By AMANDA SCRIPTURE

Poland Regional HS

Kristy* had always been well liked throughout her school. She was an honor roll student, state champion gymnast, and a fairly decent softball player as well. At the start of 7th grade, Kristy transferred from her school in a small town, to a school in a medium- sized city. She left all of her friends she’d known since kindergarten, including her one best friend, but she was excited about meeting new people. Kristy knew she was a friendly person, and was expecting to make friends quickly. That was certainly not the case; people called her names, and were not interested in getting to know her. It took almost 2 weeks for Kristy to make her first friend.

Kristy began to wonder why people did not like her. She began looking towards all the people who seemed to be the most popular, and decided that it must be her appearance that was making people avoid her. Kristy had never worried about her weight before, but now she began to question it. She thought that she was not “skinny” enough for people to like her.

Kristy started to skip her meals. When her family ate together, she would take her food to her room so she could either throw it away or flush it down the toilet. When she did get really hungry, she would eat something small, like a granola bar, and take little bites so it would fill her up quickly. She couldn’t stay like this, however; she did not like being hungry all of the time, plus in the gym she was so weak and tired that she could not do anything.

Kristy decided to eat again, but she designed herself a workout plan so she could still lose weight. For everything she ate, she had to run a mile, do 75 sit-ups, 100 push-ups, and 100 leg lifts. If she went a whole day without eating; her reward for the day was not having to work out. Eventually, Kristy became too busy to stick to this plan, and she decided that it was too much work to worry about her weight, so she got back to her normal eating habits. Kristy was able to pull herself out of the eating disorder cycle, but millions of others are not so lucky.

According to annecollins.com, a site dedicated to diet and weight loss information, every day Americans spend an average of 109 million dollars on dieting, and diet- related products. The pressure to be thin is enormous; being thin means being beautiful. As a result, 5-10 million people in the United States have some kind of eating disorder, as was found by kidshealth.org, a site dedicated towards helping kids maintain healthy eating patterns. The three most common eating disorders are anorexia, bulimia, and binge- eating.

Anorexia literally means loss of appetite, but people with anorexia actually resist the urge to eat when they are hungry. A statistic found at anred.com, a site dedicated towards eating disorder information, says that 1% of female adolescents have anorexia. Anorexia is mostly found in teenagers, but as PRHS school nurse Cannan said, anorexia has been found in children as young as 7, and in adults as old as 80.

Anorexia can be triggered by natural life changes, such as puberty. During puberty you start to get taller, boys’ muscles develop, and girls’ bodies get curvier, which naturally causes weight gain. Teenage girls start to freak out when they notice that they are gaining weight, and an unfortunate few will turn towards anorexia. Eating disorders can also result from participation in certain sports where an individual is on display, such as gymnastics, ballet, or ice-skating, says Nurse Cannan. Some athletes are told to loose weight, in order to perform better. A case talked about in “Reviving Ophelia” by Mary Pipher, described a gymnast whose coach used to make her teammates have weekly weigh-ins in order to count each other’s ribs. If they were hard to count, then they were punished.

Nurse Cannan also added that, as well as bulimia and binging, anorexia can be a control issue. Some teenagers have really controlling adults in their lives, so teenagers may turn toward monitoring their body size, because it’s one thing that parents cannot control. Other children have parents that, although it may not be on purpose, push their children toward having an eating disorder. Nurse Cannan shared a story, about a third grade girl whose father consistently praised her for being thin. Whenever the little girl would eat, he would make remarks such as, “Be careful, you don’t want to eat too much.” As a result, this girl began to show signs of having an eating disorder, she would look in the mirror frequently to see if she looked small enough. Third grade may seem too young to be worried about your weight, but it is more common than you may think. An alarming statistic found at annecollins.com, showed that 40% of first, second, and third grade girls want to be thinner, and the percentage rises to 75% when 13-year olds responded.

Some warning signs of anorexia are cold dry skin, hair loss, brittle nails, and lanugo, a fine hair usually found on babies, that forms in an attempt to keep the body warm. An anorexic’s weight tends to drop to 15% below their normal weight, and they will continue to believe that they are fat even if they are extremely thin. According to nami.org, a site about mental illness, anorexia can also pose serious health risks such as an irregular heartbeat, kidney and stomach problems, shrinkage of the heart muscles, and even heart failure, which leads to death. In fact, according to health.edu, anorexia has the highest death rate of all psychiatric disorders with 4- 20% of patients dying from it.

Ms. Ellen Harris shared a story about a friend she used to have in high school named Keri. In high school, Keri was an amazing student, as well as an awesome athlete who excelled in soccer and sprinting. Keri’s father was not only the track coach, but a pediatrician as well. After high school, Ms. Harris lost contact with her friend, but learned that Keri had developed anorexia, and it had become so extreme that Keri died from heart failure at the age of 20. Heart failure is the leading cause of death from anorexia, according to health.edu, a site dedicated to providing health information.

According to anred.com, 4% of college girls have bulimia. Bulimia is a bit different than anorexia in regards to the way people lose weight. Instead of starving themselves, bulimics will eat a lot of food, and then “purge” it from their system, usually by forcing themselves to vomit. According to something-fishy.org, a site about anorexia and bulimia, bulimics also use diet pills, laxatives, water pills, or even Ipecac Syrup, a substance that is used on poison victims that causes them to vomit.

Bulimia victims are sometimes harder to pick out because their weight tends to remain normal. According to something-fishy.org, some warning signs of bulimia include trips to the bathroom after meals, frequent sore throats, bloodshot eyes, light bruising underneath their eyes, tooth decay, bad breath, and usually a small scar can be found on their finger because of the finger being stuck down the throat and coming in contact with the acids in the mouth.

With the gymnast discussed earlier in “Reviving Ophelia,” in an effort to lose weight, she turned towards bulimia, and here is a direct quote from this girl: “I feel like such a hypocrite. People look at me and see a small, healthy person. I see a person who gorges on food and is totally out of control. You wouldn’t believe how much I eat. I shove food into my mouth so fast that I choke. Afterwards, my stomach feels like it will burst.”

Bulimia was the only way this girl thought she could control her weight, so her ribs could be easily counted at the weekly weigh-ins. Bulimia is usually caused by the pressure to be thin, as is demonstrated with this girl’s experience.

Not all eating disorders have to do with trying to lose weight. Binge eating disorder, is a disorder where people eat large amounts of food in a short period of time. Unlike bulimia, binge disorder victims do not remove the food from their system. According to niddk.org, a site dedicated to digestive and kidney diseases, 2% of adults in the United States have a binge- eating disorder.

Typically, binge eating affects over-weight people who are trying to loose weight, but it can affect average- weight people as well. People with a binge eating disorder feel like their weight is out of control, and feel as though they cannot stop eating, according to something-fishy.org. They also eat unusually large amounts of food, eat quickly, eat until they are so full it’s uncomfortable, eat when they are not even really hungry, and feel disgusted, depressed and guilty after eating. They also tend to eat alone, because they are embarrassed about their eating habits.

A case described in “Reviving Ophelia,” describes a girl who would wait until everyone went to bed, then she would raid the kitchen and eat anything she could find. Her parents tried to lock the food away, but this girl would bash the locks with hammers. This girl was also trying to diet, and instead it caused her weight to be even more out of control.

Some health risks found at niddk.org include high blood pressure, high cholesterol, gallbladder disease and heart disease.

Nurse Cannan says that eating disorders cannot be cured with just one person, but it is a team approach. Usually parents, primary care physician, psychologist or psychiatrist, a nutritionist and a counselor are all involved in the healing process. Nurse Cannan says it is a long road to recovery, and unfortunately some people die. If you feel as though you may have an eating disorder, or you may know someone who does, you may seek help here at PRHS from Nurse Cannan, or any of the guidance counselors.

*Not her real name