in
jews
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on the cover

Mental Battle

N

atalie, a high school
senior who lives in
Oakland County, says
she wasn’t led to a fixation
on food and looking thin by
influence from the celebrity
culture. She said it was trig-
gered in part by being on
social media and seeing peers
who looked thin and seemed
to “have it all” because they
looked good in whatever
clothes they wore.
“I would say insecurity and
mostly low self-esteem caused
my eating disorder,” she said.
Having the eating disorder
“kind of caused more insecu-
rity. I asked myself, ‘Why am I
not seeing what I want to see?’
I wanted to see some change.”
Beginning in high school,
Natalie (who asked that her
real name not be used) found
herself developing anorexia,
throwing away food and wear-
ing clothing that concealed
her shrinking body.
“I think as soon as I hit high
school, I became more critical
of myself,” she said. “I thought
I was fine and average, but I
didn’t want to be average. It’s
more of a control thing. It’s
me comparing myself to other
people.”
Natalie, who has been diag-
nosed with depression, anxiety
and obsessive-compulsive dis-
order, would restrict her calo-
ries, eating a modest breakfast
but skipping lunches entirely
until dinner. She says there
were days she knew she didn’t
eat enough.
“I was cold a lot. I was
always tired, and I was dizzy,”
she said. This was problematic
because she was also on the
high school swim team, swim-

Eating disorders stem
from myriad reasons,
not just a desire to be thin.

ELIZABETH KATZ SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

ming for two-and-a-half hours
each day.
Natalie is now working with
a therapist, a nutritionist, a
nurse practitioner and a psy-
chiatrist to help her with her
relationship with food and to
keep her weight steady. She
said she is more willing today
to accept help and also credits
her parents with her ongoing
recovery.
“They’ve helped me by
pushing me to get better,” she
said. “I’m lucky that I have a
good support system.”

EATING DISORDERS DEFINED
Body dissatisfaction among
teens and young adults is
nothing new and continues to
give rise to eating disorders:
• Anorexia Nervosa is char-
acterized by an abnormally
low body weight, an intense
fear of gaining weight and a
distorted perception of weight.
• Bulimia Nervosa is charac-

terized by an individual eating
and then purging food by
self-induced vomiting.
• Binge-Eating Disorder
is the most common eating
order in the United States,
according to the National
Eating Disorders Association.
With this disorder, an indi-
vidual eats large quantities of
food, often very quickly and
to the point of discomfort,
though he or she does not
engage in purging activities.
• Avoidant Restrictive Food
Intake Disorder (ARFID),
formerly known as “Selective
Eating Disorder,” is similar to
anorexia in that both disor-
ders involve limitations in the
amount and/or types of food
consumed, but, unlike anorex-
ia, ARFID does not involve
any distress about body shape
or size, or fears of fatness

• Orthorexia is a newer cat-
egory in which an individual
begins a diet change with the

continued on page 14

12

December 27 • 2018

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