Anorexia and the High-Achievers
by Lorna Marsh
Mary George, spokeswoman for Norwich-based Beat, the leading UK charity for people with eating disorders and their families, said it was often high achievers like Charlotte Robinson who succumbed to anorexia.
And, commenting on the teenager's tragic death, Ms George said that early intervention for sufferers was “imperative”.
She said that anorexia makes up just 10pc of eating disorders but has the highest mortality rate of any mental illness, killing a fifth of those diagnosed with the condition.
Ms George said high achievers are often the most vulnerable because of a striving for perfection that, compounded by a projected 'ideal' skinny model figure, becomes warped and deadly.
“Sadly it is all too common that anorexia occurs alongside being a high achiever who want to control their bodies and strive for misguided perfection.”
It is unlikely that an eating disorder will result from a single cause but more a combination of events and pressures.
Many people with an eating disorder talk about feeling 'not good enough' and say it is the only way they feel they can stay in control of their life although ultimately it is the condition which is in control.
Anorexia mostly affects the 12 to 20 age group with bulimia striking slightly later, on average between the ages of 18 and 25.
Ms George said that it is also sometimes a girl's mental rejection of oncoming puberty that can trigger the disease.
“It is that age when girls are becoming aware of their body image and maybe the individual does not want to that that step forward into womanhood.”
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Student Died Of Anorexia
A talented student died from anorexia due to "inappropriate delays" in her care, a coroner has ruled.
Charlotte Robinson, 18, who achieved four As at A Level, plummeted in weight from 9st 1lb to just 6st 2lb after living off as little as two sips of soup a day.
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Kids' Eating Disorders Underfunded
Girls as young as six are developing eating disorders because of teasing about their weight, a representative of the Bulimia Anorexia Nervosa Associaton said Wednesday.
"Research shows that when girls are teased about their size and their shape, they stop eating," said Mary Kay Lucier.
The association offers school programs to teach about teasing and self-image for young children who might develop an eating disorder.
"We had a girl today who was six, and she sure did understand that she wasn't eating because she didn't want to get teased.
"We've had 25 seven-year-olds in the past year come in in a state of acute starvation," Lucier said.
"It really is harmful to children to tease about their size."
But now there's a developing problem: The education programs are not government funded - although clinical programs are - and BANA must raise $281,000 a year on its own.
It and other agencies which help children are feeling the effects of the economy, which is increasing demand but reducing availability of money.
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Martha's House has saved me from my Eating Disorder Demons...
Eating disorders can destory lives but there is a Calderdale charity that can help beat the disease. Sarah Kelly meets a woman who says it turned her life around.
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CNS Response Provides Poster Review Of rEEG Guided Pharmacotherapy...
...results of a study presented at the U.S. Psychiatric and Mental Health Congress by Mark J. Schiller, M.D., Director of Medical Affairs for CNS Response and Assistant Clinical Professor in Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco. The poster presentation, titled "Referenced-EEG-Guided Pharmacotherapy of Dual-Diagnosis Patients," provided an analysis of a patient-controlled case series conducted to examine the use of CNS Response rEEG(R) in dual-diagnosis addiction patients.
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