Eating Disorders News by Marcia Herrin and Nancy Matsumoto

Tackling disordered eating through art and journaling

When I first read the title of the book, Finding Your Voice through Creativity: The Art and Journaling Workbook for Disordered Eating (Gūrze Books, 2010), I was skeptical about how effective it could be. In the book’s introduction, authors and art psychotherapists Mindy Jacobson-Levy and Maureen Foy-Tornay explain that “making art encourages self-expression and heightens the awareness of thoughts and feelings, both past and present,” and that art “bypasses the flow of thoughts and words that continually run through our heads.” They also specialize in treating eating disorders. Yet I couldn’t image how simply drawing some pictures and words could break through the powerfully defended attitudes and beliefs that make entrenched eating problems so hard to change.

 

Yet reading through this thoughtful, well-organized workbook gave me an appreciation of how art therapy works, and opened up an exciting new way of thinking about eating disorders. Although the authors specifically target the more amorphous category of “disordered eating,” or subclinical behaviors that can includes self-starvation, binging and occasional purging, their book could be just as useful as a tool for an eating-disordered adolescent or adult in treatment.

 

The idea is that readers will use this book as a substitute for disordered-eating behaviors or negative self-thoughts (though not for professional treatment when it is necessary). The only tools the user needs: some rudimentary art supplies including pencil, eraser, ruler, crayons, scissors, glue, as well as magazines and newspapers to mine for words and images to be use in making collages.

 

Jacobson-Levy and Foy-Tornay start by focusing on the reader, giving her permission to be “selfish” for one chapter and identify the questions the reader would like answered (for example, “Why do I become anxious around certain foods?”). An assignment to draw a pie chart of how the reader’s life and days are divided up and an exercise in which the reader is asked to celebrate his name by writing and then decorating it, follow. All the artwork and journaling can be done in the book, resulting, upon completion, in a handy record of the user’s progress.

 

With each chapter, the reader is asked to probe a little deeper into her self-image, life events, emotional armor, and the true feelings that are buried behind that armor. I especially liked the exercise that asks the reader to give voice to his true beliefs and feelings by confronting his “disordered-eating Dictator.” The authors explain, “Any difficult thoughts or emotions you experienced became secrets lodged within your body, only to be replaced by dissatisfaction with your hips, breasts, stomach, butt, or other body parts.”

 

 Then the authors ask, “Do you suppose that by focusing on your imperfect body, you sidestepped being embarrassed by or afraid of your feelings?” Having made feelings and emotions visible on the page through previous exercises, the hope is that the reader will now be ready to make the connection between repressed thoughts and emotions and negative behaviors.  

 

The reader is asked to find three small pictures from a magazine or newspaper to represent her heart, mind, and her disordered-eating Dictator, glue them to the page, and then let each take turns vocalizing to each other through words the reader supplies. So simple, yet so powerful.

 

Another great exercise is “My Unique Instruction Manual,” in which the reader is asked to create a set of directions for family and loved ones on how to best treat him. Instructions begin with the phrases, “On a day-to-day basis, I’d like you to try to…..” or “When you see that I’m upset about something, please try to…..”

 

By chapter 8 of this 11-chapter book (because each chapter builds on the previous one, readers are urged to complete the book from beginning to end),  the authors deem the reader ready to face the concept of “contraband,” the little habits that enable her to “numb out” or in some way avoid confronting her eating issue. Contraband might include diet pills, energy drinks, laxatives or over-exercising.

 

Chapter 11 is about creating a new path: “putting yourself first,”  “using armor safely and effectively,” and “accepting and loving yourself.”

 

Yes, it always sounds easy on paper and in a book, but the steps the authors ask the reader to take in this book are small, creative and fun, which makes me think that maybe this approach will be easier to stick to than others. Give it a try, or have your loved one give it a try, and then send us your feedback! We’d love to hear from you.

Nancy

Marcia Herrin and Nancy Matsumoto are the co-authors of The Parent’s Guide to Eating Disorders: Supporting Self-Esteem, Healthy Eating & Positive Body Image at Home (www.childhoodeatingdisorders.com).

 

 

Reality shows discover eating disorders

It had to happen eventually. With virtually every other aspect of American life turned into fodder for reality shows (dating, marriage, babysitting, relationships, cooking, dirty jobs, conniving apprentices, aspiring fashion models and backbiting housewives), producers have suddenly discovered eating disorders. It started with dieting shows, such as “The Biggest Loser,” and “One Big Happy Family,” about a morbidly obese family in South Carolina attempting to lose weight together.

 

Now it’s on to anorexia, bulimia and beyond. Oprah has announced “Inside Rehab,” an eight-episode series set inside an eating disorder treatment center. The show will follow patients as they undergo a 42-day recovery program and is scheduled to launch in January on Oprah’s new cable network, OWN. 

 

This fall, E! will be bringing us “What’s Eating You,” which will show us “common as well as bizarre eating problems,” with an emphasis on the bizarre: a woman who eats a roll of toilet paper dipped in pickle juice every night before bed, and another who suffers from a disorder called pica, which compels her to eat nonfood substances such as twigs, erasers and super-glue. We’ve heard there are other eating disorder-related shows in the pipeline, as well.

 

These shows will probably stick to the familiar reality show blend of participants striving to achieve a goal (kicking the disorder) while negotiating personality clashes and setbacks in the context of various competitions. I hope that the brutal truth of eating disorders—that they are serious mental illnesses, and they kill—will not be obscured.

 

Anorexia has the highest mortality rate of all mental disorders, higher than schizophrenia, bi-polar disorder or depression. What Oprah and her rivals are doing is like planning a reality show that takes place in a cancer ward. No doubt we’ll be seeing that next, followed by reality shows depicting family members squabbling over funeral arrangements. The next iteration set in the afterlife will really tax the imagination of show creators.

 

The advent of this latest category of reality show has roiled the professional community of eating disorder specialists, a few of whom have been contacted by producers to act as consultants. Some experts think no one should stoop to participate, others have decided that the opportunity to educate on a mass scale is worth it.  

 

One danger of these new shows is that—like inpatient eating disorder treatment and many books and articles on this topic—they will introduce a certain segment of the population, many of them teen-aged girls, to the prevalence of eating disorders and the techniques people use to diet or purge.  Even images of scary-skinny eating disorder patients, alarming to most people, will be viewed as aspirational for some viewers.

 

I won’t even touch the issue of the potential exploitation of severely ill and vulnerable eating disorder patients. For better or worse, life is lived in public now, which opens up the possibility for connection and support from a large audience as well as derision and humiliation. These are adults who either harbor a desire for attention that knows no bounds, or have made the calculation that the treatment they will get is worth the cost of going public. In most cases, it is probably a mixture of the two that motivates them to participate.

 

In an online discussion, one highly respected professional described her initial rejection of such an offer, the soul searching that followed, and her eventual decision to take part in the process: “This was a huge decision on my part and one that I do not take lightly. I wake up every day thinking about it. ...and worried.”

 

The professional added, “If you were given the opportunity to reach approximately 9 MILLION people to help educate them…would you turn it down?” and noted, “I only hope I can bring integrity, shed some light on the subject,  show quality treatment,  help people and show the field at its best.”

 

Marcia, who has also been contacted by a reality show producer, offers her take on this issue: “If these shows are being made, it’s good to have expert advice.”

 

A word of advice if you plan to watch these shows with your teenaged children: Try to comment on the content and put it in a context they can understand and learn from: "It's too bad this person felt she had to be that skinny in order to be happy/popular/successful. There are so many other ways you can feel good about who you are."

 

Let us know what you think of these shows.

Nancy

 

Marcia Herrin and Nancy Matsumoto are the co-authors of The Parent’s Guide to Eating Disorders, www.childhoodeatingdisorders.com.

Thank you to Meredith Stokke for interviewing Marcia and blogging about our book! http://bit.ly/b2facb

Watch Dieting and Bad-Body Talk in front of your Kids

In brand-new, not yet published research, my friend and colleague Dianne Neumark-Sztainer and colleagues at the University of Minnesota and the University of California, San Diego have found that messages from parents about weight and body image have a significant effect on adolescent body image. I have worked with a number of families in which a child, usually a daughter, is all of a sudden worried about her weight triggered by a parent who is dieting and/or talking a lot about how much she (or he--dads can have an affect here too) doesn’t like her body. I tell parents that if they are going to diet, DON”T TALK ABOUT IT!! in front of the kids. Dianne’s group also found that when parents when parents eat well, overweight teens tend to follow their example. Watch for this study: Family Weight Talk and Dieting: How Much Do They Matter for Body Dissatisfaction and Disordered Eating Behaviors in Adolescent Girls? in next issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health.
Marcia

Marcia Herrin and Nancy Matsumoto, co-authors The Parent’s Guide to Eating Disorders, Gūrze Books, (www.childhoodeatingdisorders.com).