Lisa grew up eating organic foods, and especially liked Vietnamese and Afghan cuisines. In high school, however, she began withdrawing. Her grades suffered and her parents noticed the drastic change in her personality. They wondered if they should intervene-they thought that maybe she just going through normal teenage emotional turmoil.
Lisa's behaviors, however, were quickly progressing beyond normal. She began hiding food in her room, and cycling through episodes of compulsive dieting, starving herself, binge-eating, and over-exercising. Lisa comments: "It always seemed to follow the same pattern ... I'd start eating better and exercising more, and as I lost weight, I'd think: 'I've gotten to this point, I should go more.'"
Lisa's family sought help for her, and her behaviors seemed to improve. However, leaving home for the University of California Santa Cruz seemed to destabilize her again. Recalls Lisa, "For me, the hardest time was going into college. It's a really, really big change. I was pretty sick when I went in, not eating very much, exercising too much. I'd binge one day and then go back to not eating."
By the second quarter of her freshman year, Lisa-like approximately half of all anorexics-was also struggling with bulimia. Lisa went through ups and downs throughout college. When she moved to a new apartment a week before graduation, the stress caused her to go into a "spiral of collapse." Lisa entered treatment again. Although she has made strides toward recovery, Lisa believes that she will never be fully recovered, that she will always have to struggle against her eating disorder:
"Over the last year or so, after I got out of the hospital and the halfway house, it was a coping mechanism ... It was a constant struggle being OK with having food inside of me. It's not so much about food as alleviating stress or anxiety, feelings that get too strong. I don't engage in that activity as much as I used to. Now it's just become, I'm having feelings that feel too strong, and I choose to throw something up, and well, this isn't helping either. It's always in the back of my mind. It shows how long it takes to get over something like this."
(Source: USA Today)
Labels: eating disorder, books
Posted By: Aspen Education Group