I'm a Child Anorexic

Watching now, thanks.
I'm only 15 minutes in and I'm sorry for the girls with anmorexia but, but feel horrified by the force feeding and prison like rules.
 
I get that they need to get their weights up if they really are life threateningly underweight, however I really don't see how this is going to help them to an actual recovery? They're just enhancing the girls' negative relationship to food :(
 
Have any of you also seen the "8 year old anorexic" documentary?
 
Seen both of them. Most of those girls end up falling back into it within a month of leaving the recovery centre. Too much focus on getting their weight up and not enough focus on why they do it. These people think that part of the issue is that the "anorexic" cannot think straight because their brain is starved. This has some truth in it, but until they address the real reasons they began starving themselves in the first place, they will keep relapsing.
 
doors-of-perception said:
Seen both of them. Most of those girls end up falling back into it within a month of leaving the recovery centre. Too much focus on getting their weight up and not enough focus on why they do it. These people think that part of the issue is that the "anorexic" cannot think straight because their brain is starved. This has some truth in it, but until they address the real reasons they began starving themselves in the first place, they will keep relapsing.
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Yes, I agree. The sad thing is that in such clinics they focus more on making the girls gain to a healthier weight rather than fix the mental issues of the desease. I find Rhodes Farm approach to recovery in a way to be quite traumatising to these children. They just expect them to stuff their faces and finish their plates with no difficulty and I think they do not realize how hard it is for the girls to actually to that without struggling.
 
doors-of-perception said:
Seen both of them. Most of those girls end up falling back into it within a month of leaving the recovery centre. Too much focus on getting their weight up and not enough focus on why they do it. These people think that part of the issue is that the "anorexic" cannot think straight because their brain is starved. This has some truth in it, but until they address the real reasons they began starving themselves in the first place, they will keep relapsing.
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totally agree with you, they focus so much on keeping their weights up that they forget about their personal issues,
eating disorders are the worst deceases, and recovery practically doesn't exist
 
I watched both of these back in high school when my eating habits were getting pretty bad but I just re-watched them again today. They're ridiculous. Making them actually scrape the plates clean and then punishing another girl because she had a big plate of pasta and dessert instead of fish and chips? They should be happy with the progress they're making with eating and actually fixing their minds and relationships with their bodies and food.

I still don't like to say I had an eating disorder and just say I had problems with food and although I can eat "normally" sometimes, I think my body is grotesque and I have a terrible relationship with food. I still try to restrict often and end up binging (and recently a couple purges). I'm trying to lose weight and even reaching 1,400 calories scares me and try to stick around 1,000 which just triggers my bad eating habits even more.

To end this rant about myself, eating doesn't fix the problem, the problem will still exist in the brain unless therapy to treat that is done. These poor girls even say that a lot will gain the weight to get out and go home and then go back to their old habits. It's a shame.
 
I just watched this today. It made me sad and angry the way that a lot of ED documentaries do; I felt the same way after watching THIN. The callous insensitivity and passive-aggressive behavior of the staff just breaks my heart for these girls. The staff make the patients' anorexia about themselves, instead of offering genuine compassion to people who are suffering.

When they wouldn't allow Natasha her weekend home because she ate pasta (and a pudding) instead of fish and chips was so upsetting. They seem to care more about enforcing the rules than about her changing attitude towards food. They take away all control and autonomy, supposedly for her own good. All it does is make her feel betrayed--she follows the rules and is punished for it instead of rewarded for her hard work.

And when Naomi was caught exercising and refused to drink water during her weekend home, the nurse/director's (?) teased her and made it into a battle when it didn't have to be. She essentially ridiculed the girl (who was in tears) for thinking there were calories in water; instead of having an open, honest conversation and asking real questions, she passive-aggressively implied that Naomi must want to stay at the treatment center forever because she wasn't trying to get better. Poor Naomi said that everyone tells her water has no calories, but she doesn't trust anyone anymore. That seems to me like the whole point. No one has treated her with the compassion she needs so she can learn to trust food and the people who provide it again. So so sad to watch this.

I understand that there need to be rules, and there should be. But the consequences should not be so steep, there should be more flexibility, and above all, patients need to be treated with compassion, not confronted like criminals.
 
Celestial said:
Have any of you also seen the "8 year old anorexic" documentary?
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zz0NkVtSdkQ


At that age, kids shouldn't know about calories to lose weight , sit-ups to burn calories etc. Just parents feeding them healthy foods and taking them outdoors to the parks, for family evening walks, bike rides etc for exercise.

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I don't think its fair that family blamed just the older sister for her anorexia, while an 8 year old has the tendency to pick up habits from members of the family esp. from the mom, sister, aunt....female figures. You also have to consider school, television, internet (some of my friends/acquaintances whose little sisters and brothers are like 6 or 10 have iPhones, Mini iPads, MacBooks with unlimited access to the internet and little parental guidelines and restrictions).
 
I've seen the Rhodes farm one and like people posted above the teachers? Are so insensitive especially about her eating the wrong "treat" food when out with her father. She said she even ate a chocolate afterwards which wasn't even required!

And the two kitchens. Some of the food they were served was just revolting to me. I wouldn't have finished it either.

I also think its a perfect example of how one can abuse power. The parents (and teachers) can basically exploit the child to do whatever they want for fear of being sent back there. I guess that's the case with any parent/teacher relationship but for some reason it resonated with me more while watching this.



Sent from space
 
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