hello
today sam and i watched this show on anorexia on channel news asia called help me help my child

anyway it featured 2 kids and their struggle with anorexia. a girl katie and a guy tron both fifteen who were anorexic.

katie developed anorexia after being sick and then she didnt want to eat anymore. she looked very pale. she went to the hospital due to complications, which were life threatening. she felt painful and had to take drugs. her mother described her as delirious and katie would cry and scream. she was anorexic since 12. her family also fights anorexia. she goes to the hospital weekly for checkups. she does not have a scale at home so that it would prevent her from obsessively weighing herself. during her weekly check ups she is weighed and her weight is constantly dropping. she was put on a diet plan and though she sounded she was eating okay, she was still losing weight so the doctor suggested that she was taken out of school to be monitored for 4 weeks. and if she did not improve, she would have to be warded.
during that time, she had to eat 3000 calories daily but katie kept negotiatingand her mother had to keep battling with her over what she eats. she started well, but later her 'anorexic self' took over and she began pouring her food away and hiding them. her mother's vigilant observation of her caused her anorexia to be more severe. because she kept getting worse and her weight kept dropping, she was brought to see the eating disorders ward and that scared her as she saw all the skinny people. she really did not want to be warded and she gained more control over her 'anorexic self' and managed to stabalise a bit. however she still continues to eat only what she deems healthy. her mother has taken a more gentler approach toward her and their relationship had gotten better, and one day her mother hopes that katie would wake up from her anorexia.

images from http://www.channelnewsasia.com/documentary/index.htm
tron is anorexic because he skips meals because of his paranoia of eating after 5 for fear that he would choke to death if he ate after 5. his anorexia began when his grandma died and he became depressed empty and purposeles, and he stopped eating. he would clamp his mouth and refuse to eat or drink. he even wrote suicide letters. he went to the psychiatric hospital and was warded. he was 32kg. he NEVER ate past 5 because of his fear. his parents tried to look for the positives and the psychiatrist recommended they do some role play thing because the family involvement was very important.
after some treatments with the psychiatrist he made some small increase in weight gain. and he tries to do something to help himself, unlike most anorexics. the doctor recommended that he slowly try to break his fear of eating after 5 and he managed to eat 2 sweets at 5.05, which was an achievement to him. he made better and better progress and increased in height and weight and managed to eat more at a later time. he wants to help himself and get his weight up.

the psychiatrists say that anorexics cannot turn things on their own and they need pressure and help from their family to help them conquer anorexia.

these two cases so remind me of MAF. MAF is very similiar to them in the sense that she bargains and tries to negotiate over the food she eats and she was also scared to be warded which is also a reason why she wanted to eat more. she also has a paranoia over the time she eats and she always has to eat by a certain time so that 'she has enough time to digest her food'. she almost had to be taken out of school and she used to throw her food away. her anorexia also started after she was sick.

so we can see many parallels in the anorexics. and we do hope that one day they will realise that dieting is so silly and that they should just eat properly and be healthy and normal.

amelia