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Anorexia Nervousa
2004-09-02 / 9:44 p.m.
Okay, first on the serious side. Four words that should bring fear into every parent in the world... anorexia nervousa and bolemia nervousa. I just got back from a trip to Ohio to pick up a friend who's daughter had hidden this from her mom by wearing baggy clothes. It was purely by the grace of God that she walked in on her in the shower and saw the flesh clinging to her bones and rushed her to the hospital. Two more pounds and she would have had to been tube fed to sustain life. I guess my first question is how? How was this hidden? Wouldn't you notice? I guess for her she was splurge and purge and not only this but did you know you can actually train your bowels to move on command so as to pass the food undigested? This she had mastered so mom was not looking for mom, only vomiting and she had just started this. So my next question was why? I don't know if I will ever find that answer completely but some of the components of it was that she was bottling up her emotions and part of her treatment is vocalizing what she is feeling and standing up for herself. She talks worse than any sailor but with time she will be trained to voice it appropriately. For now, they just want her to voice it.
I being on the other end of the spectrum cringed when they said her daily calorie intake is 3000. She has been on this for 2 weeks and has barely gained 5 pounds. The reason? Her body is flat out rejecting the food. It won't, from my understanding, absorb the calories or the nutrition.
For anyone wondering what is entailed in getting her body trained to take in food, she explained her daily schedule to me. Breakfast bigger than her dad's evening meal that has to be eaten within 45 minutes. Classes. Snack that has to be eaten within 15 minutes. Class. Lunch - 45 minutes same size as breakfast. Class. Snack w/i 15 minutes. Class. Dinner, same size, 45 minutes. Free time. Evening snack. Free time and then bed. My stomach ached just hearing it and then she showed me her evening snack... small package of cookies, smarties, and 2 packs of gummies. It took her 20 minutes to choke it down and she literally choked it down. She had to force herself to eat. She played with the food, said it was stale, played somemore and ate one piece at a time... even the smarties. Then I thought about it. I had seen her do this before. From my standpoint with my dieting, I had always been told to slow down, chew my food, get fuller faster. Their goal is to shove as much food in her tiny body before the stomach sends the signal to stop eating.
There's so much more that goes along with this, little exercising, locked doors, timed bathroom sessions. She can't even leave the table if the girl next to her is vomiting. It is not allowed. It sounds cruel but not as cruel as starving yourself to death.
She does look better. Her body is trying to catch up to her age and she suddenly has breasts. She had starved her mind for so long it is now absorbing like a sponge. It will take time and maybe within 3 months she might be home but the counseling will be forever and the massive meals will be at least a year.
I guess I just don't understand and I hope I am never faced with having to try.
The Last Chapter / The Next Chapter
Missed A Page?
Been Awhile - 2005-04-16
Your Stupid - 2005-04-06
The haze - 2005-04-05
YMCA Visit - 2005-03-14
And so I begin - 2005-03-13