent stress and depression in the first place, especially if the holidays have taken an emotional toll on you in the past.

1. Acknowledge your feelings. If someone close to you has recently died or you can't be with loved ones, realize that it's normal to feel sadness and grief. It's OK to take time to cry or express your feelings. You can't force yourself to be happy just because it's the holiday season.
2. Reach out. If you feel lonely or isolated, seek out community, religious or other social events. They can offer support and companionship. Volunteering your time to help others also is a good way to lift your spirits and broaden your friendships.
3. Be realistic. The holidays don't have to be perfect or just like last year. As families change and grow, traditions and rituals often change as well. Choose a few to hold on to, and be open to creating new ones. For example, if your adult children can't come to your house, find new ways to celebrate together, such as sharing pictures, emails or videos.
4. Set aside differences. Try to accept family members and friends as they are, even if they don't live up to all of your expectations. Set aside grievances until a more appropriate time for discussion. And be understanding if others get upset or distressed when something goes awry. Chances are they're feeling the effects of holiday stress and depression, too.
5. Stick to a budget. Before you go gift and food shopping, decide how much money you can afford to spend. Then stick to your budget. Don't try to buy happiness with an avalanche of gifts. Try these alternatives: Donate to a charity in someone's name, give homemade gifts or start a family gift exchange.

...Continue reading tips here.
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The holidays can bring an enormous amount of stress and anxiety to someone who is struggling with a mental health issue.  What are your suggestions or tips for managing stress during the holiday season?

Diet Firms Come Under Fire as Youngsters Battle with Eating Disorders

Source: http://www.youngacademic.co.uk

This week came reports of yet more complaints against the model industry.  With the rise in eating disorders and the worry of poor body image amongst youngsters, MPs are investigating diet firms and cosmetic surgeons for their part.  Young Academic reports on what looks like the youth mirroring the image and style of models and celebrities.

There has been much controversy over the corruption of the modelling world in recent years with certain initiatives such All Walks Beyond the Catwalk looking for diversity in the industry.  The latest companies to come under fire are those in the slimming pills and diet industry who supply the general public with aids to slim down.

Boots, Weightwatchers and Transform Cosmetic Surgery are amongst the companies to be questioned and each has agreed to give evidence in the inquiry.

This week the all-party parliamentary group launched the investigation in an attempt to find solutions to the growing culture of body conscious teens.  It has come to light that the number of children admitted to hospital for anorexia and bulimia has in fact doubled and research has recently shown that a shockingly high figure of one in eight girls are actually taking laxatives to lose weight.

Chairwoman of the committee, Jo Swinson has commented saying “we know there’s a problem, with young people feeling under enormous pressure about the way they look. We need to take a step back and find out who or what is responsible, and what positive and practical steps can be taken to promote better body confidence for all.”

With the diet firms and cosmetic surgeons being investigated, attention has also turned to the model industry and the affect that skinny models is having on young peoples’ body image.

Skinny silhouettes reign in the world of modelling and as a result the general public is bombarded with images of the female body but there is little diversity.  The bodies of models walking down the runway are ridiculously skinny with fragile frames.  Could it be that the unattainable body forms which are paraded down the catwalks, featuring in all the magazines and taking over the world of celebrities are in fact the reason for this rising culture of anorexia and bulimia in youngsters?
...Continue reading here.
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What are your thoughts on the media's effect on body image? Would regulation of the model industry be effective in the promotion of healthier body image?

Gut Check

Ted Merwin

Special To The Jewish Week 

Source: http://www.thejewishweek.com

 

The stomach, scientists say, is a “second brain,” a nervous system where learning, memory and emotion all take place. Liat Ron’s loosely autobiographical one-woman play, “Guts,” is the tale of a self-described “Israeli-American superwoman” named Hellthy who finds the intestinal fortitude to overcome an eating disorder, relationship problems and an excessive need for parental nurturance. An unusual mix of belly dance, multimedia and comedic narrative, “Guts” is currently running in the East Village in a production directed by Shoshona Currier.

One-woman shows about eating disorders have proliferated in recent years, including Amy Fortoul’s “This IS my BODY” and Cathy Plourde’s “The Thin Line.” But “Guts” may be the first play to take a Jewish perspective on eating disorders, even as many segments of the Jewish community, including the Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox, have seen a precipitous rise in these diseases. As psychologist Judith Ruskay Rabinor has written, the centrality of food in Jewish tradition often leads to emotional issues being interlaced with both dieting and overeating.

Ron, who was born in Israel to an Iraqi-Jewish mother and Russian-Jewish father, moved to New York at the age of 16. After studying theater at the Circle in the Square Theatre School, she starred in a number of downtown productions, including Israeli playwright Nissim Aloni’s “The Bride and the Butterfly Hunter” and Paolo Tartamella’s “The Busboy,” which was staged in an Italian restaurant. But after a wrenching break-up in 2007, she decided to move back to her parents’ house in Tel Aviv. Nine months later, she found herself attracted once again to New York, and she has lived here ever since.
...Continue reading here.
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What are your thoughts about the idea that the importance of food in Jewish tradition leading to emotional issues that may be related to eating disorder behaviors?

It starts with calling names, but can end in despair and suicide

Study says nine in 10 children have either been bullied or witnessed others being abused in school

Jonathan Owen, Anna Rabin  Source: http://www.independent.co.uk

 

Hundreds of thousands of schoolchildren face psychological trauma from bullying, according to new research released tomorrow. What begins as relatively harmless name-calling can escalate to physical abuse and drive people to eating disorders and even suicide, campaigners warn.

The research, released to mark the start of Anti-Bullying Week, reveals that nine out of 10 children aged 11 to 16 have been verbally bullied or witnessed it happening to others in the past year. The vast majority (79 per cent) of victims report it taking place at school. One in eight of the young adults surveyed considered missing school to avoid being verbally abused. Missing school is no longer an escape for some victims who report that verbal abuse follows them into their homes through cyber-bullying.

Just over a quarter (26 per cent) of the 875 young people aged 11 to 16 surveyed in England for the Anti-Bullying Alliance, part of the charity the National Children's Bureau, reported direct verbal abuse; two-thirds (66 per cent) report seeing others bullied.
...Continue reading here.
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How can bullying play a part in the development of eating disorders?  What are symptoms in children that parents should be aware of?

Norway considers a warning label for super skinny models

By Maura Judkis
Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com

Skinny models that promote an unrealistic standard of beauty could soon come with warning labels in Norway if the country adopts a new action plan to curb eating disorders by discouraging deceptive advertising.
 
Could Vogue come with warning labels? (Mario Testino - AP)

Audun Lysbakken, the country’s equality minister, has proposed labeling photos of digitally-altered images of thin models with a warning that says, “This advertisement has been altered and presents an inaccurate image of how this model really looks.” England and France have also proposed measures to curtail unrealistic images of bodies, but no such measure has been considered in the U.S. yet.

Photoshopped images of models are often blamed for the prevalence of eating disorders around the world. Sometimes, the retouching is subtle — as in a 2007 image of Faith Hill for Redbook in which the singer’s arms were slimmed, crow’s feet removed, and clavicle smoothed — or sometimes it’s more overt, as in the famous Ralph Lauren Photoshop blunder that made a model’s head bigger than her waist.

Women’s blogs such as Jezebel have worked to unveil the pre-touch-up photos of models so their readers can see for themselves exactly how altered the average photo shoot can be. The Photoshopped images affect men too, giving them unrealistic expectations of how women should look.
...Continue reading here.
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What do you think about the possibility of labeling photos of digitally-altered images with a warning?  How could this effect the way that women and men view themselves and their bodies?

Warning on childhood anorexia

Sarah Dingle reported this story on Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Source: http://www.abc.net.au

TONY EASTLEY: It's fair to say I think that Australians have never before been so informed, lectured or badgered about their weight.

One latest diet is replaced almost immediately by another and specific television shows make it their mission to have people lose weight.

But could it be that those sort of television programmes are creating a counter-epidemic of underweight children?

That's a concern raised by a leading Sydney specialist, who says children as young as eight are being hospitalised with Anorexia Nervosa.

The number of children admitted for eating disorders has trebled over the last decade.

Westmead Hospital's Dr Sloane Madden told Sarah Dingle parents need to be careful not to over-hype the dangers of childhood obesity.

SLOANE MADDEN: The children we're admitting, they're almost exclusively anorexia nervosa. So these are children who've lost large amounts of weight, often very quickly. And the children who we're having to admit are those with really life threatening complications of their malnutrition.

These children are potentially at risk of dying, so when they come to us they've got very low heart rates, they're unable to maintain a normal blood pressure or temperature - so really struggling just to manage basic vital functions.

We've seen children in general anywhere between about eight to 15, with the average age of our admissions being between 12 and 13 years of age.
...Continue reading here.
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What are warning signs to be aware of in children that may suggest they are struggling with an eating disorder?

Leanne Waters: How love saved me from bulimia

By Ciara Dwyer
Monday Nov 7 2011 
Source: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk

The first thing that strikes you about Leanne Waters is her vibrancy. It's in her beautiful brown eyes, her warm smile, her mane of brown hair, her glowing skin and in her laughter too.
She appears as a woman who is happy in her own skin. And she is, now. But it wasn't always so.
Time was when she was very troubled and it showed. There were dark shadows beneath her eyes, her skin was flaky and her hair used to fall out in clumps. These were the results of her self-destructive behaviour.

For many years Leanne's life was blighted by bulimia, the eating disorder where a person binge eats and then forces themselves to vomit the food back up. She has written a memoir about her time as a bulimic -- My Secret Life.

Finally she is out the other side. When I met her on a wet, blustery afternoon in her home town of Bray, Co Wicklow, she was like sunshine on a rainy day. As I listened to her tale, it struck me that the 21-year-old sounded so calm and strong. She has examined her life, in therapy sessions and in solitude, and now she is the healthy end result of all that self-analysis. It's been a long journey to get to where she is today, with much misery and tears along the way. There was a time when the illness took over and she became a different person, one she didn't like.

Deception goes hand in hand with an eating disorder and Leanne became so secretive and furtive that she pushed her family and close friends away. But their love and concern for her was so strong that they insisted she confront her problem and get help.
...Continue reading here.
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If you are in recovery from an eating disorder, what might you be able to share from your journey that may be an encouragement to others who are currently struggling?