Dieting girls starved of self-esteem

Karen McMillan was astounded by NZ's eating disorder statistics.

More than half New Zealand girls say they are dieting and a third will go on to have an eating disorder at least once in their life, Karen McMillan says in her book Feast or Famine.

McMillan says she found those facts astounding, and wrote the New Zealand guide to understanding eating disorders in response.

She viewed with growing alarm young people's lack of self-esteem and concern with their weight.

"If you are 12 or 13 you shouldn't be worried about how you look, you shouldn't be dieting," she said.

A recovered anorexic, she said she did not want anyone to go through what she did.

"Your thinking is crazy ... you're stuck in your own head and it plays out in a physical way."

McMillan was prompted to write her book by what she saw as a gap in the New Zealand market, saying the last local book covering eating disorders was written 10 years ago.

Feast or Famine explains anorexia nervosa, where sufferers starve themselves, bulimia nervosa, where people overeat and purge, and the more recently coined disorder, binge eating.

Hers was the first localised book to cover binge eating, McMillan said.

While uncertain which of the three disorders was most common in New Zealand, she suspected it was binge eating.

"People talk a lot about obesity and people being overweight. I'm not saying everyone who is overweight or obese has got binge-eating disorder, but I think probably a lot of them do and that's obviously a problem at the moment; people compulsively overeating."

The Government has made obesity the subject of a select committee inquiry.

In this year's budget, Health Minister Pete Hodgson announced $76 million would be spent over four years on the largest campaign to fight obesity in New Zealand history.

McMillan's own experience was at the other end of the weight spectrum.

In her book, she opened her case studies by outlining her struggle with anorexia in the early 1990s, when she was aged 17 to 20.

Her troubles had no definite beginning, but the onset was two years after her father was diagnosed with terminal cancer.

Something "shifted sideways" in her head. She started skipping meals and exercising obsessively, enjoying the feeling of having control over her body. Her weight dropped to 32kg.

Anorexics crossed a line in their head where it became a mental illness, she said.

Starvation affected the brain resulting in "fuzzy thinking" and the thinner a sufferer became, the more the brain was affected, she said.

McMillan said although she became anorexic quite quickly, her recovery was gradual, taking about two years.

She was one of the lucky ones, as 20 per cent of anorexics die, she said.

McMillan credited her survival to then-boyfriend Stephen, to whom the book is dedicated.

"He read about [anorexia] and he instinctively put himself in my shoes and just did all the right things.

"I'd really shut myself off from everybody and he just gently drew me out, little by little, putting food back in a normal social setting."

Experts had confirmed anorexia was becoming more common in the gay community, McMillan said.

"They think it's probably because men are under increasing media and advertising pressure to be really buffed and toned."

McMillan was alarmed to discover websites promoting disordered eating and providing tips for anorexics.

"There's this underground now with some young women who are getting into sort of clubs and almost competing with each other to be the thinnest that they can, it's getting very dangerous."

However, there was still a lot of shame attached to eating disorders and she praised those who agreed to be interviewed for her book, sourced through eating disorder services.

"We had to be pretty sensitive ... people were fairly shy about coming forward."

All interviewees wanted pseudonyms, some wanted details changed.

"There are people willing to talk about it to help other people but there's still some of the shame attached.

"Most people who have these illnesses do not want to talk about it."

- NZPA

How to spot three major eating disorders

ANOREXIA
Anorexia is a mental illness with a strong physical side. Sufferers slowly, methodically starve themselves. Sufferers weigh at least 15 per cent less than their "normal" weight.

Signs of anorexia
* Significant weight loss.
* Hair loss or thinning, but fine hair appearing on the body.
* Dry, pasty, pale skin.
* Avoiding eating but cooking for others.
* Compulsive exercising.


BULIMIA

Sufferers binge eat to fill an emotional void, then purge to try to control their weight. They are usually average in weight and very social.

Signs of bulimia
* Avoiding meals.
* Frequent visits to the bathroom shortly after meals.
* Staying up late to binge when others have gone to bed.
* Hiding food wrappers.
* Inability to account for debts and missing money.
* Extensive dental problems as result of continual vomiting.


BINGE EATING DISORDER

Eating abnormally large amounts of food in a sitting, usually in secret. Binge eating affects people of all shapes and sizes and can cause obesity.

Signs of binge eating
* Focusing on eating and food, with loss of interest in other activities.
* Spending excessive amounts of money on food.

- from Feast or Famine, by Karen McMillan