Anorexia
Mandy Allison is 33 years old. She has a six year old son and she is a trained therapist and counsellor. But her life has been dominated by her anorexia. She has been sectioned several times, has spent long periods in hospital - often against her wishes 鈥 and her condition has brought her close to death.
The options for treatment for anorexia are terribly limited in this country. In some areas there is no specialised treatment at all. Some of the sufferers and carers on the bEAT (Eating Disorders Association) message boards have been inspired to petition the Prime Minister on the 10 Downing Street website. Anyone who listens to Mandy's story and wants to do something to help could do worse than consider signing the petition which is easily found under petitions/eating disorders.
Complain about this postI listened with horror to the lady with anorexia talking about her treatment. Why do they pick on anorexia, what about alcoholism, drug addiction and morbid obesity? I have often thought, through personal family and friend experience of all of these problems, that sectioning could be a way of helping people who either cannot or will not get help themselves. The description of the so called 'treatment' has made me change my view, or at least take a step back from it. I would love to hear further discussion on this. People who live with a member of the family who is an alcoholic and slowly killing themselves, drug addicted offspring who steal everything of value from their parents home's to sell to feed their habits. Also people who have to watch members of their family eat themselves to death. This is a problem in society which I suspect is far larger than most people realise.
Complain about this postThank you for the interesting, if pessimistic, piece on anorexia this morning. However my usual complaint of media coverage: why did you need to ask Mandy's lowest weight? Its a basic fact of anorexia that sufferers are obsessed with numbers and I guarantee that there were listeners who will now use that figure as a "target". The number itself added nothing to Mandy's story except to satisfy the curiosity of us "normal" people, like gawping at a car crash. Irresponsible.
Complain about this postDear Sir/Madan
As an Occupational Therapist student, I would like to have a better understand on what is the real and practical situation among clients and health professionals within a Mental Health Setting.
This morning, when I listened to Mandy Allison's interview, that broke my heart by knowing that some of the health professionals still not aware of clients' dignity and rights. In addition, it seems that the majority of the health care professionals out there are not showing any kind of sympathy for individual鈥檚 profound feelings and reasons to be mentally ill. This case, might be a very good and typical example of the major problems between clients and certain health professionals in the 鈥榬eal world鈥. Where is the rapport or affinity relationship between clients and health professionals in this case?
I have to write an assignment about Person Centre Care and I am planning to analyse good/bad practice within the Mental Health field involving inter professional practitioner鈥檚 code of ethics and procedures. I would very much appreciate knowing more about this case to further analysing the Person Centre Care issues within this setting. In this case, would it be possible to have the script or further detail about this interview?
In terms of confidentiality, any information used for my search would not involve names or locations.
I also, would thank you for your help and consideration. I look forward to hearing from you in the near future.
Regards
Giselli Luciano
Complain about this postDear Sir/Madan
As an Occupational Therapist student, I would like to have a better understand on what is the real and practical situation among clients and health professionals within a Mental Health Setting.
This morning, when I listened to Mandy's interview, that broke my heart by knowing that some of the health professionals still not aware of clients' dignity and rights. In addition, it seems that the majority of the health care professionals out there are not showing any kind of sympathy for individual鈥檚 profound feelings and reasons to be mentally ill. This case, might be a very good and typical example of the major problems between clients and certain health professionals in the 鈥榬eal world鈥. Where is the rapport or affinity relationship between clients and health professionals in this case?
I have to write an assignment about Person Centre Care and I am planning to analyse good/bad practice within the Mental Health field involving inter professional practitioner鈥檚 code of ethics and procedures. I would very much appreciate knowing more about this case to further analysing the Person Centre Care issues within this setting. In this case, would it be possible to have the script or further detail about this interview?
In terms of confidentiality, any information used for my search would not involve names or locations.
I also, would thank you for your help and consideration. I look forward to hearing from you in the near future.
Regards
Complain about this postGiselli Luciano
Dear Jackie
They DON'T "pick on" anorexia for sectioning at the moment.
Whether people should be sectioned and made to have compulsory treatment is the debate that is going on within the context of the whole new mental health bill. At the moment eating disorders (and as you point out, alcohol and drugs problems too) are often ignored by the mental health sector because they are so difficult to treat.
Mandy made a compelling case against sectioning describing as she did all the drawbacks of compulsory treatment from the background of someone who despite a great deal of treatment is still haunted by the demon that is anorexia. Others did contact programme to tell more hopeful stories of treatment, and even Mandy acknowledged that the treatment had kept her alive.
Personally I think that harsh though it may seem, sometimes compulsory treatment IS necessary but that a lot more resources should go in to both inpatient and outpatient treatment of eating disorders in order that people can be provided not just with the emergency treatment that will keep them alive but with the genuine support that Mandy felt would have made all the difference had she had it at all stages of her illness.
Complain about this postMost men, myself included, prefer a curvy-figured woman to the stick-thin model type you get on the catwalks. The reason why the models are stick-thin is that the men who inhabit and lead the world of fashion are, by and large, gay. And those men, likely subconsciously, prefer their clothes to sit on a figure akin to a male figure. The comparisons of ultra thin models and young boys are not coincidental.
Obviously, that's just one of the causes of anorexia - the whole problem runs much deeper. Just an interesting point for those who are interested.
Complain about this postOur son has obsessive compulsive disorder and anorexia nervosa and is receiving excellent treatment in a specialist eating disorders unit. Dignity and rights are integral to the unit's ethos; in this sense, we feel fortunate in comparison with Mandy's experiences. However, wtih regard to sectioning: if a patient with a mental health problem says that they are Napoleon we do not believe them, we say it is the illness talking. When a patient with a mental health problem (anorexia nervosa) says that they do not want treatment, it is the illness talking... It's the same thing, isn't it, and very different to someone who has cancer and wants to get better?
Complain about this postMy daughter has had bulemia/anorexia now for 13 years and I would love to know how she can live with this. After a hard battle I have a Comm. Mental Team involved, epilepsy now happens through the lack of food and the Team are trying to get her to the doctor for a BMI count etc as a base line to start from. I know she will never be 'cured' but how does she live with this. The whole family are affected by this as she is unable to walk, her legs are weak and her son now age 12 has to help her quite a bit.
Complain about this postShe is now registered disable as her body is failing. As a mother I get so upset but cannot let her know as this will not help her. How do you live with this.
I am 63 years old, and my anorexia began when I was 17.
Mandy Allison described very poignantly the daily struggle she has had for 23 years.
For me it has been twice that length of time, the whole of my adult life.
I had two periods of several months in hospital, a long time ago now, the first time when I was 20, then again at Mandy鈥檚 age, 33.
On both occasions I yielded to pressure and agreed to be admitted, but subsequently bitterly regretted it, and forty years later, I still relive those times in my nightmares.
I was in a mixed psychiatric ward, with disturbed male patients pacing the corridor outside my cubicle and standing in my doorway peering at me as I lay on top of my bed because of the heat, heavily drugged with largactyl.
The behaviourist treatment during the second of these inpatient periods was a disaster. After eating the required amount of food to earn a 鈥渞eward鈥, my panic was so overwhelming I couldn鈥檛 face books, radio, phone calls etc. - I just wanted to sleep until I鈥檇 served my sentence and was released from the torture.
I would hope we鈥檙e in more enlightened times now - but it seems progress has been
lamentably slow and there are still very few specialist units for eating disorders.
Anorexia is impossible to define. Its manifestation and complex causes differ in every case. But what it is certainly about is control, the desperate attempt of an individual to withdraw to a safe distance from the terrifying world she (or he) finds herself in.
Enforced hospitalisation represents for the anorexic her greatest terror - being robbed
of her control, and her identity. The body may be salvaged, but what use is that if the spirit is killed in the process?
I believe there are many anorexics who refuse to seek any help at all, because of the threat of hospitalisation.
What is needed most, as an alternative to hospital, is the provision of continual, intensive, emotional and practical help, in the form of counselling/therapy. Current provision under the NHS is woefully inadequate. I now pay for regular support out of my pension.
Mandy Allison maintains that anorexia is not about body size, it is about existing and living.
Perhaps it is this existential element that people find so baffling, and uncomfortable.
Anorexics are intelligent human beings, too perceptive, alas, for their own peace of mind, with deeply thought-out, logical reasons for their abstinence - reasons which cannot be dismissed as those of an 鈥渦nsound mind鈥.
Mandy concedes that but for hospital treatment, she might have died, but insists that the decision should have been hers, as it would if she had cancer. I support that wholeheartedly.
People everywhere are making potentially life-threatening choices, without intervention.
Anorexia is an utterly wretched addiction, a conflict between life and death, a relentless struggle which most sufferers (once they realise what a futile and ineffectual coping mechanism it is) would give anything to be free from.
Complain about this postThe debate over whether anorexics should be sectioned makes me shudder.
What they need is understanding and support in finding a way out of the trap, without taking their control away completely. Not incarceration, with a brutal regime which leaves them more frightened and isolated than ever.