When I started reading Hungry, A Mother and Daughter Fight Anorexia by Sheila and Lisa Himmel, the complexity of eating disorders really began to take in. Food-related addictions are like any other addiction, except for the fact that it is impossible to avoid coming into contact with the object of the obsession.
Characterized by an obsessive fear of gaining weight and a refusal to maintain a healthy body weight due to a distorted self-image, anorexia is associated with obsession and, in fact, has a high incidence of comorbidity with obsessive compulsive disorder. personality. It also has the highest death rate of all psychiatric disorders. According to a study by the National Association for Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders, 5 to 10% of anorexics die within 10 years of contracting the disease; 18-20% of anorexics will die after 20 years and only 30-40% will make a full recovery. The death rate associated with anorexia nervosa is 12 times higher than the death rate from ALL causes of death for women ages 15-24. The South Carolina Department of Mental Health shares these astonishing statistics. An estimated 8 million Americans have an eating disorder: seven million women and one million men. One in 200 American women suffers from anorexia Two to three of every 100 American women suffer from bulimia Almost half of all Americans personally know someone with an eating disorder (Note: One in five Americans suffers from mental illness). people with anorexia or bulimia are men.
Unhealthy diets and physical inactivity are to blame for hundreds of thousands of deaths each year, with approximately 100 million Americans classified as obese. However, 8 million people with an eating disorder is also a significant number. Unlike other addictions, recovery from an eating disorder cannot happen in a vacuum. As Sheila points out in the book’s introduction, “You can’t just say no to food. At work, at home, on the street, America is a 24-hour buffet.” To make matters worse, “society values the thinness of women” while promoting ready-made fast food at all times. With the growing national angst over obesity, the plot thickens along with waistlines.
It is this conflict, like the tug of war in a great novel, that makes this nonfiction book so engaging and disturbing. Published last August, the story of a young woman’s battle against anorexia and bulimia draws our attention to the many contradictory messages that we give and receive in our family relationships. Although feeding our children is the way we take care of them from birth; As they age, we have less and less control over what, when, how, where, and why they eat. During most of childhood, food is used alternately as food, reward, comfort, bribery, love, punishment, and ritual. In Lisa’s family, with her mother’s job as a food writer and her father’s love of gourmet food, food was an even more important part of the conversation. Whether this was a contributing factor or just a coincidence, it is impossible to know.
As the Himmels discovered when they searched for explanations for Lisa’s eating disorder, there are certain “causes or triggers” that popped up on almost every factor list: society’s adoration of ultra-thinness, anorexic mother or sister, highly focused parents. in appearance, trauma, perfectionist personality, genetic predisposition to the disorder. Genetic predisposition is very important. According to Wikipedia, inheritance rates vary between 56 and 84%.
I have long taken a look at the kitchens and dining rooms of two of my closest friends, who have alluded to dark periods when they were young women when they flirted with eating disorders. One of them fought with such enthusiasm that he now refuses to put limits on junk food in his home. He was even annoyed by attempts by some parents to ban soda machines from their children’s school. The other is unable to shake the feeling that with one wrong bite, obesity will not only be her own destiny, but also that of her husband and children.
How much of the hereditary factor is due to the environment created and maintained by a parent, and how much is due to genes inherited directly from that parent? And does that matter? Just as it is ridiculous to assume that the patient has control over the disorder, it seems equally true to expect that the parent with a similar history will be able to change his own biased perspective.
There are no easy answers. A friend, a pediatrician, scoffs at the idea of tiptoeing around the topic of diet with overweight teens. At the same time, many girls and women who have been victims of an eating disorder say they can identify the exact phrase that started them on that tortuous path.
Beyond exploring just the personal and social roots of Lisa’s anorexia, Sheila also looks at the historical roots. Compare current views on eating disorders with past views on diseases like cancer and tuberculosis. The mystery and shame surrounding these illnesses causes the same sense of guilt in eating disorder patients. There is the notion, as with most mental health problems, that “patients have brought it on themselves” and that they should just “get over it.”
Memories of the Himmels are an important and valuable tool for all of us, whether we or someone we love suffer from an eating disorder … or not. Developing an awareness of our society’s tendency toward obsession with food, appearance, and health is a critical step on the path to regaining moderation and balance in our own lives and the lives of others.