About Eating Disorders: NEDAwareness 2014

NEDAwareness Week 2014 is officially underway! What is NEDAwareness Week? Go here, and here to find out more ;) 

As the week gets into high gear, I feel it's important to put up a basic info post.           

Here's some general info from the National EatingDisorder Association for NEDAwareness Week: 

ABOUT EATING DISORDERS

What is an Eating Disorder?

Eating disorders – such as anorexia, bulimia, and binge eating disorder can include extreme emotions, attitudes, and behaviors surrounding weight and food issues. According to the American Psychiatric Association’s Fifth Edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), these are the basic characteristics of some of the most common types of eating disorder:

Anorexia Nervosa:

• Restricting food intake to below the requirements for a particular individuals physical requirements
• Intense fear of weight gain and obsession with weight and continual behaviors to prevent weight gain
• Inability to recognize true body shape or recognize the seriousness of condition
• May or may not use binge eating and/or purging behaviors

Bulimia Nervosa:

• Eating an unusually large amount of food at one time followed by compensatory behaviors (such as vomiting, taking laxatives and/or excessive exercise) to prevent weight gain
• A feeling of being out of control during the binge-eating occurrence
• Self-judgment largely based on weight and shape 
• 

Binge Eating Disorder:

• Recurrent situations of eating an unusually large amount of food at one time
• A feeling of being out of control during the behavior
• May have feelings of shame or guilt towards eating which can lead to eating alone
• May eat until the individual is beyond full to the point of discomfort
• 

Note: There are several other types of feeding or eating disorders outlined in the DSM-5. Many people may not have every symptom of a disorder, but may still receive a feeding or eating disorder diagnosis. If you or your loved one is experiencing significant discomfort surrounding food that interrupts basic functions but does not meet the above criteria, you should still seek professional help.

***I will be addressing those later in the week*** 

Is it an Eating Disorder?

A popular misconception about eating disorders is that if someone has one, it will be obvious by their low weight and starvation habits. However, those suffering from eating disorders can be of any weight and are often adept at hiding their illness. To help with early detection, here is a brief list of eating disorder signs, symptoms and behaviors to keep an eye out for as they may be indicative of a bigger problem:

• Makes frequent comments about feeling “fat” or overweight
• In general, behaviors and attitudes indicate that weight loss, dieting and control of food are becoming primary concerns
• Evidence of binge eating, including disappearance of large amounts of food in short periods of time or lots of wrappers and containers indicating consumption or large amounts of food
• Evidence of purging behavior, including frequent trips to the bathroom after meals, signs and/or smells of vomiting, presence of wrappers or packages of laxatives or diuretics
• Develops food rituals (e.g. eats only a particular food or food group, excessive chewing, doesn’t allow foods to touch, etc.)
• Skips meals or takes small portions of food at regular meals
• Hides body with baggy clothes
• Maintains excessive, rigid exercise regimen—despite weather, fatigue, illness or injury—because of the need to “burn off” calories
• Drinks excessive amounts of water and/or uses excessive amounts of mouthwash, mints and gum

How Can I Help?

When initiating a conversation with someone who may have an eating disorder, it is important to remain supportive, non-judgmental and let them know that they are not alone. Here are some recommended Dos and Don’ts of talking to someone about their eating disorder:

Do:

• Learn the difference between facts and myths about weight, nutrition and exercise

• Ask what you can do to help
• Listen openly and reflectively; be patient and non-judgmental
• Talk with the person in a kind way, when you are not angry, frustrated or upset 
• Explain the reasons for our concerns, without mentioning specific eating behavior
• Ask if he/she is willing to explore these concerns with a healthcare professional who understands eating disorders
• Remind your loved one that many people have successfully recovered from an eating disorder

Don’t:

• Invade privacy and contact the patient’s doctors, friends or others to check up behind his/her back
• Demand weight changes (even is clinically necessary for health)
• Insist the person eat every type of food at the table
• Make eating, food, clothes or appearance the focus of conversation
• Offer more help than you are qualified to give

CALL THE HELPLINE NOW

Call NEDA's toll-free, confidential Helpline, Monday-Thursday from 9:00 am - 9:00 pm and Friday from 9:00 am - 5:00 pm (EST)

1-800-931-2237

Kicking Off NEDAwareness Week 2014

So there's this really awesome thing is going on this week hosted by an incredible organization. It's called NEDAwareness Week by National Eating Disorder Assoctaion (NEDA). Aside from being an incredible force for raising awareness, NEDA also has a helpline, screening tools, and information not only for those sufferering and those in recovery, but also parents, siblings, peers, coaches, and teachers. I participate in NEDAwareness Week last year and loved it! I met some incredible people, made lifelong friends, and gained awesome resources to pass along. 

This year's theme is "Get In The Know"

 Get In The Know(from NEDA's site)

Our Theme: "I Had No Idea"

This year's NEDAwareness Week theme is "I Had No Idea" to raise awareness towards the significant impact eating disorders have on individuals, families, and communities across the nation. The more people who learn about these life-threatening illnesses, the more lives we can save. Last year, 100% of U.S. states hosted NEDAwareness Week events and activities. Additionally, 51 international countries participated in raising awareness. This year we strive to surpass these numbers, and have everyone get in the know and do just one thing to raise awareness!

Our Mission

The aim of NEDAwareness Week is to ultimately increase outreach and awareness of eating disorders and body image issues, while reducing the stigma surrounding eating disorders and improving access to treatment resources. Eating disorders are serious, life-threatening illnesses - not choices - and it's important to recognize the pressures, attitudes and behaviors that shape the disorder.

What is NEDAwareness Week?

NEDAwareness Week is a collective effort of volunteers, including eating disorder professionals, health care providers, students, educators, social workers, organizations and individuals committed to raising awareness of eating disorders.  The impact of increased outreach efforts leads to a greater chance of people seeking out resources and help for an eating disorder, which ultimately saves lives.

What are the Key Messages of NEDAwareness Week?

This year the National Eating Disorders Association is stressing the need to address eating disorder misconceptions - as many individuals, families, and communities are not aware of the often devastating mental and physical consequences - and highlights available resources for treatment and support. We urge you to talk about the pressures, attitudes and behaviors that shape these disorders with your family, friends, colleagues and community by doing just one thing during NEDAwareness Week. Learn more about the key messages for 2014 NEDAwareness Week and share with others so they can get in the know!

How NEDAwareness Week Works

NEDA asks everyone to do just one thing to help raise awareness and provide accurate information about eating disorders. NEDAwareness Week participants can choose from a huge range of ways to get involved: Distribute info pamphlets and put up posters, register as a Volunteer Speaker or host a Volunteer Speaker, post information on Facebook, or plan interactive and educational events like a community meeting, panel discussion, Barbie event, movie screening, art exhibit and more.

As a NEDAwareness Week participant you can be involved in any way that works with your schedule, resources, community, and interests.  These events and activities are vital to attracting public media attention - on local, national and international levels. 

Eating disorders are serious, potentially life-threatening conditions that affect both a person’s emotional and physical health. In the United States alone, 30 million people will be impacted by an eating disorder at some point in their lifetime. These conditions affect all kinds of people and don’t discriminate by race, age, sex, age or size.

If you or someone you care about might be suffering from an eating disorder, it is important to educate yourself and seek professional guidance as soon as possible because early intervention is key to successful recovery.

This page will provide a basic information about eating disorders, outlines how to spot a problem early and offers suggestions on how to talk to someone who is struggling.

Still have questions? Check out their FAQ section 

***This week I will be posting on here, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest for NEDAwareness Week. I invite and encourage everyone to share this information. Widely! Check out NEDA's site. Take the screening test - it's 100% anonymous, free, quick, and completely online. Don't be afraid to call the help line.

CALL THE HELPLINE NOW

Call NEDA's toll-free, confidential Helpline, Monday-Thursday from 9:00 am - 9:00 pm 

and Friday from 9:00 am - 5:00 pm (EST)

1-800-931-2237

DSM-5 Finally Fixes Anorexia Criteria!

This is long over due! The criteria for diagnosing anorexia has finally been broadened to include any weight - instead of the precious under weight "symptom". This help clear up the misconception that anorexia is a weight disease instead of purely a psychological one. With Weight Stigma Awareness Week in full swing I'd say this is a great time for the news! 

More than 55% of teen girls and more than 30% of teen boys report some kind of “disordered eating”. This means they exhibit symptoms like purging by way of self-induced vomiting, laxative and/or diuretic abuse, excessive exercising, restricting food consumption, binging, using diet pills, and even diabetics using insulin to regulate and manipulate their weight. 

“Before, patients were very sick before meeting criteria, and the evidence is pretty clear that if you interfere in anorexia before there’s been significant weight loss, the outcomes are much better and the illness is easier to treat in an outpatient setting,” says Kimberli McCallum, founder and medical director of eating disorder clinic McCallum Place in Saint Louis, in an article by Tara Haelle with Scientific America[1]. 

Before, many people fell into the EDNOS category[2]. EDNOS is the diagnosis given to any person exhibiting disordered eating but didn't fit exclusively into either the anorexia or bulimia category. 

So what was the problem with EDNOS? Usually the EDNOS diagnosis was not taken seriously by insurers, family members, or even physicians. This tremendously complicates treatment for an extremely deadly disorder. In fact, it's the most deadly eating disorder. 

Aside from the change to the DSM-5 criteria regarding a weight requirement are other changes. Instead of the previous psychological markers of “intense fear of gaining weight or becoming fat,” it now reads “or persistent behavior that interferes with weight gain, even though at a significantly low weight.” And the criterion "at least three missed periods" has been completely removed. It has also added that while using BMI to help establish severity, “the level of severity may be increased to reflect clinical symptoms, the degree of functional disability and the need for supervision.” Additions of “partial remission” or “full remission” have also been added to prevent recovering anorexics from being rebranded with EDNOS. I know that, for myself, there have been several partial remissions. These remissions I experienced always had some other element that wasn't there the first time around. I suspect it's the same for many others. 

The real challenge is going to be physicians and families seeing an over weight child/adolescence lose weight and actually investigating the weight loss methods instead of just congratulating them. Being complimented and praised is so addictive, not only to children and adolescents, but to anybody. The truth is that there can be serious health complications going on such as dehydration, digestive issues, cardiac issues, kidney and liver issues, and difficulty concentrating.  

These changes will hopefully help health insurance claims as well. Many insurance companies automatically refused any patients for overnight treatment if they were more than 85% of their ideal weight. 

This should also help obtaining more reliable research statistics as well. Yay!

This is a win, guys!!!  

[1] http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=expanded-clinical-definition-of-anorexia-may-help-more-teens&WT.mc_id=SA_sharetool_Twitter

[2] http://www.something-fishy.org/whatarethey/ednos.php 

Lost Down The Rabbit Hole

There seems to be a new fad going around in full force: clean eating

The root cause of this lifestyles is admirable and important. I love that more people are becoming aware of what they're consuming and really beginning to examining their food... 

That being said, I desperately want to caution those who have adopted this lifestyle change. So here is my cautionary tale:

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http://www.michellechant.com/2011/08/

curiouser-and-curiouser-down-the-rabbit-

hole-and-back/

I wanted to be a lean, mean, clean eating machine. I did everything right. I did my research. I balanced my meals. I was informed, and level-headed. I workef put everyday and had six pack abs. Despite all of that, my obsession turned lethal. The scary truth is that being "healthy" nearly killed me. Now anytime I see someone being/striving to be uber-healthy I feel an urge to warn them, to show them the otherside of the looking glass. 

 

 *Let me clearify, by "healthy" I mean: Cutting out processed foods, trans fats, unnatural sugars, added sodium and chemicals, preservatives, refined flours, dairy, and meat. I ate a very balanced vegetarian diet (I did eat fish and egg whites). 

At about the same time that I had mastered clean eating, I also began experiencing terrible GI issues (including extreme nausua, severe cramps, and stabbing pains). I don't believe my new lifestyle had much to do with it. I felt physically better whilst adhering to it,and  drastically worse when I veered off-course. I had bouts of milder symptoms before (off and on for several years, actually) so I believe the severe physical illnesses I was experiencing were most likely the same thing. I do belive that my compromised health exasperated my underlying medical issues (I just recently got my answer as to what this mystery ailment that has plagued me for over 10 years is - Dysautonomia). Coincidentaly, the deepest part of my struggle with ED occured just when my Dysautonomia really started to get revved up. As that gained strength, the physical pain of my body was in became too much. The pain from just ingesting food was great enough to cause a fear so intense that I would develop a full-fledged phobia. 

I should also mention that I experience (and sometimes still do) a strange compulsion to move after ingesting something. This started several years before my epic battle with ED began. It was as if being idle turned the food into lead, which would painfully weigh down on my stomach. That "full" feeling was physically painful. Excruciating. 

Soon after the clean eating and fitness obsession hit its pinnacle, the delusions began. If I worked out, the calories I ingested would turn to muscle and it would fuel my body more efficiently. If I didn't, then said calories would turn to fat and would be wasted. The health and fitness fanatic in me just screamed "Muscle is good, fat is bad!"

I will always remember one particular day in the fall of 2002. It was then that I realized I was completely at the mercy of my eating disorder. This was the day that I knew I was sick. I knew I was too thin. I knew I was dying. Even more startling - and important to convey- is the fact that I didn't want to be that thin. Not in a million years. I wanted to gain weight. I wanted to be like I was before: Athletic, strong, fit, lean but not skinny. What happened that day and the revelation I had, shook me to my very core. I was terrified. That moment went something like this:

It was morning and I was sitting on the couch, watching TV while I ate breakfast which consisted of a regular sized bowl of cereal (some sort of Kashi), soy milk, and 1/2 a banana. Sensible and satisfying. 

Immediately after ingesting it, I panicked. That was the day I knew I was a prisoner on death row. The only reason I didn't reach out and seek help right then and there was because of the social stigma attached to eating disorders. I was too scared of what everyone else would think. The fear of being labeled a weak, entitled little white girl was too strong. This vivid memory is locked in my mind, forever etched into the walls of my psyche. I dig it up anytime I hear that voice - that dreaded siren call of ED- whenever I'm on the brink of relapse. This memory reminds me of the journey back home and how long, scary, and dangerous it was. Because of that, I don't dare jump back down that rabbit hole.

“In another moment down went Alice after it, never once considering how in the world she was to get out again.” 

― Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

* Side note: I think it is important to be honest in order to truly grow awareness. However, to keep things as safe as possible I will NOT divulge information such as: weight, height, BMI, or clothing size.

The depth of my rabbit hole

*Upon Hospital Addmittance*
    Average body temperature: 95 degrees
    Average heart rate: 40bpm
    Hospitalized in critical condition
    Beginning stages of multipule organ failure
    NG (nasogastric) Feeding Tube (24hr/day feeds) 
    PICC line with 24 hr IV infusion nutrition (TPN - Total Parenteral Nutrition)
    Refeeding Syndrome after starting IV and NG tube nutrition.
    Gastroparesis

    Severe GERD

    Water intoxication 

How long did it take  me to make my way out of just that part of it?

    I was rid of the PICC line and NG tube after 6 months, but was still unable to attend school for another year. 

Ok, how about after that? 

    It's 11 years later and I still have issues with gastroparesis. 

    I have weak joints, osteoarthritis, gastritis (which causes my stomach lining to bleed periodically), neurological damage (though some of that is due to a medication reaction a year later), memory problems... That's all I can think of at the moment. 

Please, please, please be careful! Being healthy and fit is wonderful. No longer being able to enjoy (or even eat) something "unhealthy", or just a day to be "lazy" is not.