So anyway offspring of a friend of the family (hello asexual anonymous intro) was just hospitalized for an eating disorder. This is something you never want to hear. Sure you giggle a little when you hear a kid you went to grade school with is serving twenty in the big house for tax evasion (the little devil inside always makes you giggle even though you know it is wrong). There is a little joy in seeing overweight stressed worn out slob who was once the attractive person who ages past wouldn't give you the time of day. I'm sure there are quite a few who delight in the knowledge while I used to be that top 10 percent A + student, I've dropped out of college more than once and now live with my parents as a
Paranoid Unemployed Dungeon Master.
But this anorexia thing is just plain scary. You see overweight comedians make jokes about not understanding eating anorexia. There are folks who will say it's not a disease it is just stupidity. Some people will look at in much the same way as they view alcoholism, a matter of will power.
Now I used to spend a lot of time drunk. I worked in a bar. I drank the nights I worked. I'd come in and hang out on my nights off. 3 - 5 nights a week I come home buzzed at the least. If I was in a bar there was no way I was not going to drink. It is that simple. I didn't go to rehab and you wont catch me with in five miles of AA (no I do not need to say I'm helpless and only god can make me better). I can have a beer on my own. Heck on my birthday I even pulled out the 16 year old bottle of Bushmill's Irish whiskey and made myself a cocktail. I can not have 2 or three drinks. I can not go into a bar. It isn't a matter of will power. If I have more than a couple drink I'm going to get 100 % totally blasted. If I go into a bar I'm going to get drunk and spend every dollar in my wallet. It is not a matter of will power. It is a matter of accepting the reality that I cannot drink socially and not putting myself in a situation where I might.
Eating disorders have the problem that you can never get away from a problem with food. You can throw away all the fashion magazines. You can stop watching television. But that wont stop a person from seeing unhealthy body images. It is a constant struggle with the self esteem and the need to be thin. So many of these children (and adults, the ones that live that long or start late) end up with serious medical conditions or dead.
I was amazed to find out that the child will be hospitalized for almost a month. Not that I don't think it is necessary, I've just amazed that the insurance company would approve. I've seen people attempt suicide and get almost pushed out the door after a couple weeks. I guess the insurance companies figure that if they don't pay to try and get the person healthy now, they will could possibly be paying for a number of hospitalizations down the road.
I think the worst part of this is the kid went to the parents. The parents had no idea that the kid was only allowing 300 calories a day. I know they aren't bad parents. Life gets a little busy and suddenly your kids are teenagers and it seems like they can almost take care of themselves with a minimal amount of supervision. So you spend a little more time at the office or you never eat together as a family because this one has band and that one is out with the friends and hey the kid used to be over weight maybe a little bit of wanting to fit in spurred a healthy desire to take care of ones body.
It is days like this I am almost glad I'm not a parent. There are so many things to watch out for that a person can go crazy from worry. I think no small amount of luck is involved if A child grows into adulthood without one serious problem arising.
In summary: An unhealthy body image can be a serious problem. While fat people also have health issues, they tend to live longer than people with eating disorders. Parenting is scary.
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