Living with a Chronic Eating Disorder
This week is National Eating Disorders Awareness Week (NEDAwareness Week), an annual campaign to educate the public about the realities of eating disorders and to provide hope and visibility to suffering individuals and their families. For 2022, the theme is See the Change, Be the Change. It’s important to see the change by acknowledging the ever-changing eating disorders field and to be the change, thanks to advocacy, awareness, and community building.
In an effort to further educate our visitors, in today’s blog post, we want to take a closer look at chronic eating disorders. A chronic eating disorder is one that lasts for seven to ten years or even longer. Although recovery is never impossible, it does become more difficult when the eating disorder persists for so many years.
Case Study: The Impact of Chronic Anorexia
In a recent YouTube video, nutritionist Elaina Efird, RDN, CD, CEDRD, CSSD focused on the case study of an individual living with chronic anorexia for more than 20 years.
Her eating disorder began when she was a teenager. Some people commented on her body, and in an effort to “prove them wrong,” she decided to lose weight. To start, she dieted and adopted healthier eating habits, like eating more vegetables. Soon though, she began to cut out more foods, like carbohydrates and fats. “The foods that she was allowing herself to eat got smaller and smaller,” Elaina says. In turn, her calorie intake got smaller and smaller. Then, she started increasing her activity levels, sometimes exercising for over two hours per day.
Soon, her loved ones became concerned about her weight loss. She went to a therapist and restored a little bit of weight, but she never fully recovered. Within a year or so, she began restricting her intake and overexercising again. She also adopted new behaviors, like occasional purging and laxative abuse.
And now, for the past two decades, she has practiced some combination of these disordered eating behaviors, accounting for a majority of her life. “Her eating disorder has taken away opportunities in life. It has caused her to isolate herself from her family and friends,” Elaina shares. “It’s really devastating.”
An Eating Disorder Serves a Purpose
An individual with a chronic eating disorder doesn’t know how to live without their eating disorder. They don’t know who they are outside of their eating disorder, which makes recovery very challenging. The other difficulty is that their body often adapts to their disordered eating behaviors, so much so that they’re no longer losing weight and their lab values look normal.
“Whether an eating disorder is newly-diagnosed or long-term, it is serving some sort of purpose,” Elaina explains. “It may give you a sense of control or help you manage your emotions. It’s doing something for you — or else, you wouldn’t need it.”
Are you someone who has battled an eating disorder or struggled with your relationship with food for most of your life? If you identify with this case study, know that you’re not alone. It is still worth seeking treatment and recovery. “You can learn to live without your eating disorder and be the unique individual that you are outside of your diagnosis,” Elaina concludes. “You can recover.”
Through both our blog and our YouTube channel, we strive to educate our visitors on the challenges of eating disorders while also offering them encouragement to seek treatment and recovery for themselves or a loved one. Together, we can #SeetheChange and #BetheChange.
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To talk to a professional about eating disorder treatment, nutritional needs, and more, please reach out to our staff or schedule an appointment at The Kahm Clinic today.