National Eating Disorders Awareness Week (#NEDAwareness Week) was this past week, so of course as a dietitian who specializes in treating eating disorders I felt obligated to write something. It wasn’t though until the other day that I felt absolutely compelled to write this post.
I received devastating news that a former patient of mine passed away at the tender young age of 21 from Anorexia-related complications. Unfortunately receiving news like this has become all to commonplace since entering this specialty 6 years ago. In my discussion with a colleague about how many patients we have lost collectively, she recalled a conversation she had with a professor in grad school warning her about going into this specialty, “you know your going to have patients that die…will you be able to deal with that?” I don’t think on an emotional level we ever realized the lethality of these illnesses going into it. I know I certainly didn’t and yet eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of any mental disorder.
This brings me to the purpose of National Eating Disorder Awareness week, which is to highlight the severity of eating disorders and improve the publics understanding of their causes, triggers and treatments in the hope that by increasing awareness and access to resources, we can encourage early detection and intervention.
I don’t think anything I write would be more powerful in communicating the message of NEDAwareness Week than the words of my former patients’ mother. I have shared an excerpt from her obituary. It is unadulterated except for name and location changes to protect the identity and privacy of the patient and her family.
EW was a truly caring and sensitive person. Even when ill, she volunteered, helping patients be comfortable. She cried easily when deeply wounded, was often overcome with anxieties and feelings of inadequacy. She was likely more fragile than anyone ever knew, but she hid it well behind her enormous ambition and accomplishments, all while her eating disorder was raging in her head incessantly. No stone was left unturned in her treatment, but the intensity and duration took an enormous toll on her ability to learn to thrive as a young woman. Perhaps her best quality was her innate ability to sense when someone was feeling poorly. She always knew exactly what to say to make that person feel better in a difficult moment. Her capacity for kindness knew no bounds. She made people smile and laugh in normal conversation and had a silly side, including a wicked sense of humor, which included playing hilarious practical jokes and satirically imitating those nearest and dearest to her. She loved the color pink, fashion, shopping, Lady Gaga, Christmas, anything Starbucks, and enjoyed reality TV as an escape from her anxiety.
EW had aspired to become a psychiatrist. The gross inadequacy of the standard and largely ineffective treatment protocols for eating disorders frustrated her enormously, as she believed there had to be a better way. Her treatment experience included fifteen lengthy hospitalizations at the best facilities in the country and the services of over 50 inpatient and outpatient healthcare professionals coast to coast. She wanted someday to be able to positively impact the countless young women suffering from this insidious illness, through the development of new treatments and perhaps even a cure. Eating disorders are very serious illnesses that are misunderstood and feature the highest mortality rate of mental health disorders. Ironically, National Eating Disorder awareness week was in late February. Awareness is far too low, so please take a moment and contemplate what this disorder is costing our society. Everyone knows someone who is suffering and needing help.
I hope you will join me in remembering and honoring all the lives lost to this insidious illness and continue to spread the word that recovery is possible.