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Charity No. 1108405
Support and Empathy for people with
Eating Disorders
“from a seed a flower blooms as do people who blossom in life”…….
S.E.E.D.
Eating Disorders Support Services
A Guide for Young People
Secretary Marg Oaten
Tel No: (01482) 718130
website: www.seedeatingdisorders.org.uk
RR.13
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CONTENTS Page 1 Front Page Page 2 Contents Page 3 What is an Eating Disorder Page 4 What May Cause an Eating Disorder Page 5 Identification Checklist Page 6 How Anorexia and Bulimia Affect the Body Pages 7 - 8 Keeping Safe and What You Should Know Page 9 Boys Get Eating Disorders Too Page 10 Where Do I Go To Get Help Page 11 Do’s and Don’ts Page 12 Be Proud of Who You Are Page 13 - 14 Eat to Live, Live to Eat Page 15 Resources and Links Page 16 Acknowledgments
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An Eating Disorder
It is about Feelings Not About Food
There are three main types of eating disorder: Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia
Nervosa and Binge Eating Disorder.
People with anorexia
Limit the amount of food they eat by skipping meals and rigidly controlling what they will and will not eat. They
evaluate themselves through body weight and shape and this then starts to control them and they can become
very ill.
People with bulimia
Think about food 24/7 and become caught in a cycle of eating large amounts of food (called a binge) and then
make themselves sick (called the purge) in order to rid themselves of the food they have eaten.
People with Binge Eating Disorder
Eat large amounts of food in a short period of time and tend to put on weight.
People with different types of eating disorders
There are also other eating disorders that are a mixture of the disorders above.
An Eating Disorder is About Feelings Not Food!
Some eating patterns can be damaging but by developing an eating disorders this becomes a way of coping with
feelings that are making you unhappy or depressed. Food becomes a problem when it is used to help you to cope
with painful situations or feelings or relieving stress. If this is how you deal with food and you are unhappy about
it, then you should talk about it with someone you trust. Try not to bottle up your feelings because this is not
helpful to you or to other people around you, it won’t make you feel any better and the problem will not go
away.
I don't have a problem!
The biggest step forward is when someone accepts that there is a problem but more importantly they must want
to make changes.
Often people are not in the right place (in their mind) to want to do this and by changing, often feel they are los-
ing control over the one thing they have control of!
Understanding the long terms consequences of what an eating disorder can do to your body can often help you
to take responsibility for your well being and seek the support you need to overcome this illness.
Check out page 5 this may help you to understand
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An eating disorder
is a coping strategy
It is a form of Control
whereby the Food is the
Symptom not the Cause
What May Cause An Eating Disorder
Anything That Lowers a Self Esteem
divorce
bereavement
Throw away comment
perfectionism
bullying
changes
media
Leaving home
relationships
Loss of a loved
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IDENTIFICATION CHECKLIST
Emotional signs to look for in Bulimia
• Change in Character
• Low mood (Depressed)• Low self esteem• Tearful• Mood swings• Isolation from others• Withdrawing socially• Fatigue (due to poor sleep patterns)
• Characteristic Outbursts
• Irrational thought pattern
• Poor Concentration
Physical Signs to look for in Bulimia
• May be low in weight but not always
• Poor hair condition
• Poor skin condition
• Eating large amounts of food
• Drinking large amounts of fluid witha meal
• Visiting the toilet straight after orduring a meal
• Sores on knuckles
• Sore throat and mouth
• Arced front teeth (acid erosion)
• Swelling in cheeks (moon face)
• Poor Sleep Patterns
• Chest Pains
• Muscle Cramps
• Pins and Needles in Arms or Legs
If 3 or more of these boxes have been ticked there may be cause for concern and it would be advisable to share your concerns with your GP. Alternatively call the help line for advice and support
(01482) 718130
www.seedatingdisorders.org.uk
Emotional signs to look for in Anorexia
• Change in Character
• Low Mood (Depressed)
• Low Self Esteem
• Overall Sadness• Tearful• Uncharacteristic outburst• Inability to concentrate• Isolation/Anti social• Periods of absence from school• Pre-occupation with food& food issues
• Anxiety around food
• Irrational thoughts patterns
• Poor Concentration
Physical Signs to look for in Anorexia
• Noticeable Weight Loss
• Fatigue
• Constantly feeling cold
• Growth of fine body hair (lanugo)
• Poor hair condition
• Poor skin condition
• Unable to participate in physicalactivities
• Skipping meals
• Avoidance of eating with others
• Unable to attend school due to poorphysical condition
• Your periods have stopped or you havemissed 3 consecutive periods
• Slurred speech
If 3 or more of these boxes have been ticked there may be cause for concern and it would be advisable to share your concerns with your GP. Alternatively call the help line for advice and support.
(01482) 718130
www.seedatingdisorders.org.uk
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KEEPING SAFE AND WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW!
Do you suffer from an eating disorder or care for someone who does?
An eating disorder has the highest mortality rate of any other mental health illness with
a staggering 20% of sufferers dying each year as a direct result of the illness or from sui-
cide. Don’t suffer in isolation. We are here to help you!
The Importance of Physical Monitoring
It is important that a person’s physical well being is balanced with their emotional needs. Do not think
because a person is receiving emotional support or psychotherapy, that all their needs are being met. It is
up to the individual to check in with their GP in order that they are monitored physically. The GP should
be part of the sufferer’s care.
Medical Risk in Eating Disorders
For a detailed account of medical risks in eating disorders visit:- www.iop.kcl.ac.uk type in ‘medical risk
assessment for eating disorders’ and this will navigate you to a paper written by Prof Janet Treasure.
What is a Body Mass Index (B.M.I.)?
A BMI is a height to weight formula to determine categories for weight.
The formula is:-
weight (KG)/height (m) x height (m)
e.g. 1.78m tall, weighing 86kg =
1.78 x 1.78 = 3.17
86 divided by 3.17 = 27.1
BMI = 27.1
Example
Ref: www.iop.kcl.ac.uk (medical risk in eating disorders)
Be aware!
• A BMI does not take into account the age or gender of an individual.
• For a child a Child Centile Growth Chart should be used to calculate a BMI
• Nor should a BMI be a stand alone assessment of medical risk.
25 to 18.5 Healthy Weight
18.5 to17.5 Underweight
17.5 to 15.0 Anorexia Nervosa
15.0 to 13.5 Severe Anorexia Nervosa
13.5 to 12 Critical Anorexia Nervosa
Less than <12 Dangerously Underweight/Life Threaten-ing
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Potassium
Potassium is a mineral that regulates the heart, helps lower our blood pressure and decreases the
risk of a stroke.
If you are experiencing, chest pain, tingling in arms, pins and needles, leg cramps, muscle twitching
in arms or legs it may be that your potassium levels are low and it is important that you
seek medical advice as soon as possible. In extreme cases of severe chest pain go immedi-
ately to the nearest A & E Department. Low potassium levels may occur if someone suffer-
ers from bulimia or takes large amounts of laxatives.
It may be necessary for the GP to prescribe potassium supplements.
The following foods are high in potassium:-
Bananas, tomatoes, oranges, grapes, lentils and peaches.
Coffee also contains potassium.
The Importance of Fluids!
Water makes up 50-80% of our total body weight
Without fluids we would not be able to survive any longer than a week. Our organs, tissues and fluids of our
body contain water as an essential component. Most adults aim to drink 6—8 cups/glasses of water a day.
Fluids have many functions within the body:- It aids nutrient digestion and absorption. It regulates our body
temperature and carries waste products away from cells through urine. faeces and expiration, to name a
few.
If we do not drink enough fluid we become dehydrated and begin to feel generally unwell. Dehydration can
cause dizziness, headaches, irritability, dry skin, falling blood pressure, decreased urine output, increased
heart rate and extreme thirst. Long term dehydration can cause kidney failure. Dehydration may lead to
being hospitalised. It is a known fact that once our fluid levels are increased we feel much better in general
terms. We are soon able to ‘function’ better and our concentration levels return to normal and headaches
will subside .
It may be difficult for a sufferer to re-establish eating patterns but it is important that they take
responsibility for their fluid intake in the first instance.
Don’t worry if you feel bloated; this is the body’s normal reaction as fluids are retained in the first instance.
Did you know that the body is made up approximately 80% fluid.
Any feelings of bloated-ness will soon pass.
How does anorexia affect our brain?
An eating disorder affects our ability to think rationally.
This is as a result of starvation on the body. It is considered that someone with a BMI of less than 16 would
not respond well to therapy. (see information on Body Mass Index).
This is the ‘ball park’ figure determined via the psychology services for people in this area.
This does vary in other parts of the country.
MENTAL HEALTH ACT -
If you do not keep yourself safe someone else will!
If a person needs re-feeding to save their life this can be done against their will and there are guidelines in
place under the Mental Health Act.
The following website explains the Mental Health Act 1983 in more detail.
www.dh.gov.uk
A normal range for
potassium levels
would be
3.5 to 5.2
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Boys Get Eating Disorders Too
If you are a Male and Have an Eating Disorder
YOU ARE NOT ALONE
Many people assume that eating disorders only affect teenage girls. This is not true.
Research shows about a quarter of people affected by an eating disorder at school age are boys.
Amongst adults at least 10% of people diagnosed as having an eating disorder are male. However there are
probably many more undiagnosed cases because there is less chance of the condition being recognised in male
sufferers.
Many males find it hard to ask for help especially when the doctor or counsellor does not recognise their
symptoms.
One of the most common symptoms of eating disorders in boys is an excessive concern about fitness leading
to over–exercising.
This can put excessive pressure upon joints and lead to muscular complaints. It may also strain heart and lungs.
It is good to look after your fitness levels but do this in a healthy way, never restrict your diet to achieve the
‘look’ this is when thing can spiral out of control and what set out as a ‘workout’ once or twice a week may
become obsessive. Put that with a reduced intake of food and increased exercise and the need to ‘control’ it
then becomes an eating disorder.
Just like with girls the effects of starvation on the body brings about changes—one of those is that, due to star-
vation, your body will not produce testosterone and you will not move forward into manhood sexually.
You may try to find ways of punishing yourself if you don’t lose enough weight or eat something you would not
usually eat. Losing weight is not the answer.
It is important that you try and focus on who you are, and what may have caused you to feel the way you do.
Try to change the way you feel about yourself and aim to find safer ways of coping.
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How do I regain my life and start to feel happy and secure again?
This can take a long time but it is possible to get better.
To do this you need to have a network of support to help you in all areas.
Here are a few examples of support. You wont need all of them but may need more than one.
NETWORK OF SUPPORT COULD BE A
COMBINATION OF ANY THESE EXAMPLES
Increased
awareness
GP
Self help
Support from Family
Therapy
Help line
Books
Support from friends Counselling
Internet and Research Supervised youth chat lines
On line resources
Art Therapy
Psychotherapy
Psychiatry
Nutritional Support
Confidence building
Motivational work
Family therapy
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What Do I Do and Where Do I Go
First you have to admit there is a problem!
“I Have an Eating Disorder”
“I WANT to get Better and I NEED help to do that”
Do’s:-
• Do ...Make an appointment to see your GP. The GP will be the person to refer you to appropri-
ate services that support you emotionally and will make sure you are physically well
• Do ...Talk to your parents
• Do ...Talk to the School Nurse or your Head of Year
• Do ...Confide in a Friend
• Do ...Research on the internet through reputable sites
• Do ...Phone a help line or seek self help through groups of on line resources
• Do ...Ask to see a counsellor at your school or college
• Do ...Explore what the eating disorder is doing for you and then think of how you would feel if
you didn't have the eating disorder and felt a lot healthier than you do now.
• Do ...Keep making those connections this is known as the pro’s and con’s
• Do …Take one day at a time and remember it can take a long time to overcome an eating disor-
der
• Do ...Feel very proud that you are trying to make changes
• Do …Feel very proud of the person that you are
Don’t:-
• Don’t ….Suffer in isolation—remember the sooner you receive help to sooner you will start to
feel a lot better.
• Don’t ...Visit websites that promote eating disorders - they are very dangerous
• Don’t …Expect your friend to get you better. This is not fair it is up to you to take responsibility
for your own well being
• Don't ...Allow yourself to get very poorly, by refusing to eat or drink this may mean you have to
go into a hospital or into a unit to get better.
• Don’t … Set yourself up to fail by setting goals that are unrealistic.
• Don’t … Get upset if you are having a ‘bad’ day. Go with that day, draw the line and try again
tomorrow!
• Don’t ...“FEEL I WILL NEVER OVERCOME THIS”…...with a lot of hard work and a lot of support
you CAN!
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Be Proud of Who You Are!
We are constantly bombarded with magazine items about how to lose weight and more so about which celebri-
ties are slim and who are not.
The message that sends to people is that it is ok to be slim but not to be overweight.
It is understandable why some young people strive to look like the models or the celebrities.
Did you know that the picture you see in the magazines may not always be a true picture of the person!
They are digitally edited to make that person appear better for the magazine.
Every one is individual it would be a strange and boring world we live in if we were all the same
It is what is inside a person that counts. The way we chose to look is a matter of choice but more importantly it
is about how we feel about ourselves.
FEEL GOOD ABOUT WHO YOU ARE!
You must respect yourself both in body and in mind!
Hold your head high and follow your dreams.
Be happy! To do that you need to be healthy!
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Eat to Live, Live to Eat Written by Emily-Jane Cramphorn (aged 16)
Recently entered into the Ryan McKay Prize
Greed - a five letter word that, to most of the world, means little more than ‘a bit too much’ of this or that. Ano-
rexia - a baleful illness that destroys one’s life through a severe fear and falsification of the meaning, and more
importantly, the significance of greed!
An anorectic lives in fear of living to eat, hence a subsequent failure to eat in order to sustain one’s life. This fear
of greed and living to eat is not the only constituent of an eating disorder, nor is it a fundamental cause, yet it
plays a highly important role in one’s descent into, what can only be described as, Hell. The fear of weight gain,
looking greedy and being fat, fuels anorexia; keeping it strong, which essentially debilitates its sufferers. This
leads not only to further emotional turmoil but also to grave illnesses, failure of the vital organs and, in many
cases, death.
Personally, I have been struck by anorexia’s relentlessly ruthless rawhide; my soul was not simply suppressed, it
was stolen - my life was shattered. I had nothing, I was nobody.
Modern day society dictates to young girls, young women and even young men how they should act, think, look;
what they should wear, say and eat. All of a sudden if you eat a beef burger, you are fat, greedy or bulimic, yet if
you are simply slender you are anorexic - how did the world become so black and white?
This dictatorship feeds into eating disorders and has caused an uprise of ‘wannarexics’. These so called
‘wannarexics’ become obsessed with fitting in, mimicking eating disorders and posting ‘thinspo’ all over the inter-
net; causing those who suffer to become further entrenched into the illness. Many anorectics find themselves
disgusted at these ‘wannarexics’ and their ‘pro-ana’ communities, as they belittle the hell in which they are
trapped. Nonetheless, if they’re anything like me, they find themselves compulsively compelled to look at and
compete with the spurious skeletons which define ‘perfection’.
I find a certain amount of irony in the title ‘Eat to Live, Live to Eat’ as this reflects a popular ‘pro-ana’ quote - ‘I
eat to live, I do not live to eat’. This dictates how one’s relationship with food should be in the eyes of an anorec-
tic, as a way to try and encourage weight loss throughout the ‘pro-ana’ world; nevertheless it sums up the gruel-
ling internal battle that one faces day in, day out; week in, week out.
The irony doesn’t stop there: an anorectic desperately longs to disregard food, convincing themselves that they
do not need it, and more significantly, do not care about it. Through trying to disregard food and its importance
you simply become obsessive. Food is all you can think about as you lurch from meal to meal, food is all you care
about - inherently, despite not eating, you live to eat.
As a former victim of anorexia I can confidently say that an eating disorder is not glamorous, fashionable or cool.
There is a fine line between eating to live and starvation, a line that an anorectic is unable to identify, a line that
decides your fate, a line that ultimately differentiates between life and death; a line that, dare I say, is so easily
crossed with a one way ticket grasped tightly in your hand.
Once you have crossed the line everything becomes distorted, a forkful becomes a plateful, a calorie, 2000. In the
realm of starvation nothing and no one else matters but anorexia - not even you. You are bound to an unwritten
contract between you and anorexia, a private contract of which you and only you are aware, a contract that is
punitive, potent and pitiless. You are raped by anorexia, imprisoned in a cell without a key.
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Anorexia will control your life, dictate to you, abuse you and destroy you - it takes everything and every-one, leaving you with only hatred and fear. You will not believe you are worthy, worthy of food, happi-ness or life. You will no longer live, you simply exist as anorexia uses your frail body to thrive, spreading havoc and despair. You will want to die. This is not a trend nor is it something to be advocated - why is this so hard to see? I do not understand how the media can sensationalise eating disorders nor do I understand why people buy into the idea. After five years of battling anorexia I certainly would not advocate it. I would not advo-cate starving yourself to the point of heart failure, liver failure, kidney failure. I would not advocate wast-ing your life in hospital, hiding food and sabotaging naso-gastric feeds. I would not advocate loneliness and self-hatred. I would not advocate exercising until you faint. I would not advocate vomiting until you see little more than blood. I would not advocate waking up in the middle of the night afraid that you are going to die; so why does the media? In modern day society eating disorders are no longer a taboo subject, to call somebody anorexic is sim-ply a throw away comment. So if eating disorders are no longer considered dirty, if they are no longer a taboo, why can we not speak the truth about them? Why do we have to distort, glamorise, mould them into what the media sees as acceptable? The glamorisation of eating disorders makes recovery seem not only impossible, but something to be frowned upon. Nevertheless recovery is neither of these things; after embarking on, what seemed to be, a never ending journey I broke out of my cell, annihilating anorexia once and for all. It was the hardest thing I have and will ever have to do. I was an emotional wreck, I hated gaining weight and learning to eat again seemed impossible, nevertheless I got my life back, therefore, making it the best thing I have and will ever do. My journey was long and gruelling, involving long stays in three hospitals, tube feeds and relapses. Age 13 I was been held down, kicking and screaming, whilst being spoon fed; I was watched around the clock and I couldn’t even flush the toilet - the media never publicises this side of anorexia! Aged 14, I was admitted to a specialist unit, tube fed, manhandled and forced to face up to my demons. It was an emotional roller coaster, my thoughts were hard to fight, and the chains in which I was locked were both heavy and plentiful. At first the whole thing seemed impossible; I felt like I was living to eat not eating to live. Nevertheless, fed up with hospitals, loneliness and ultimately anorexia, I battled through the platefuls of food, internal turmoil and ingrained beliefs. After four months I was discharged and well on my way to recovery - why was I ashamed? The media doesn’t expose eating disorders truthfully, it twists them in order to sell more magazines; it makes them seem glamorous, it makes curvy girls feel ashamed. The media creates a consensus that anybody who eats McDonalds, anyone who is a size 10 is fat and greedy - the media ironically reflects the thoughts of an anorectic, making it harder on those trying to scramble back out of the anorectic cra-ter, cutting inches off their rope. The media makes the line between starvation and eating to live yet more ambiguous, almost eliminating the sale of return tickets. Hence I leave you with this question: if we live in a world where eating a burger is living to eat and starvation is eating to live, how is anorexia ever going to be beaten?
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Acknowledgments
If you need any further information or support you can always access us through our website www.seedeatingdisorders.co.uk where there is a confidential email response system in place.
There are no age restrictions on our help line neither are there any time restrictions in operation. If you need nutritional support you can always ring Emma on 0482 561856 on a WEDNESDAY evening from 6.30pm to 7.30pm Or you can e mail her on [email protected]
You would need to be 16 or over to attend the groups or link in with an e mail buddy or a telephone buddy.
We also run workshops for carer and teach skills to help them deal with an eating disorder and be able to support you better.
It would be good to think we have young ambassadors of SEED who would be pro-active in the develop-ment of service provision.
A big thank you to Emily-Jane Cramphorn for giving permission to publish her account of living with anorexia.
Clipart on this brochure is from ‘Invisible’ used with author’s permission
www.eatingdisordersresources.co.uk
Why not pop along to our Resource Room
Mandy will be there to answer your questions and make you feel welcome
We have Library Books to loan on all sorts of different issues of Eating Disorders
Plus on line resources and i-pods to listen to calming relaxing music
find our address at seedeatingdisorders.org.uk
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Resources
Name Location Help Line Web site/email
SEED Eating Disorder Sup-port Services
Support and Empathy for people with Eating Disorders
A Local Charity de-livering services for mild to moderate eating disorders in Hull, E. Yorkshire offering support to both sufferers and carers
01482 718130
No age restrictions and
no time restriction
answer phone may be
in operation
Resource Room
01482 344084
www.seedeatingdisorders.org.uk
B-eat(beating eating disorders)Delivery support for all agessuffering from eating disor-ders
A National Charity Based in Norwich, Norfolk.
0845 634 7650
Youth line
Mon—Fri 4.30pm to
8.30pm and
Sat 1.00pm to 4.00pm
www.b-eat.co.uk
Connexions Direct Allows young people to speak to an online advisor, or get help on a variety of issues including Eating Disorders
Nationally 08 0800 13219 www.connexionsdirect.com
Child Line A support service for children and young people across the UK. Delivers support and advice via the phone, email message board or live chat services
National Charity to support young peo-ple
0800 11 11 www.childline.org.uk
Mind Matters The Mind Matters support site is a sign posting service to point young people in the right direc-tion to get help with a variety of Mental Health issues including Eating Disorders
Services and informa-
tion for those living
within the East Riding
Not available www.erya.co.uk/mh
TEEN Help
A young person’s support ser-vice run by young people. It operate a Live Help service, Chat Room Support Forums, videos, articles and more.….
Would need to register
but this service is free
of charge and has some
really useful informa-
tion in all areas not just
eating disorders.
Not available www.teenhelp.org
A & E Mental Health Liaison (Specialising in Self Harm)
Local Help 01482 675676
CAMHS (Child & Adolescent Mental HS)
Hull
ER (Beverley)
ER (Driffield)
01482 303680
01482 869200
01377 208280
