has anyone dealt with this?

[Audacious1]

I have a problem with my sister...she is pretty much anorexic and won't listen to her family when we say she needs help. She is 22 yrs old (on 10-13) 5'5" and weighs just over 100lbs. She wears a size 0 pants! She is way too skinny, yet she still thinks she is "fat." Her diet consists of 4-6 20oz mountain dews a day and about a pack of cigs. And once and a while she will eat a few pieces of bread to help the rumble in her tummy. I am worried about her b/c she just won't listen and i see her health deteriorating. She has already been hospitalized once a few years back, but once she was out, she went back to her old ways. She claims that when she eats, she gets sick to her stomach and i think it has to do with the fact that her body isn't used to food anymore and the mountain dew is eating away at her stomach. How can i convince her to change her eating habits and convince her that she doesn't have to be a stick to be attractive? (she has a very beautiful face and i thought she was even more attractive when she had some meat on her bones.) Has anyone dealt with someone like this or has gone through this? Maybe if she hears it from someone other than her family, she might listen.

 

[Sassy69]

Yikes. That is scary. Um.... I would think one convincing argument would be really crappy quality of life or worse due to malnutrition. I wonder what anorexics think when they find out their bodyfat? I know the small numbers on the scale look "good", but if there is no muscle, implying "skinnyfat", would a bodyfat of 20% be considered "bad" and then saying the only way to improve that number is by building some muscle ---> muscle requires food ---> eat more & eat correctly instead of just garbage???

The above is more of a mind game approach - have no idea if it would work. But the bigger problem is body dysmorphia. Is the anorexia a symptom or response to an underlying issue with self-image or anything like that??

I think there are some girls who have "been there" and can give some good insight to this. But God knows its hard enough to just grasp the idea that you have to eat to lose weight. Couple that with the way the media twists the truth about fats & carbs to the point that everyone is scared to death of something that isn't "low fat" or "no fat" , but still seem to have no problem accepting "the squirts" or "anal leakage" or whatever the warning says on stuff like "WOW" potatoe chips. Its all very strange and very scary.

BUMP FOR SOME LIFE-SAVING INFO!

 

[FitFossil]

I wasted 20 years of my life with an eating disorder. It started with anorexia when I was 17. I then developed bulimia, and for 20 years, I bounced from one to the other, going from thin to fat to thin to fat, over and over. I nearly killed myself in the process. I felt like crap all the time, no energy and aches and pains like a 90 year old.

Eating disorders are not about eating, they are about control. Your sister feels a lack of control in other areas of her life and thinks eating and her body are the only things she can control. If the eating disorder did not come from a chemical imbalance, she probably has one now from all the bad dieting.

Anorexia changes the brain chemistry to where ones body image and reasoning ability become very distorted. Medications such as Prozac can be helpful with the chemical imbalance, but she also needs some good competent psychotherapy to help work through psychological issues. One is really not going to do much good without the other. The real key is that she must want to get better.

Anorexics are fiercely independent and will vehemently deny they have a problem. She's not going to like you messing in her business, but it's for her own good. Tell her my story. Does she really want to waste 20 years of her life like I did?

Especially important for her to understand is that getting well does NOT mean getting fat! I am 5'5" weigh 120 and wear size 2 pants (and sometimes a 0) and size 4 top. A pound of muscle takes up a lot less space than a pound of fat, and it burns calories even when you're asleep (and it doesn't jiggle). Maybe you can get her interested in weights. The bodybuilding lifestyle is perfect for recovering anorexics. It's the ultimate way to control your body and diet, but in a good way; you get to eat, be strong and healthy and feel good.

 

[Audacious1]

Well i know this pretty much started when my parents divorced 10 yrs ago...she was at a real healthy weight then and within a few years she started to drastically go down. She is opposite of me, she can't deal with problems head on and keeps things bottled up for quite some time as it picks away at her. I think she may have some self esteem problems only b/c she can't be without a boyfriend and she does whatever they tell her...hence the fact she has other health related problems from being permiscouous (sp?) I think after my parents divorce she felt rejected b/c my dad left and we didn't really have much contact with him for years after that. But she has gone to therapy for the whole divorce situation and it hasn't helped...so who knows...it may be another underlying problem. I just hate to see her like this and don't want to lose her b/c she thinks she is fat.

 

[Sassy69]

The bodybuilding lifestyle is perfect for recovering anorexics. It's the ultimate way to control your body and diet, but in a good way; you get to eat, be strong and healthy and feel good.

That's actually a very interesting statement! The nature of bb is such that you are always so damn aware of your body. The secret is for YOU to control your body and not let IT control you. I am aware of some cases of "reversed" body dysmorphia where the person, regardless of how massive, muscle bound and friggin huge he/she is, still sees a smaller, "weak" image. So finding that balance is definitely important. But if you tend to think that way ("control") anyway, it isn't as huge of a transition to make.

My old trainer was telling me he worked with a girl had a significant eating problem, but she was also obsessed with leanness - so was ripped to the bone at, he claimed, 2% bf. (Not sure how this is possible, but, hey, this is all hearsay.) Her husband got her involved in bb and competition at least so should could learn more about how to eat for muscle growth. Otherwise she was basically treadmilling her way to a skeleton.

 

[wilson6]

Interesting. I was at an eating disorder seminar a few years ago and these two fat female clinicians were opposed to their anorexic clients getting into bodybuilding. Might lead to steroid use they said. Problem is, if bodybuilding cures them, even if (BIG IF) they use a little test, they'll probably live a normal life span, if they aren't cured, they could be dead in a year or two. Lesser of two evils I suppose but they don't see it that way.

As part of their presentation, they had a picture of an overweight women that they showed their anorexic clients and told them that this was normal. I was thinking, well that will cure them for sure. A fat clinician telling an anorexic that looking fat is what the end result should be. Wow.........Talk about f**ked up........

W6

 

[NubianBeauty]

As part of their presentation, they had a picture of an overweight women that they showed their anorexic clients and told them that this was normal. I was thinking, well that will cure them for sure. A fat clinician telling an anorexic that looking fat is what the end result should be. Wow.........Talk about f**ked up........

They are a bunch of idiots! That probably made matters worse for them!

 

[new@gettinbig]

Dont get me started on this topic!!!! Burns me up....Especially now when I look back and see how nasty I was etc....Its something that you are almost kind of helpless...if you are looking to help someone. They do not listen nor will they until they determine to themselves.

My younger sister is anorexic and dying to be ungodly thin...she despises food and you can barely get her to eat more than a bowl of cereal and maybe some tuna...Ive finally convinced her to eat some protein..was eating 0grams of protein!!!! She does tons of cardio, situps and all those dumb exercises trying tone her twig legs..but what I can get her to understand is y they do not get firm is because she does not feed her body protien and there is nothing to build on...so she gets thinner but her legs are skinny fat..still flabby just tiny....says she wants legs like mine but not big like mine...makes no sense....thinks muscle is not for girls and doesnt want to look like me!

She counts calories and is obsessed...eats through others like her boyfriend and cooks all the time...makes her feel better...never tell them they are skinny or wasting away...it feeds them and its exactly what they love to hear...i dont comment on her weight anymore..i talk about what potential her body has if she would fuel it properly and take some advice from ol sis. Its a serious disease and it does not go away...society makes it worse w/ these fuckin double 00 jeans they have at Abercombie and all these magazines w/ skeleton girls on them...what do you expect...I would far rather a girl be in bb, maybe do a few cycles..then starve herself to death!!!!

God only knows why I ever was like that...now I am totally opposite and looking to get bigger...if you would have told me 3 yrs ago I would weigh 155-165...I would have died!

 

[new@gettinbig]

Get her on the boards!!!! Show her some pics of Timea and other fitness girls that got some good healthy meat on em!!!! It is NOT beautiful to be deathly skinny and unhealthy!!! YUK! WAKE up before it is too late!! my advise!!

 

[NubianBeauty]

New I am sorry about your sister ... but @ least you have convinced her to start eating some protein. That is a move in the right direction.