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Tag: bulimia

  • Actress Lily Collins Details Bulimia Battle In New Memoir

    Actress Lily Collins Details Bulimia Battle In New Memoir

    Collins reveals in her new autobiography how divorce played in a role in her eating disorder.

    British actress Lily Collins has published a new memoir in which she addresses a long and debilitating struggle with an eating disorder during her teenaged years.

    Collins, who is the daughter of rock veteran Phil Collins and the star of such films as Mirror Mirror, wrote in Unfiltered: No Shame, No Regrets, Just Me that her desire to control her weight began with an addiction to exercise and laxatives and progressed to bingeing and purging.

    Collins also addressed her father’s alcoholism, which took hold as she was battling her eating disorder. Support from their family members helped both Lily and her father gain perspective on their respective diseases and as a result, grow closer. “It doesn’t define how I live my life daily any more,” she said.

    By Collins’ account, her childhood was marked by upheaval: Her father split from her mother, Jill Tavelman, in a costly divorce when she was five, and married his third wife, Orianne Cevey. Collins said that she “couldn’t handle the pain and confusion surrounding [her] dad’s divorce” and longed for his presence and approval. His absence left Collins feeling that she “wasn’t enough,” and she plunged into a punishing regime of extreme exercise and diet moderation through chewing gum and drinking coffee.

    By her mid-teens, Collins had turned to diet pills and laxatives to keep her weight down, and she began bingeing and purging on junk food. “I’d be in tears on the floor, jamming my hand down my throat and trying desperately to gag,” she wrote. Her menstrual cycle stopped for a period of two years, leaving her feeling like “a young woman in a little kid’s body.”

    As Collins continued to battle her disease into her early 20s, she saw that her father had spiraled into alcoholism, a condition he also fought for years. “Once I was aware, it was all I could see,” she wrote. “I was convinced that one day, I would wake up to a phone call from halfway across the world, saying that it had finally gone too far.”

    During this period, Lily also found herself in a revolving door of relationships with men consumed by their own dependency issues. The toxicity of these interactions reached its lowest point when a boyfriend pressured her to isolate herself from her friends and family and even threatened her with verbal and physical violence. That incident provided Collins with the impetus to make crucial changes to not only improve her health but also her relationship with her father, who also took control of his life and dependencies.

    With her newfound health and happiness also came stardom as an actress in such films as The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones and an upcoming BBC television adaptation of Les Miserables; Collins also tackled the issue of eating disorders head-on in the 2017 Netflix film To the Bone, in which she played a young woman struggling with anorexia. 

    Collins is keenly aware of her past struggles but also acknowledges how far she’s come since that time. “It’s never going to be erased because it’s a part of who you are,” she said. “But it doesn’t define how I live my life daily any more.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • How To Help Those With Eating Disorders During The Holidays

    How To Help Those With Eating Disorders During The Holidays

    Experts offer a variety of useful tips on how to help those living with eating disorders navigate the triggering holiday season.

    The holiday season isn’t fun for everyone. Spending time with family members, paired with indulgent meals, can be overwhelming in and of itself. For some—including people living with eating disorders—it can be a triggering time.

    An estimated 30 million Americans struggle with an eating disorder, defined as “serious and often fatal illnesses that cause severe disturbances to a person’s eating behaviors,” according to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). If your loved one is among them, you can support them this holiday season.

    Bustle asked a few experts on how best to approach this issue.

    “The holiday season usually means three things: Lots and lots of… food, lots of time with extended family, and lots of unstructured time. Those three things can be incredibly rewarding, but for someone who is struggling with an eating disorder, they can also be incredibly difficult,” says clinical psychologist Dr. Stephanie Zerwas.

    Help them prioritize their recovery

    Their recovery comes first. Let them know it’s okay to sacrifice some holiday traditions in the name of feeling well. “Your loved one likely has a difficult time putting themselves first. They may need you to do it,” says Alex Gonçalves, PhD, Assistant Vice President and Clinical Director of The Renfrew Center for Eating Disorders in Philadelphia.

    Go over what to expect

    Having a conversation with your loved one may help suss out their fears, and how you can help. “Ask what your loved one is anticipating the holiday will be like, both the joys and the challenges. Ask what might be helpful. The discussion can provide some relief from the intense feeling of isolation that often accompanies an eating disorder. And you just might gain an idea or two about how to help,” says Gonçalves.

    Come up with a plan

    It may help to have a relapse prevention plan ahead of time, so your loved one is not caught off guard in the middle of a gathering. This may involve checking in with his/her treatment provider before and after the holidays.

    Sticking to a routine, like an eating schedule, can provide structure and keep your loved one from getting off track.

    Know the symptoms

    Does your loved one seem anxious or emotional? Intense mood swings, depression, anxiety and feelings of isolation are all symptoms of eating disorders.

    “They may experience intense self-judgment for not feeling so happy when everyone else appears to be,” says Goncalves.

    At their worst, eating disorders like anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa can cause thinning of the bones, damage to vital organs, infertility and death. Anorexia nervosa has the highest mortality rate of any mental health disorder.

    It’s not your place to minimize your loved one’s eating disorder

    Even if you are being nice, it won’t help to downplay an eating disorder. “Eating disorders don’t respond to logic and argument. They do respond to love, empathy and compassion. Instead of trying to fix your family member by showing them the error of their eating disorder thoughts, let them know that you have empathy for how they are feeling, and ask them what kind of help they would like,” says Zerwas.

    For eating disorder help, call the National Eating Disorder Association helpline: 800-931-2237

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Apple Donates Smartwatches To Bulimia Initiative

    Apple Donates Smartwatches To Bulimia Initiative

    Participants will use the Apple Watch to monitor heart rates over a month-long period.

    Apple has pledged to donate 1,000 smartwatches to a study about bulimia nervosa patients.

    The purpose of the University of North Carolina study—called the Binge Eating Genetics Initiative (BEGIN)—is to better understand the genetic factors associated with binge-eating disorder and bulimia nervosa.

    Participants will use the Apple Watch to monitor heart rates over a month-long period. The smartwatches, which can provide detailed heart data and share data with researchers, will be able to detect any “spikes” in heart activity before a person binges. According to Engadget, if this is the case, “it might be possible to alert caregivers and patients before these acts take place.”

    With every new model, the Apple Watch offers better heart-monitoring technology. The latest iteration, “Series 4,” includes an electrical heart sensor that will eventually work with an app that takes EKGs, according to the New York Times.

    Bulimia nervosa is defined as a serious, potentially life-threatening eating disorder where people “binge and purge.” This refers to the act of consuming large amounts of food, then attempting to purge it from the body to prevent weight gain, by vomiting or abusing laxatives, weight-loss supplements, diuretics and enemas.

    Complications from bulimia nervosa include dehydration (which can lead to more serious complications such as kidney failure), heart problems (such as irregular heartbeat or heart failure), severe tooth decay or gum disease, absent or irregular periods in females, digestive problems, anxiety, depression, personality disorders, self-injury and suicidal thoughts.

    Participants in BEGIN will also spend 10 minutes per day recording their diets, goals and moods. Researchers will search for common genetic traits among participants using at-home gene and micro biome sample kits.

    As smartwatches offer more health-monitoring tools, some people are taking a less conventional—and arguably misguided—approach at applying technology to harm reduction.

    In July, CNBC reported that some adults are using the health-tracking technology of smartwatches and Fitbits to stay “safe” while using drugs.

    “If someone says, ‘Let’s do a line,’ I’ll look at my watch. If I see I’m at 150 or 160, I’ll say, ‘I’m good.’ That’s totally fine. Nobody gives you a hard time,” said “Owen,” a man from San Francisco who says his Fitbit keeps him from overdoing it at parties, nightclubs and even Burning Man.

    “I don’t really know what’s happening in my body when I smoke some weed or do some cocaine. I can read information online, but that’s not specific to me. Watching your heart rate change on the Fitbit while doing cocaine is super real data that you’re getting about yourself,” he said.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • 6 Tools That Empowered Me to Quit My Lifelong Eating Disorder

    6 Tools That Empowered Me to Quit My Lifelong Eating Disorder

    There are no simple answers or all-encompassing solutions for the complex state of being that is abstinence from compulsive overeating.

    I wouldn’t wish an eating disorder on anyone else, not even on those who bullied me about my weight as a child and adult. Growing up both depriving myself of food regularly and being fat was a dual hell for me, and I’ll never forget the many days walking by the school cafeteria and feeling so hungry, inhaling the aromas, having had no breakfast and no lunch to look forward to eating myself. From the time I went on my first diet at 11 years old, I woke up every morning on a diet for decades; it just didn’t always last through the day. People want to label fat people as lazy or foolish, with no concept of the complexity that actually goes into the eating disorders behind changes in size.

    Psychology Today reports that eating disorders are the most dangerous of all psychological disorders, and they bring so much pain along with the physical dangers. However, today I am happily in recovery from my compulsive overeating disorder, and I work to stay that way every day, often relying on the practices that empowered me to quit the eating disorder that plagued me since early childhood. Today, I am walking the road of recovery with the help of these tools.

    1. Radical Journaling

    Writing in my journal has been a passion of mine since I started a “Little House on the Prairie” diary as a kid. It brings me such joy to express my feelings on paper. In addition to keeping a diary for fun, I engage in what I call radical journaling. I’ve made a commitment to myself to write at least three pages every day, and within those specific three or more pages, I write about the deepest thoughts and feelings I’m having that day. These may include thoughts I have about my old tendency to self-destruct or how I feel about the future. I just try to get out the innermost feelings I have. Getting them out on paper helps me to make sense of things and no longer feel that I’m repressing the pain or longings of the day. That’s especially important for me since repressing my feelings can be a trigger for my old behavior.

    2. Being Kind to Myself

    Compassion for others has always come easy for me, but I was always extremely hard on myself. The simple notion of being kind to myself was a difficult concept to put into practice. I’d spent so much time berating myself for all the times I’d binged and hurt myself. For my own recovery, I had to learn to be kind and extend compassion to myself. And you know what? When I looked back and delved into the origins of my eating disorder in therapy, it was impossible not to have compassion for my younger self and understand how I’d waged a hard battle against my eating disorder before I had the tools to truly recover.

    Professionals agree that finding compassion for oneself is a strong tool for recovery. Carla Korn, LMFT, who specializes in treating those with eating disorders and body image issues, advises, “Have compassion for yourself. Disordered eating develops as a way to help a person cope with uncomfortable feeling and emotions. The eating disorder probably helped you to function when you didn’t know a better way to do so.”

    3. Maintaining My Motivation

    At the start of my recovery from disordered eating, I was very enthusiastic. I was on a sort of beginner’s high and couldn’t wait to see my progress. That’s how I’d also started every diet of my life, too. I soon remembered that it’s impossible to sustain that level of enthusiasm over the long haul. It’s just not practical. Human nature is such that motivation ebbs and flows. So, to stick with my recovery, I had to figure out ways to maintain my motivation.

    4. Eating Regularly

    Eating may seem like a darn weird tool for staying abstinent from compulsive overeating, but eating regularly is definitely among the more important things I do for my health and recovery each day. By making sure I eat regularly and don’t skip a lot of meals, I avoid getting too hungry, which triggers me to eat far more than I need.

    Stacey Rosenfeld, Ph.D., CGP, CEDS, and author of Does Every Woman Have an Eating Disorder? Challenging Our Nation’s Fixation with Food and Weight, cautions that it is important to eat regular meals and snacks to avoid getting too hungry. Feeling hungry and deprived can trigger eating disorder behaviors.

    5. Surrounding Myself with Support

    I have a team of people who are there to offer me support, which is a huge blessing. If I’m in crisis, or just need someone to be there for me, I know I can turn to a dear friend who coaches me, a therapist, other friends and loved ones, and support groups.

    A variety of support groups are available for compulsive overeating and other eating disorders. Overeaters Anonymous is probably the largest group with meetings all over the country, including online, telephone, and face-to-face meetings. The Overeaters Anonymous website allows you to easily search for a meeting that works for your schedule. Other support groups include Compulsive Eaters Anonymous and SMART recovery groups. If you don’t know where to start, you can contact the helpline at the National Eating Disorders Association at 1-800-931-2237.

    6. Making Choices Before Temptation Comes

    If I wait to see how I’m going to feel about eating an entire chocolate cake before I am sitting alone in a room with a delectable vegan chocolate cake, I’m probably going to want to scarf it down as quickly as possible at the earliest opportunity. However, if I carefully assess the situation and make a decision about eating the cake beforehand, I am able to pause before the desire to binge and whatever else may be fueling the temptation at the moment take over.

    Making advance decisions on how to fill the empty feeling and raw pain that fueled the addictive behavior is crucial to my ongoing recovery. Before I am at an event with that chocolate cake or even if I’m going to have it all to myself, I decide exactly how much I am going to eat and why. That doesn’t mean I won’t eat other, healthier foods at the event if I’m still hungry, but I won’t binge on any of my trigger foods. I know what moderation means to me and I choose that before I’m in the heat of the moment when I may be unable to make any rational decisions.

    Finally, I’ve found that there are no simple answers or all-encompassing solutions for the complex state of being that is abstinence from compulsive overeating. However, I do know that not one penny spent on the hugely profitable diet industry got me any closer to releasing the pounds than I was before and that relying on these tools has seen me through some difficult times of my recovery. I believe there is hope for anyone.

    View the original article at thefix.com