Too many of us know or have known a beautiful,
intelligent, strong-willed girl or young woman who, despite
her many gifts, appears shockingly thin and lost, caught
in the tangled web of an eating disorder. If she’s
lucky, she finds a way out of her problematic eating behavior
before it consumes her life.
Problems With Eating
Since 2005, the Center for Anorexia and Bulimia at Alta Bates
Summit’s Herrick Campus in Berkeley has provided treatment
for two of the most common and most devastating eating disorders:
anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa.
Patients who suffer from anorexia and bulimia have an extreme
fear of being fat, and, as a result, virtually starve themselves
(by refusing to eat, in the case of anorexia, or by purging,
in the case of bulimia). This severe food restriction can
lead to heart arrhythmias, osteoporosis, loss of cognitive
abilities, and even sudden death.
Together, these disorders affect an estimated 5 percent of
young women in the United States and about 1 percent of men.
Among them is Christine, a 22-year-old astrophysics student
at UC Berkeley. Christine has suffered for four years from
anorexia, and she believes she has finally found, in the
Center for Anorexia and Bulimia, an end to the roller-coaster
ride the disease has made of her life. After a month in the
Center’s partial-hospitalization program, she says, “I
am looking forward — for the first time — to a healthy
semester at school.”
“Anorexia and bulimia tend to be chronic, relapsing
diseases that start in the teen years,” says Neal Anzai,
M.D., medical director of the Center for Anorexia and Bulimia. “This
is a very difficult disease to treat, and it takes a special
expertise.
“With the stakes so high,” he adds, “and
the window of opportunity for successful treatment relatively
short, it is important to choose the right program as early
as possible.”
Comprehensive Solutions
The Center for Anorexia and Bulimia offers
the only full-spectrum psychiatric eating
disorder program for both adolescents (ages
12 to 17) and adults (18 and over) in Northern
California. It provides inpatient care for
patients who need intensive “refeeding” (rapid
absorption of dietary nutrients), a five-day-a-week partial-hospitalization
program, and three-day-a-week intensive outpatient services.
All phases of treatment include nutritional support, psychotherapy,
and education. Many patients make significant progress simply
by learning more about what causes their disorder and by
correcting distorted beliefs about food, weight, and dieting.
Most services are covered by major insurance carriers.
Inpatient services, which treat about 50
percent of the cases, aid severely underweight
patients who require help normalizing their
eating and weight before fully tackling the
psychiatric aspects of their eating disorder.
Says dietitian April Hackert, R.D., who works
with adolescent patients, “In addition
to getting patients stabilized medically, you have to supply
their body and their brain with the fuel and nourishment
needed, before you can start to change their beliefs about
themselves.”
The Road to Recovery
Anorexia and bulimia often emerge during
puberty, as youngsters resist the scary transition
to adulthood. Staying thin is a way for them
to look and feel as if they are staving off
the painful process of maturation and gives
them a false sense of comfort.
April has seen remarkable turnarounds accomplished
for this age group in a fairly short time
through the eating disorders program. “One of the most severe cases was a 13-year-old
who was so malnourished she couldn’t speak. Over the
course of six weeks as an inpatient, she gained almost 30
pounds and turned into one of the spunkiest 13-year-olds
I’ve ever seen.”
For others, such as Christine, the road to
recovery has been longer. Christine’s anorexia began in her last year
of high school, fueled by a traumatic family life. It next
flared up in college, when she lost a lot of weight rapidly
and even suffered a heart attack. She struggled for several
years, trying to fight the disorder on her own. “I
got down to about 120 pounds — and I’m six feet
tall,” she recalls. “There were times when I
would lose three pounds in one day. I wasn’t really
eating, and I was over-exercising. Later on, I started purging,
and with that came a whole new world of health consequences.”
Finally, in 2008, Christine says she recognized
she couldn’t
go it alone. “I realized my life was out of control — again — and
I didn’t want to start off my next semester feeling
like this.” An acquaintance recommended the Center
for Anorexia and Bulimia, which proved to be a conveniently
located and appropriately intensive intervention for her.
“It’s been amazing,” Christine says. “It’s
hard, but it’s been exactly what I needed — just
the right amount of support.” She plans to continue
her progress in the program’s outpatient setting and
has arranged her fall classes around the three-day-a-week
treatment schedule. “I know some people struggle their
whole lives,” she adds, “and I really don’t
want that to be me. I feel that if I stick with this program,
I really can overcome it.”
For
information about the Center for Anorexia
and Bulimia’s
free monthly eating disorder support groups
and classes, call (510) 204-4569 (weekdays,
8 a.m.–5:30
p.m.) or visit
the website.
