Anorexia Porn: Who Needs All The Grisly Details

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During the last year I have read 4 manuscripts by anorexia sufferers who have written about the fine detail year on year of all their suffering. They have asked for my advice about publication.I have also read 3 published books by people who have actually found publishers for their books, to join the list of what some of you might call misery memoirs. These books usually are written after a degree of recovery but they are very tough to read as the behaviour which is a feature of the illness is revealed in all its stark detail.

I have to be honest with you, me and my staff as well,  who know a lot about eating disorders were dismayed (that’s the best way I can put it) by so much reading of the accounts of the things people do to themselves and others with this compulsion to get and stay very thin. We are all suffering from Post Traumatic Anorexia Disorder. It is very hard reading, and a great deal of suffering all round.

As we move into Eating Disorder Awareness Week what really do we want to be aware of, tell me please? What kind of understanding do we seek?  My question is, to what extent is this grisly detail useful for sufferers? For the public?  For therapists?

In her book Almost Anorexic which is a nice book, the Author Jenni Schaefer cautions people from reading accounts of anorexic and bulimic suffering. She says, and I agree,  that it will only increase worry, obsession and activate the competitive instincts of anorexics.

“OMG she got to 35 kilos, it means I’m definitely not thin enough yet!”

“OMG she ran a marathon on nothing but jelly beans, I’m certainly eating way too much!”

“OMG she began to purge, that’s a good idea, I might try that too.”

“OMG I’m not purging, that means I’m greedier than her.”

What is it that drives people with eating disorders to need to set down in writing all this pain. Is it just another form of “look at me” or is it part of the way that they can make sense of what has happened to them and recover. I don’t really know as yet.

But…. I have decided that these accounts do more harm than good to patients and are only useful to therapists who need to read all this to get a proper sense of the demons they are facing. This illness is very, very tough. It is an illness which is invited in and which doesn’t want to leave.

So as the manuscripts pile up on my desk,  I will read them all but heaven knows I need some strength and I probably have seen enough for the moment. I don’t know if reading these memoirs or even broadcasting skeletal images on TV is going to help.   What I really welcome are the accounts of recovery, like the work of Jenni Schaefer and also Emma Woolf;  leaving out the pain of what went on before in all its grisly glory.

Starvation and self harm are not a pretty picture and knowing too much about it can kill.

Obesity – In Children: A Modern Health Concern

Posted on by ncfed

Guest blog provided by Aradhana Pandey

The term “generation gap” is not solely restricted to cultural and moral differences between you and your kids. Parents and children are increasingly separated by contrasting lifestyles and food habits as well. The older generation grew up with limited, but healthier choices of food and spent our days sweating it out with outdoor sports, going on treks and riding bikes in the neighbourhood. Younger people, on the other hand are spoilt for choice with unlimited options of fast food chains cropping up at every nook and corner of every street. Even though your kids may be actively involved in sports and other physical activities, their preferences of calorie laden junk foods over nutritious foods could put them at a risk of obesity and overweight. In the USA post the  2010 Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act passed after Michelle Obama’s campaign against childhood obesity, many schools in the United States have upped their nutritional standards and started to offer more servings of fruits and less salt, sugar, saturated fat and processed foods during lunchtime. Sure, that might be helping a great deal, but who’s keeping a strict tab on the foods your kids indulge in outside of school? Are you?

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 17% of children and adolescents between the age group of 2-19 years are obese. Yes, that’s surely an alarming statistic given the growing standards of education and awareness about healthy living and lifestyle related health problems. Children who are obese are not only prone to health problems like diabetes, cardiovascular conditions and high blood pressure, but also experience social anxiety, low self-esteem and depression. The increased indulgence in fast foods causes children’s poor academic performance, according to a recent study by Ohio State University.

During a child’s early, formative years, a lot of eating habits and food preferences take shape. How often has your little child insisted that you buy him the “treats” he sees in the advertisements that he watches on TV, and how often have you actually given in to his demands? Research shows that the time spent watching TV is directly proportional to the rate of childhood obesity. The article further suggests that advertisements that target children are exploitative in nature. They urge impressionable kids to pester parents and influence their purchase decisions.

It is important that parents inculcate good eating habits in children starting from an early age. The best and the most effective way to do this is by involving your children in the doing things like helping with food preparation and choosing wholesome family meals. Take your child to the supermarket and ask him to pick out the vegetables and fruits he likes.  Teach her  about the benefits of health eating but not in a way which risks creating anxiety, of course. The more involved your child is in the entire process, the more receptive he will be to adopting healthy eating habits.

While you ensure your child enjoys a healthful diet, be also mindful of  her physical activity and sleep, as these factors are also closely linked to obesity. Harvard School of Public Health encourages children to get at least 60 daily minutes of physical movement and about 12 to 14 hours of sleep between 1-3 years of age; 11 to 13 hours between 3–5 years of age; 10 to 11 hours between 5–12 years of age and 8.5 – 9.25 hours of sleep for adolescents. This means not having a TV in the bedroom which we know is linked to stress.

Emma Woolf Lets Go And Heals

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Emma Woolf, author, journalist and journeywoman of Supersize and Superskinny fame has written an inspirational book about her updated journey into recovery: Letting Go: How To Heal Your Hurt, Love Your Body and Transform Your Life. The title of the book means what it says, because Emma has discovered how to transform apparent recovery into real healing. Recovery means getting well, healing is something else, it is about making real caring amends to body, mind, soul and other people who have been blighted by the illness. It is about living a life which is not dominated by anorexic rituals and thoughts. True transformation isn’t about gaining weight – we all know that. It is about being free. I urge all people with eating disorders to read this book and be inspired by someone who has been there before you. Emma my friend, good for you.

Valentine’s Event At SEED eating disorder charity

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I would like to inform you of the exclusive charity event happening this Valentine’s Day.

Elegant events organisers ‘Platinum’ are hosting ‘Fifty Shades of Platinum’  – A Valentine’s Masquerade Ball on Saturday 14th of February in the Woodlands Suite at Ribby Hall, Preston.

The evening is set to be nothing short of spectacular with a drinks reception, 4 course meal and a plethora of sophisticated entertainment included in your ticket price. Prizes will be given for the best masks and the dress code is strictly ’50 Shades of Elegance’! There will also be a charity auction on the night in support of our work here at S.E.E.D and all monies raised from this auction will go directly to us to help us continue to deliver our work and services.

Tickets are available from www.platinumeventprofessionals.co.uk or by calling 01253 780966. Tickets are available with 10% off if ordered before the end of Friday 16th January.

Constant Cravers And Intermittent Fasting? A Big Lie?

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I’m a little behind some of you with looking at the latest BBC Programme about finding a personalised diet programme with all the World Famous Obesity Experts. Sorry Professor Tanya by the way, with respect you are an erudite clinical psychologist but a world famous obesity expert?  However….

I still want to know why they have put constant cravers (who may be Leptin Insensitive) on the Intermittent Fasting Diet. Leptin is a protein which tells our brain to stop looking for food when our fat cells are expanding. By the way. So constant cravers are looking at food all the time, in shops, with other people eating and so on. This is like the behaviour of drug addicts. Perhaps there is something wrong with the reward centres of the brain as well.  We call this Reward Deficiency Syndrome. If this is the problem, then intermittent fasting might make their preoccupations worse.

I have plenty of research which shows that intermittent fasting in some people can ADD to their desire for food, increase their thinking about food, make them search out food and eating cues in their environments. So what’s the explanation for this choice of diet?

The programme shows that there are certain basics which need to be handled in obesity treatment no matter what is wrong with your genes and your hormones. This is like eating slowly and mindfully, not in front of the TV which increases appetite by the way…. not boot-camping people in exercise programmes which they don’t enjoy, building flexibility and teaching people how to solve day to day problems and deal with irritations without needing to eat;  managing cravings, dealing with lapses & so on & so on.

And some of the participants are getting “CBT” although CBT on its own doesn’t have a good success rate for long term success. For one thing CBT lacks a spiritual dimension which inspires people to change and CBT doesn’t address the need to teach people how to increase their willpower. Yes, yes, yes it can be done.

You might like to see my own ideas on how to work with constant cravers on my blog Deanne talks to save me having to write it all again here. Meanwhile enjoy the programme, talk about it by all means, but the idea that there is a DIET alone that helps an overweight person to lose weight and keep it off is  BIG FAT LIE.

In Search Of A Personalised Diet BBC Horizon

Posted on by ncfed

Hello all you people who want to lose weight, this is such an important subject that I have written about this on my personal Blog at Deannetalks but also here as well.

I am going to have a lot to say about the Tanya Byron, Susan Jebb and other expert take on weight loss. I will I promise try to make it positive and helpful.

We are now in the dieting months and I’m already sick and tired of all the diet plans I’m seeing. There is the Ice Diet being promoted by Peta Bee in the Times – sorry Peta, bad science. And even a diet called EAT! Which is just another variant on the low carb diets. These diets are one size fits all and take no account of personal genes and nutrient responses. They are designed to fail in the long run, as all fervent followers will discover.

SO…Have we finally found the Holy Grail of weight loss? Is tailoring DIETS to your obesity-type the best way to help you lose weight? We have been searching for tailored programmes for years.  An army of world famous weight loss experts cannot surely be wrong. Can they?

Well let’s see.

A few years ago, the BBC ran a diet trials experiment at the University of Surrey which compared different types of diets for success. There was a clear winner (Conley)  but the take- home message in the long run is that different types of diet suit different people. People who don’t like calorie counting do well with  Atkins or Dukan, while some  people do really well with a group approach. But in the long run it’s pretty much all the same. Failure, that is, for most 18 months down the line.

The BBC have an all-singing-dancing world expert scientific approach that is new. Do people really divide themselves into three obesity types?

The first “cant-stoppers” who are low on gut hormones.

The second “constant cravers” who probably lack a good leptin response (science here) to tell their brains they aren’t hungry.

The third, “comfort eaters” who meet the day to day stress in life by using food as a feel-good drug.

Perhaps. They have all lost weight, HURRAY – but that proves very little; they have also been very unhappy here and there. it was poor research design, and the proof of the obesity pudding must surely be in how well they are able to keep it off. Oh well, it makes good TV but probably very little else.

Professor Susan Jebb is an expert-expert on obesity but has said that losing weight is not a matter of will, but of habits. People have to change their habits for life. I know that, and part of the therapy I do is to help change habits from very deep inside. This is useful for everyone and flexibility training was missing from the treatment given to these subjects.

But I cannot agree with that. There is a whole new science of willpower – known as self-regulation theory – which is available to obesity specialists and which is helping people to use their willpower to change their lives. This can help comfort-eaters, constant-cravers and cant-stoppers too. Why was this ignored?   So what’s going to happen to these happy weight losers? Will they have to stay on their diets for life, an impossible task surely, unless they learn how to exercise their WILL.

I like it when people feel they have done something valuable and positive. Who could fail to be moved when men weep real tears for having help and support. But is this real science when it ignores real psychological strategies that work, like flexibility training and self-regulation training. More than half of the fatties got “CBT” on top of their diets, maybe it was the CBT not the diet that helped them.

And I want to know why the experts have decided the Intermittent Fasting Regime is right approach for constant cravers. MY RESEARCH TELLS ME THAT FASTING WILL MAKE THEIR PREOCCUPATIONS WORSE? Who said this was the right way for them to eat?

So for me the jury is out. Some bits of this interesting programme hold out hope for people who cannot lose weight. It’s good for someone to know that they may be lacking in a gut hormone that helps them to feel full. Its good to suggest that an emotional eater is not just weak-willed and greedy. It may be useful to know that a constant craver might not be feeling leptin in their brain.

This programme is misnamed. It is called finding the right diet for you. It should be named the right mix of strategies for you. Possibly but I am going to write more about this shortly

World experts should know better than to suggest that what they have done is a solution. It is just one of a number of things that must be properly explored in properly designed clinical trials before we can truly discover a personalized solution for obesity. And we experts know better than to think that any single diet can provide a quick fix even when the experts say “genes”.

Chewing And Spitting Food

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One of our readers has asked me if there is such a thing as chewing and spitting disorder. There is no such thing. It’s just a behaviour that is common in people with eating problems.   I had an au pair once whose waste paper basket was full of half chewed candies and chocolates all hidden in tissue paper.  She never knew I knew.

It makes sense. People want tasty food but they are scared to eat it in case it will make them fat. In some cases there is a small craving and in other cases a big craving. They just want the taste of the food to help them feel nice but they don’t want the rest of it. So they spit it out. No calories. Simple.

You can have your cake and eat it too it seems.  But it’s not so simple. It seems that the brain needs something called volatiles in food, substances that the back of the nose can smell. When we get a whiff of  tasty food that is high in volatile compounds like chocolate and ice cream, the brain gets a hit of opioids like dopamine which make us feel good.  Basically, chewing and spitting is like snorting cocaine.  The downside is that you can become addicted to it and what seems like a bad habit becomes a compulsion.

For another thing, we do take in lots of calories when we chew food and spit it out. We can get a hefty dose of sugar and fat that clings to the tongue and unwittingly passes into our digestive system. If you chew and spit a box of chocolates you will absorb about a third of it.  Better to eat three whole chocolates and put away the rest.  But when you have an eating problem, once you start it feels impossible to stop. You are possessed.

Chewing and spitting is particularly common in people with anorexia who struggle with cravings and it is an almost bulimic sort of thing to do. I have found high levels of anxiety and shame in people who do this. They often wonder what people would think of them for spitting out food, they often think they are the only one who does it.

How do we help people to stop?  There is a list of things that might help.

  •  Good nutrition helps reduce cravings and make it less likely that a person will buy and start chomping on food they are afraid to eat.
  • Building forbidden food into a normal meal plan, like having some chocolate as part of a meal makes it less forbidden and less desired.
  • Teaching someone to eat mindfully, being very present and eating slowly will help stop the habit.
  • Helping someone to manage their emotions better will reduce the anxiety that leads to chewing food and spitting it out.
  • When someone is spitting something out I often wonder what it is that they are spitting out really. Quite often it is something that they want to say to someone but they are afraid of the consequences. Or they feel they may feel that they do not deserve to have an opinion.  Find out what the spitting out might really mean? What are they really rejecting.
  • Finally make sure that the person knows that they aren’t the only person spitting food out. And before you rush to try and stop the behaviour, find out what it is doing for the person.  Chewing and spitting is sometimes the only way someone knows to get rid of tension and anxiety. Help them to find other ways to do this and the behaviour will eventually stop.

Eating Disorders in Pregnancy

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This is a guest post contributed by Hari Malhi of Meds4All UK

Having an eating disorder while pregnant can be particularly difficult due to all the hormonal changes in the body. A research study carried out in the UK found that about 7% of pregnant women were experiencing an eating disorder. This number is likely to actually be higher as some women either hide the signs of their disorder or deny having it to begin with. Additionally, common symptoms associated with pregnancy such as vomiting and weight gain can also disguise the presence of an eating disorder.

 The results from a recent study

According to a study led by a team of researchers at the UCL Institute of Child Health, eating disorders are quite common among pregnant women. The study, which included over 700 women, found that 25% of them were extremely concerned about their weight and body image. However, only a very small percentage of them tried extreme behaviours to lose weight, such as over exercising, skipping meals and induced vomiting.

One in 12 pregnant women said their eating habits were out of control at least twice a week. They reported episodes of binge eating and not being able to maintain a strict diet. In the final analysis, one in 14 were deemed to have an eating disorder.

The researchers recommended the following: pregnant women need to be assessed for an eating disorder when they attend their antenatal check up, as pregnancy can be a time of increased risk for the mother and developing baby.

What are the risks?

Pregnancy will often heighten some of the symptoms of an eating disorder, meaning if patients have bulimia nervosa, they’re likely to experience more dehydration and an increased level of chemical imbalances in their digestive system. Women struggling with bulimia often have increased rates of postpartum depression, which in turn leads to more difficulties with breastfeeding. Furthermore, it’s not safe for pregnant women to take too many laxatives and diuretics as these could cause harm to the baby. These types of medication take away fluids and nutrients before they can nourish the baby.

If a woman has anorexia nervosa she may not be able to put on enough weight while pregnant. Therefore, she carries the risk of conceiving a baby with an extremely low birth weight. The majority of anorexic women do not have regular periods due to their low calorie intakes and/or high levels of stress. An irregular period makes it more challenging for those who are trying to get pregnant in the first place.

Other health complications

If a woman has an eating disorder while pregnant, there are several other potential health complications involved including:

  • Higher risk of a caesarean birth
  • Breathing difficulties
  • Severe depression
  • Miscarriage

Since the growing baby gets all its nourishment from the mother, it’s all the more important for pregnant women to eat a nutritious diet and sustain a healthy body weight for many months before and after giving birth.

Do you need to seek help?

Help is available from NCFED and other qualified healthcare professionals if you are concerned about eating disorders. (please ask for our top tips document on choosing a therapist). One to one counselling may be helpful in allowing you to deal with issues you may have regarding body image, food and weight gain. It could also be helpful to get advice from a nutritionist who has a history of helping patients with eating disorders.

Taming Tiger Parents

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Girls at risk of eating disorders? Absolutely. Instagram, social networking, pressure at school non-stop? Sexy selfies?  Oh my god aren’t I glad that this passed me by when I was an adolescent.

But our girls, what defence do they have against this onslaught of pressure which is attacking their peace of mind and their self esteem? What defence does the ordinary child have to keep their body image intact?

I’ve written on my books page about two well-researched books written by Tanith Carey a journalist and friend. The first, Where Has My Little Girl Gone?   The second more recent Taming the Tiger Parents.  In her books Tanith counts the cost of todays pressures and insults on girls and boys which result in unhappiness, eating disorders body hatred and other forms of self harm.

In her book Taming the Tiger Parent, Tanith offers parents practical, realistic solutions that will give parents permission to take their foot off the gas and reclaim a more relaxed family life. Packed with insights, experts’ tips, real experiences and resources, this book is a timely guide to safeguarding a child’s well-being in a competitive world – so they can grow into the happy, emotionally balanced people they really need to be.

 

How To Find A Good Eating Disorder Therapist

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I have just read three accounts of eating disorder suffering and recovery. Two people suffered for years and sort of recovered. One person is still struggling with a horrible eating disorder. All of these people have encountered poor therapy from people with good general  skills and incomplete and faulty methods for working with eating disorders. I have felt very sad about their pain and cross about their experiences.

What makes a good eating disorder therapist? NO! its not having had a problem yourself and thinking you are an expert. NO! it’s not having one way of working which is a one size fits all approach. NO! it’s not having someone who insists that they have had years of experience working with eating disordered sufferers. NO it’s not someone who smiles nicely to you and gives you a nice cup of tea.NO! it’s not someone who tells you its not about food so we dont have to talk about it,

Reading how these people have been “treated” has sent shivers down my spine. If you have an eating disorder you need to know how to sort out the rubbish from the  guardian angels. There are thousands of therapists out there who claim to belong to eating disorder associations and dont know what they are doing,

I will shortly publish my ten top tips for knowing how to pick the therapist who knows what they are doing. You will have questions to ask them and if they dont give you the right answer RUN AWAY AND FIND SOMEONE ELSE.

If you want a personal copy of my TEN TOP TIPS I will send one to you by email. Just contact us on admin@ncfed.com. I don’t  care which therapist you find, one of ours or someone else. Just find one who really knows what they are doing.