Intervention: Amy P. (bulimia, history of anorexia)

A

Agytha

Rising Star
May 8, 2012
1,478
410
Australia/the world
Episode here.


Intro/summary:
Amy was an anxious child who was never comfortable in her own skin. She became anorexic in high school and dropped out of college after one semester. She began binging and purging shortly after. She went to an inpatient treatment center and was in recovery for a year, but then relapsed and has been on a downward spiral ever since. Her bulimia has caused major health problems and friction between her and her family members. Amy has stolen from her family and been caught shoplifting food multiple times. Her parents have moved to a new house to accommodate Amy’s disorder, allowing her to live in the basement but locking her out of the main house to prevent her from stealing their groceries. Amy consumes an average of 24,000 calories a day and is obsessed with exercise and burning calories, purging 4 times a day. Her family hopes that an intervention will save her from slowly killing herself.
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I just watched this last night. Very sad :(

Would be interested in discussing and hearing people's thoughts.
 
such a beautiful girl. this is very sad to watch. i feel like something like art therapy would help her. she needs to distinguish herself as a person OTHER than food
it does also seem like an attention thing. perhaps repressed childhood feelings of inadequacies
 
ExtraShot said:
such a beautiful girl. this is very sad to watch. i feel like something like art therapy would help her. she needs to distinguish herself as a person OTHER than food
it does also seem like an attention thing. perhaps repressed childhood feelings of inadequacies
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This is clearly an issue beyond food and appearance.

She would have benefited from longer term in-patient care; often it can take getting up to a certain weight and the chemical balance in the brain being corrected for the pt to actually "see" their disorder for what it is.
 
ExtraShot said:
also, i feel SO sorry for her parents
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I agree but I also think they needed education and guidance on how to deal with the disorder in it's entirety; just as Amy could not distinguish between herself and her disorder, her parents and family were viewing her disorder and the way it was making her behave as *her* behaviour.

It really needs to be seen and treated like any other mental disorder. I wonder if this was something like major depression or schizophrenia or the like, if they would have simply popped her in the basement?
 
Thank so much for posting this link! I LOVE Intervention, and I find the eating disorder episodes great for kind of "coming back to reality" if my dieting is ever getting out of hand...
 
Agytha said:
This is clearly an issue beyond food and appearance.

She would have benefited from longer term in-patient care; often it can take getting up to a certain weight and the chemical balance in the brain being corrected for the pt to actually "see" their disorder for what it is.
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Agytha said:
I agree but I also think they needed education and guidance on how to deal with the disorder in it's entirety; just as Amy could not distinguish between herself and her disorder, her parents and family were viewing her disorder and the way it was making her behave as *her* behaviour.

It really needs to be seen and treated like any other mental disorder. I wonder if this was something like major depression or schizophrenia or the like, if they would have simply popped her in the basement?
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i know, it was so sad at the end where you could see her getting better...and then read her current situation. she was obviously let out too soon. as much as you could see that intervention helped open her eyes a little, an eating disorder of that calibre needs much more therapy and help.
i did get a twinge of annoyance when her siblings were saying they were angry with her- you could see that had no idea how the disorder manifests itself psychologically. and yeah- i did NOT understand the whole basement situation.
 
Agytha said:
It really needs to be seen and treated like any other mental disorder. I wonder if this was something like major depression or schizophrenia or the like, if they would have simply popped her in the basement?
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There has been research done that shows bulimia is very much a mental/chemical-imbalance disorder and SSRIs (in addition to in-patient therapy) may help. Anyway, she's so beautiful... I hope she gets help soon.

Side note: if you want to increase your serotonin levels, omega-3 and B-complex vitamins!! I was very very sad one summer, exhibited a lot of self-hate and binge/purge behavior, but the vitamins seemed to help a bit until the mental behaviours decreased.
 
ExtraShot said:
i know, it was so sad at the end where you could see her getting better...and then read her current situation. she was obviously let out too soon. as much as you could see that intervention helped open her eyes a little, an eating disorder of that calibre needs much more therapy and help.
i did get a twinge of annoyance when her siblings were saying they were angry with her- you could see that had no idea how the disorder manifests itself psychologically. and yeah- i did NOT understand the whole basement situation.
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Like how earlier in the segment she was talking about all she could recall was food and purging and then she seemed so happy as she was recovering and talking about traveling and the future...
I actually wish they had sectioned her (forced her into treatment); it sounds harsh but I truly believe she needs it and won't be able to recover unassisted.
 
ZeroDiet said:
There has been research done that shows bulimia is very much a mental/chemical-imbalance disorder and SSRIs (in addition to in-patient therapy) may help. Anyway, she's so beautiful... I hope she gets help soon.

Side note: if you want to increase your serotonin levels, omega-3 and B-complex vitamins!! I was very very sad one summer, exhibited a lot of self-hate and binge/purge behavior, but the vitamins seemed to help a bit until the mental behaviours decreased.
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There's the added benefit in such extreme circumstances of increased appetite; so when someone in exceptionally malnourished in such circumstances, the SSRIs can help them gain weight faster, particularly in the initial stages.
 
Agytha said:
There's the added benefit in such extreme circumstances of increased appetite; so when someone in exceptionally malnourished in such circumstances, the SSRIs can help them gain weight faster, particularly in the initial stages.
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I hadn't even thought about that. Tell me, what do you do aside from modeling? You seem so educated. :)
 
Agytha said:
This is clearly an issue beyond food and appearance.

She would have benefited from longer term in-patient care; often it can take getting up to a certain weight and the chemical balance in the brain being corrected for the pt to actually "see" their disorder for what it is.
Click to expand...

Are you studying in the medical field or something because you seem very knowledgeable about stuff!

I'm actually obsessed with Intervention because I come from a family of alcoholics and I've always wanted to do one for my parents. It hasn't happened but I also don't drink because of them and I slid down that hill the last couple of years, which is a VERY slippery slope.

I'm interested in asking you a question though!
I participate in another forum for recovering alcoholics, addicts, drug abusers and whatnot.
Anyway, one day I was checking out the eating disorders page and a girl had brought up how once she quit drinking she turned anorexic. She stated a study that said addicts are 30% more likely to develop eating disorders than a non-addict. And it made alot of sense to me because when I was a drunk I really didn't give a shit about myself and when I was drunk I would binge and sometimes purge because I would hate myself so much.
But the funny thing is once I became sober I never binged or purged again.
In my sobriety I've found that I am very obsessed about what I put into my body and it's this sense of control that I never had when using.
I think it's weird how I went from having NO control an not giving a crap about what I put into my body or the harm I caused to completely wanting all control and basically being a perfectionist.
So I guess my question is what would be your take on the addict/alcoholism/abuse thing and eating disorders or control in general?

I know that I'm not anorexic or anything so don't worry about that!
Thanks in advance :)
 
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Thank you for sharing. It was heartbreaking, she's incredibly beautiful. I was brought to tears during the intervention when her brother tears up :( I didn't understand why they discharged her after 12 days because she didn't corporate surely the medical staff must know that it takes a long time. i kind of thought that was stupid, a facility like that must have a lot of patients that are unwilling to get better and just because she took a step backwards is no reason to discharge her. It's the continued care that helps in the long term.


Bubba said:
Are you studying in the medical field or something because you seem very knowledgeable about stuff!

I'm actually obsessed with Intervention because I come from a family of alcoholics and I've always wanted to do one for my parents. It hasn't happened but I also don't drink because of them and I slid down that hill the last couple of years, which is a VERY slippery slope.

I'm interested in asking you a question though!
I participate in another forum for recovering alcoholics, addicts, drug abusers and whatnot.
Anyway, one day I was checking out the eating disorders page and a girl had brought up how once she quit drinking she turned anorexic. She stated a study that said addicts are 30% more likely to develop eating disorders than a non-addict. And it made alot of sense to me because when I was a drunk I really didn't give a shit about myself and when I was drunk I would binge and sometimes purge because I would hate myself so much.
But the funny thing is once I became sober I never binged or purged again.
In my sobriety I've found that I am very obsessed about what I put into my body and it's this sense of control that I never had when using.
I think it's weird how I went from having NO control an not giving a crap about what I put into my body or the harm I caused to completely wanting all control and basically being a perfectionist.
So I guess my question is what would be your take on the addict/alcoholism/abuse thing and eating disorders or control in general?

I know that I'm not anorexic or anything so don't worry about that!
Thanks in advance :)
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I don't know if I can give a better explanation than Agytha, but from my understanding is that studies have shown common brain pathways to be involved in addiction and eating disorders more specifically obesity, food addiction and bulimia. In addicts the mesolimbic pathway in the brain is possibly impaired and when an individual with impaired mesolimbic system is exposed to drug it causes an increase in dopamine release which is what gives them the high. In abstinence, that high is removed. However, food and any other activity that is deemed to be rewarding can cause that high and can cause some individuals to seek that high again possibly from food or another substance/activity. I haven't learned anything on addiction and anorexia but I am guessing that anorexia could possibly also cause an increase in dopamine release or that control can also possibly result in that same overstimulation of the dopamine pathways which may be why some develop anorexia or could show anorexic tendencies. I don't know much about self control but I know that control and impulse behaviour are associated in the prefrontal cortex and amygdala which are also brain regions shown to play a part in addiction. It could be possible that these regions may be impaired which may be why some individuals aren't able to control their intake and could actually have "normal" basel level of activity in the mesolimbic pathway. Also, studies have shown that the brain regions of addicts are over activated when presented with anything that associates with the substance and similarly the same regions are also activated in obese when presented with food associations which is why some individuals may already be showing some addiction like behaviour to certain foods. All of this has now led to some scientists claiming that addiction is a possible explanation of obesity and it's the reward pathways in the brain that are impaired.

@Agytha, please tag me when you respond. I would love to read your insight and I know yours will be much more eloquently explained.
 
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I just started watching this episode... 24,000 calories a day. I don't even know. I feel so bad for her </3
 
@classichic
Thank you!
That was very informative! A bit over my head but what can I say, all you girls are so dang smart!!

Now that I think about it when I was going through my drunken fuzz of a life I used to live, I never ate anything until I started drinking.
It was like I had to drink to be able to eat or something. How do I explain it...
I hated myself basically and I guess I just wanted to numb myself to life.
So I would wake up hungover, go to work and not eat a thing until I got home and had 4 glasses of wine.
Oh it's so weird to think back to then.
Then when I was drunk I would think "Who cares? I'm just gonna binge"
Thinking about it though I was always trying to lose weight and get skinnier but I never could because of this pattern.
I do know people who are alcoholics and they never eat anything and they waste away because of this self hatred thing going on. They literally live off of alcohol.
My eating patterns haven't changed since then. I still don't eat a thing all day for some reason and maybe that's just habitual. But I don't binge anymore either.
I don't know, I do wish someone could tell me more about people who are recovered/recovering and how their past addictions play into their new way of life, because I feel like when you have all those messed up brain pathways that you were saying classichic it doesn't ever go away and I know from experience that your addiction basically has to be replaced with something else.
I have watched every episode of intervention tho and 90% of all the girls with addictions have eating disorders as well.
I was trying to find the intervention for Katie who was bulimic and an alcoholic but I can't find the video online :(
I remember this girl Jessie a bulimic who was very thin here's the you tube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAwjBmrGL18
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=193kdWnvDfk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_IGZW1es18

Thanks for your feedback :)
 
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ExtraShot said:
i know, it was so sad at the end where you could see her getting better...and then read her current situation. she was obviously let out too soon. as much as you could see that intervention helped open her eyes a little, an eating disorder of that calibre needs much more therapy and help.
i did get a twinge of annoyance when her siblings were saying they were angry with her- you could see that had no idea how the disorder manifests itself psychologically. and yeah- i did NOT understand the whole basement situation.
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What breaks my heart is that some girls live in treatment centers like for years and never really recover.
 
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