because I felt my heart needed to settle. I didn’t want to bombard
her with my thoughts.”
Then one day she asked Danica if she was starving herself.
And Danica replied, “Yes, I am – and I’m really, really scared.”
Not every disordered eater will recognize he/she has a prob-
lem, particularly in the midst of the disease, but “God had gotten
a hold of her,” Burns says.
Nothing to Do With Me
You may be thinking, “This has nothing to do with me. The children in my life don’t suffer from eating disorders.” But let’s put
the official diagnoses aside for a minute and dig a little deeper.
We live in a fast-food nation that glorifies skinny bodies, particularly for women. Our culture is terribly mixed up on these
issues. Don’t we all have some kind of love-hate relationship with
food and our bodies? For example, do you recognize yourself in
any of the following 10 tendencies?
Some of us are Calorie Prisoners, terrified of gaining weight.
We tend to label food as good or bad, and battle extreme guilt if
we indulge in something that’s off limits.
Or maybe you’re a Secret Eater who sneaks junk food at home,
in the car or in bed – wherever the truth won’t be discovered.
You could be a Career Dieter, not knowing how to eat without
a menu plan.
Some of us are Calorie Purgers, who obsess with removing
unwanted calories from our diets.
Most of us use food as a means of soothing ourselves from
stress or anger, or to celebrate a joyous event – at least sometimes.
Are you at the point where food becomes an excuse or a preoccupation? A Food Addict?
People have also come up with medical terms for some problematic relationships to food. Orthorexia is the fixation or obsession
with healthy or “righteous” eating. Pregorexia is extreme dieting
and exercising while pregnant to avoid gaining the recommended
weight. Anorexia athletica is an addiction to exercise. Drunkorexia
is the restriction of food intake to reserve those calories for alcohol
and binge drinking. And diabulimia is when individuals with Type
1 diabetes deliberately administer less insulin than necessary for
the purpose of weight loss. (These last five terms come from the
April 2012 issue of Women’s Health.)
