Too fat or too thin, it's the same emotional illness By DR ROBERT LEFEVER

Too fat or too thin, it's the same emotional illness

By DR ROBERT LEFEVER

The recent story of the lady who was vastly overweight, slimmed determinedly and became anorexic, is one I have heard many times. 

The opposite is equally common, when people who are anorexic lose their determined control and become over-eaters.

So is the middle ground of bulimia, when bingeing is followed by purging, vomiting or starving in order to stay at a constant weight.

We completely misunderstand eating disorders if we think of them as being primarily due to diet, nutrition and body weight.

Eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of any psychological illness. Some research shows the rate of those who die of their illness to be as high as 1 in 10, while many others never fully recover from their disease

They are emotional illnesses and really there is only one illness: the use of one or another aspect of eating behaviour to change the way we feel.

I should know: I've got an eating disorder. 

My weight used to vary, up and down, by fifty pounds. The most I ever lost in one stretch was twenty pounds in three weeks.

Whatever I took off always went back on again. 

I was always on a diet. I was always trying to eat sensibly. I failed every time.

I looked in the mirror and asked myself, 'Why are you doing this?'

I did not have the answer.

I looked to my childhood for causes and I found plenty. 

In due course I looked at my wife's childhood. She had vastly more reason than I did to develop an eating disorder, or some other compulsive behaviour, but she had none.

My mother had an eating disorder. Her mother was alcoholic. Her brother died from nicotine addiction.

I believe that my addictive nature, which comes out in several ways, was genetically inherited.

It could have been diagnosed in my childhood if people knew what they were looking for.

The crucial question, in addictive behaviour, is to ask why we do something - not specifically what or when or how much we do.

For this question the answer, in those of us who have an addictive tendency, is always the same: to change the way we feel.

Other people use food or alcohol for the taste. They use drugs or gambling for a bit of fun. They smoke or use caffeine to be sociable. They use shopping and spending to buy things or give things. They use exercise to get fit or relax

Whether starving or binging , eating disorders are emotional illnesses and really there is only one illness: the use of one or another aspect of eating behaviour to change the way we feel

We find all that very strange. Why on earth would they ever use a mood-altering substance or process if not primarily to change the way they feel?

People like me, with an eating disorder, do not primarily need doctors or dieticians, except to save our lives in extreme instances.

Nor do we need counsellors or therapists or psychotherapists, psychologists or psychiatrists or anyone else in the healthcare business.

We need each other - people who understand us from the inside. I learned from a lady called Shirley. She told me what she did and I followed her suggestions.

My weight hasn't changed, outside a range of 5 pounds, in 27 years.
More importantly, I enjoy life, I have mutually fulfilling relationships and I am spontaneous, creative and enthusiastic.

I can also be a right pain in the arse. Some things never change.