Four friends with daughters hospitalised with anorexia. Is it becoming more common?

[ServantofthePeople]

A year ago I was horrified to to learn that a colleague’s daughter was in hospital with anorexia. I’ve tried to support him. Two local friends, whose daughters I’ve known since babyhood were then in-patients locally. Tonight we learnt that yet another friend’s daughter is in hospital. I’m not even shocked any more.

I had no idea the illness was so widespread. Has its prevalence increased? Or is in-patient care just more commonly offered now? I understand that rapid weight loss can make your heart beat strangely causing danger. Perhaps this was not understood in the past.

I just don’t remember anorexia being widespread when I was a teenager. Maybe we just didn’t talk about it?

[DogsAndGin]

I remember anorexia being a big issue is the 90s and early 2000s - I remember catwalk models dying and they introduced a minimum BMI for models. I was a child/teen at the time, and was well aware of it, but I’m in my 30s now and didn’t realise anorexia was as prevalent as you describe. Having said that, I was in Chelsea recently (I’m a country bumpkin these days so don’t go there often/ever), and it really struck me how incredibly thin quite a few of the young women were. I hope your friends’ girls are ok.

[concernedreracistelement]

Thank you.
i remember it as a disease of models/celebrities.
clearly it is not.

[rnsaslkih]

It definitely was widespread in the 90s. I remember anorexic girls at school and university.

[GreenTeaPingPong]

Care for eating disorders has improved in the last 10 years, but it's still the case that inpatient treatment is a last resort that is only used when the patient is very ill and has not responded to treatment in the community.

[concernedreracistelement]

I am an ‘80s child - perhaps we were more private then?

[GreenTeaPingPong]

And the number of people being diagnosed with an eating disorder has increased hugely since the beginning of the pandemic.

[concernedreracistelement]

Thank you Green Tea.

It’s distressing to think that the three girls I’ve known all their lives were seriously ill.

it also makes me wonder if more or the children I’ve known are ill too.

[concernedreracistelement]

another reason to hate the pandemic then

[Innocenta]

Children are often hospitalised for medical stabilisation and early refeeding, because a child's small body can easily become dangerously unwell and refeeding itself is risky. But actual inpatient beds in eating disorder units are very hard to access as demand is sadly so high.

[SlowHorses]

Very sad. It’s always been there but the prevalence of photoshopping can’t be good for young women’s body image. It’s an unattainable and unhealthy shape and size for the vast majority of people. I talk to my young daughter now about how it’s not real and what’s healthy. She knows how to edit on an iPad so gets it’s not what people look like.

[Innocenta]

@SlowHorses the prevalence of fake images may be contributing, but clinical anorexia nervosa often has a genetic component and can be triggered by something as 'minor' as a tummy bug. Any imbalance of calories in to calories expended can trigger it in someone vulnerable to developing the condition, which is why siblings of child sufferers are particularly at risk, as are children of adults with EDs.

[SlowHorses]

I didn’t know it could be triggered in that way @Innocenta . Very scary illness.

[Innocenta]

@SlowHorses It's such a horrible condition. I'm aware of children as young as five who have developed it.

[LoonyLurcher]

IME anorexia has a huge contagious/competitive element to it (rather like other mental illnesses).
If one girl in a school has it, others will follow.
A local school had a lot of anorexic teens about five years ago, now it’s going through a trans phase.

[Mumwantingtogetitright]

I was a teen in the late 80s/early 90s. Q friend of mine at university was hospitalised with anorexia. I went to visit her, and she was on a specialist ward for patients with eating disorders. It was pretty busy.

I knew at least two others with anorexia, but not to the extent that they were hospitalised. I also knew quite a few with bulimia.

I think it has always been around?

[myrtleWilson]

As @Innocenta says we need to be clear about understanding of "hospitalisation" and this isnt meant to minimise the growing number of young people with eating disorders - my daughter amongst them.

My daughter was hospitalised on her first CAMHS appointment because her rapid weight loss and observations done suggested she was at risk of "re-feeding syndrome" This is when after rapid or excessive starvation experiences the body is at risk severe damage and even death if too much food is eaten. Hospital stays under re-feeding are still very serious but usually last 10-14 days with food gradually and safely reintroduced (including via tube feeding). Once physical harm limits have been avoided the patient can be discharged.

However, therein lies the challenge. At this point the underlying causes haven't even begun to be looked at - and sometimes can't be because patients cognition is hammered (this happened to my DD -she didn't read a word for over a year) So discharge happens and inevitably in many cases -including our own - you get into a cycle of emergency hospital admissions for re-feeding. We're treating the symptoms not the causes at this point.

At the other end of the scale, there are limited spaces available for in patient informed, holistic services which may have a stab at looking at underlying causes. But because so few, and with challenges around community care, it increases the likelihood of re-feeding type admissions...

Thats not to diminish in any way the scale of the growing challenge but more to explain how the current system almost re-inforces that challenge...


If anyone needs support for a teen with an ED - please do join us in the eating disorders topic...- you'll find a warm welcome and lots of support

[thevanilla]

I think it’s more likely that you knowing of few cases is just random chance rather than it being more of a ‘thing’ these days as it was certainly a thing in the 90s from my memories of growing up then

[concernedreracistelement]

Myrtle, Innocenta, thank you.

what my four friends have in common are
-strong happy children from strong happy families
-the hospitalisation being for heart health.

so I guess this is stabilisation/refeeding and then it’s up to the families again.....

I think I was confused re inpatient as innocenta said.

crikey whilst writing I’ve just realised I know a 5th child with an ED, though no hospital stay afaik.

I’ve just spent a week in hospital with my son for a physical illness and the strain of that was bad enough...

[Innocenta]

That's a great description, @myrtleWilson - but I'm very sorry you know it so well.

For people reading this thread who are generally interested: there is also a further distinction between the ultimate goals of admissions for treatment in children (an admission is ultimately aiming towards significant / 'full' recovery for the child, even if not during the admission), vs in adults, where allocation of beds becomes...quite complex and different. Some adults with severe EDs are actually put on a palliative care pathway where 'recovery' is no longer the goal.

It's a very, very grim mental illness and I (as a mostly recovered anorexic) have nothing but sympathy for any parent whose child is unwell with an eating disorder. I've seen it torture my parents and many of my friends' parents.

[Innocenta]

I'm so sorry you've been in with your son, @concernedreracistelement Hospitals are such difficult places. No wonder you feel a lot of empathy for your friends.

[concernedreracistelement]

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/may/19/nobody-should-be-dying-eating-disorder-england-admissions-rates-soaring-crisis

it does confirm increase

[concernedreracistelement]

Thanks Innocenta - it’s like being in a spaceship being in hospital isn’t it?

[Innocenta]

@concernedreracistelement It really is. When I was in a couple of weeks ago (all sorted now), I was in a bit that had no natural light, and once I got discharged, I thought it was going to be dark outside... I'd lost touch with the time and was shocked to see the evening light!

Hospitals feel so strange and unfriendly, as spaces. I hope you and your son feel better soon.

[XenoBitch]

@GreenTeaPingPong

And the number of people being diagnosed with an eating disorder has increased hugely since the beginning of the pandemic.

I forget her name, but there was a celebrity who had a huge relapse of her ED during lockdown, and she sadly ended up dying.
The lockdowns have a lot to answer for. Of the 3 ladies I know in real life that have anorexia, all had huge relapses (one after years of recovery) during lockdown. One was sectioned, and one lost her life. Women in their 40s too.

[Crimeismymiddlename]

When I was growing up a lot of girls had obvious anorexia, but it did seem to be far more common to have disordered eating to keep the weight down. It was considered normal to skip meals or not have dinner so you could drink, meal replacements, smoking and drinking coffee to not feel hungry and suchlike. That’s not normal now-the focus seems to be on being healthy.
Now I think eating disorders have a much broader spectrum, from anorexia, being a vegan so an excuse not to eat much to over eating. They are much more prevalent now.