STRUGGLING WITH ANOREXIA

When we talk about eating disorders and teenagers, we often think about ANOREXIA. Almost everyone knows someone that suffered from this disease...but, how does it all start? How can one person overcome this painful situation?

We started doing some research and discovered that it is more complicated than just refusing to eat. It becomes a struggle with yourself and your family and loved ones. 

To get to know what this really means, we talked to a girl that was strong enough to battle this illness to the very end. 

What is it?

It is an eating disorder that alters the relationship of the person with food.

It is characterized by an obsession with losing weight. The person overly limits the food intake to the point of risking his life. Also suffers from a distortion of perception: the person with anorexia sees himself as overweighed, despite being below the healthy range of weight. 

Anorexia is not only a problem with food, but also conceals an inability to deal with other problems of stress or anxiety. The exercised control over food momentarily calms these tensions.

ANA is an abbreviation of the term anorexia. (AN orexia A).

What are the symptoms?

The most noticeable symptoms are a refusal to eat and dissatisfaction with one's body. They make a very strict diet and are obsessed with their appearance. They have very low weight and can, in turn, become obsessed with physical activity. They are not aware of their appearance or the dangers of low weight for their health. For women, other symptoms are the lack of menstruation or infertility.

Physically it can be seen very simply:

• Nails become fragile and hair gets thinner;
• Dry and yellow skin;
• Weak muscle tone;
• Tiredness.

This disease can appear accompanied by other disorders, such as anxiety, depression and other addictions.

Who is affected?

While it may appear at any time of life, mostly occurs on people within 14 and 18 years old. It affects both women and men, but the victims are predominantly girls and young women, especially athletes, ballet dancers or modeling students. 

Risk factors that cause the disease are:

• The social standards of beauty which are far from healthy parameters.
• The influence of family and friends that emphasize with these role models.
• The lack of affection and / or the presence of other emotional conflicts.
• Sexual abuse.
• Low self-esteem.
• The difficulty of dealing with stress.

What is the treatment?

Specific medication can be used, as well as individual or group psychotherapy. In severe cases, hospitalization of the patient is required to ensure an adequate nutritional plan and treat the consequences caused by low weight.

ANA described by one of the many teenagers affected

Camila –my cousin- was affected by AnA. Today, she is 18 years old and can talk happily about this disease, although –she confesses- sometimes the struggle continues inside her. 

BT: When did you start suffering from this disease?

C: I was diagnosed with AnA about four and a half years ago.

BT: When did you start to have problems with food?

C: I do not remember a specific time, although I knew this disease since I was 10-11 years old. At that time I had some thoughts about it, but I acted ‘normal’ when it came to food. The problems became more important when I was 15.

BT: At what point were you aware that you were going through this disease?

C: When I changed my personality so much that I saw no way out. During three years I was in full awareness of my illness.

BT: People say that a person plans to have AnA. Did you plan it or was it too late when you realized it?

C: In times of downturn, I came to think I could have prevented this disease, but when the moment of clarity comes, I realize that I already had a predisposition to having this kind of disease: my character and personality, the ideas on how to solve my life… I felt fragile and vulnerable. I knew the only person that could solve that was ME. The solution was in my hand.

BT: Which is the main reason –you think- of having AnA?

C: Certainly the lack of self-esteem: is not about the physical, but the attitude you have about yourself that will generate feelings that you do not control around you and you need something you can "control". So you rely on food and the amounts you eat, because you can control that.

BT: What did you do to lose weight?

C: At first I did not eat, I found different things to do when I had to eat, until those things completely replaced the necessity of eating. You lie to your parents, relatives and friends; you throw food away.

BT: How many kilos did you loose? Which was your lowest weight?

C: I have come to lose more than 20 kilos. My lowest weight was 39 kilos.

BT: Do you think that, somehow, anorexia has affected the relationships you have with your family and friends?

C: Of course, that's one of the worst effects of the disease. It is tiring to see how the disease affects the person that loves you, how they want to help and can’t.

BT: How is your physical condition during the anorexia?

C: It is painful, because it is not only what affects the outside of your body (dark circles under your eyes, paleness, horrible hair, increased facial and body hair, dental weakness...) but the inside: lack of menstruation which can cause future problems or sterility and cancer predisposition, the brain doesn’t get as much energy as it needs to work correctly so you cannot concentrate; very abrupt changes in your mood, overall weakness, muscles hurt, chronic pain, organs work above their means, which means these are losing effectiveness, digestive complications…

BT: Which was the hardest moment you had to overcome?

C: I think there are three key moments. The first during my admission to hospital, the second a few months out of it, because I relapsed and sank and I was about not to tell, and one difficult moment, is perhaps now, because I must keep on fighting the disease and –sometimes- I feel alone.

BT: What do you think about ANA?

C: Being AnA is not easy. Being perfect or trying to be, either. Many times people think being AnA means being mad or looking at things like the body superficially, trying to be pretty and thin. But being ANA is not easy. Being ANA is a job, every day. Is waking up in the morning and realizing that a new day of suffering starts. When you realize that you are not what you want to be and may never come to be as you dream, you realize that you will never become perfect. After being AnA for so long, I’ve come to a conclusion: IT IS NOT EASY. IT IS PAINFUL.

Now it’s time to describe how she recovered from AnA. This is my testimony…

Well, when it all started, nobody knew except her best friend Sofia, and me, her cousin.

When we found out, we met with Camila and chatting about this, she told us which was her problem and how she got to have that disease. We decided to record it all and show it to her mother. At first, she did not want to accept it. We tried to help her by forcing her to eat, accompanying her to the bathroom so she wouldn’t vomit. But the problem grew more and more, became something endless.

We took her to psychiatrists and psychologists. She was in treatment, but still did not improve.

Her mother decided to put her in a special hospital, where they treat these specific diseases. Camila, began to improve. Her mood improved, her desire to eat too, she felt identified with the other girls’ stories. We always visited her, but every time we had to leave, she begged us to take her too.

For me, Camila is like my sister –although she’s my cousin-, we grew up together. I decided to send her a letter saying how beautiful she was, how her soul was the most beautiful thing she had and that was the most important thing to succeed in life. I told her the whole family was beside her, that she must be strong and overcome AnA.

I received her answer where she thanked us for being beside her, she would succeed, for her and for us.

That letter opened her eyes and she started to improve. She kept going to therapy and talking about her struggle, which never ends. Being anorexic is a state of mind that has to disappear from your head…but only YOU can make it go away.

It’s very important that the family show support and unconditional love.

This is my cousin’s story, and a bit of my own too. She recovered so EVERYONE can recover. 

DON’T GIVE UP. 

Agostina García and Azul Vera – 4th Year