2023-06-24 04:00:00
Satine begins to develop a fear of certain foods and deprives herself: “I cut out certain foods like fat, I weighed everything, I counted the calories”, she specifies.
Food then becomes an obsession: “I was thinking regarding that all the time, if I was eating, I was thinking regarding what I had eaten, the calories, and how to spend it followingwards”.
Until it governs its slightest deeds and gestures: “I isolated myself, I lost a lot of friends because I didn’t go out anymore. I was in my bubble. When I was sick, I only thought regarding that. Anorexia was my best friend, it took over everything.” she testifies.
Today, Satine realizes that anorexia “was a way of erasing oneself, of killing oneself”. But back then, when she was at her worst, “I told myself that I was stronger because I was leaner”she realizes today.
From anorexia to bulimia
In August 2021, Satine is so weakened that she has to start a follow-up. She then began therapy at the “Domaine”, a center specializing in the treatment of eating disorders, in Braine-l’Alleud. “I was in denial but that’s when I realized it,” Esteem Satine.
But his weight continues to drop. So much so that Satine has to be taken care of. We are then in November 2021: “I was told that I was going to have to be hospitalized, it scared me, I didn’t want to”, she explains. So his psychiatrist and his psychologist give him an ultimatum: take back at least 500 grams, otherwise he will be hospitalized. “It shocked me”she admits.
And there, it clicks for Satine: “I wanted to take back this weight that I had lost, and eat everything once more”. She regains some weight and narrowly avoids hospitalization. But little by little, bulimia declares itself. In 2 weeks, Satine gains 8 kilos. “I was having binge eating, I really ate everything, sweet, salty at the same time”, she explains.
Anorexia turned into bulimia, but Satine still didn’t have a healthy outlook on her body and the food she ate. She then began a therapy over 3 months which greatly helped her: “If I hadn’t been followed, I wouldn’t be here, it was so ingrained”she realizes today.
The Healing Process
In total, when Satine was at her worst, she lost more than 30 kg in just 6 months. Dizzying weight loss. But thanks to the therapy, Satine begins to steadily gain weight once more. We are then at the beginning of the year 2022. And since then, his fight once morest the disease continues. Because anorexia is above all a mental illness.
Today, the young woman is still on the road to recovery. If she has regained a normal weight, she still feels affected by the disease: “I still think regarding it quite often. On a mental level, if I gain weight, I’m going to experience it very badly. I still have it in me”, she admits.
Satine is on medication and taking antidepressants to help her. At the same time, she continues to go once a month to the Braine-l’Alleud center to see a psychologist. She is also followed by a child psychiatrist at the Erasme hospital in Brussels, which also includes a service specializing in the management of eating disorders.
ED cases have doubled since 2018
Satine’s testimony is not an isolated case. Since the covid, we are witnessing a real “boom” of cases of eating disorders among young people. As explained by Marie Delhaye, child psychiatrist and head of the infanto-juvenile psychiatry department at Erasme: “Since September 2020, we have really had an exponential growth in patients with EDs. And it continues to evolve: the cases have doubled since 2018”, she believes. In 2018, 7% of the Belgian population was affected by eating disorders. Today, 18% of 18-29 year olds have symptoms.
“We saw a lot of subjects where in the family we were afraid of gaining too much weight and so they started diets, and to play sports. Except that in adolescents, it sometimes had a counterproductive effect because they set to restrict everything too excessively, and to lose weight intensely”, says Marie Delhaye. Restricting yourself too much or losing weight in a vertiginous way should alert, it is generally a sign that anorexic behavior is declared.
Several other signals can alarm you if you think a loved one is affected by the disease: “Any change in eating habits can lead to an ED, so a young person who suddenly changes his snacks to much healthier snacks, who may have had a habit of snacking and who will only eat fruit, or who will cut out their snacks and certain food families, or become a vegetarian without there being any real underlying reasons. All of these are warning signs”, details Roxane Aglave, dietician at Erasmus.
“There is also the whole physical hyperactivity side, so an overinvestment at the physical level, but also at school level, young people who go to study a lot. And also social isolation, no longer going to parties, avoiding meals family for example. All these little things can alert“, she adds.
Support is needed
“It can be long, but recovery is quite possible if the patient is taken care of by a team specialized in the field”, reassures Roxane Aglave. Because alone, it is difficult to get out of it, relapses are also possible.
The mortality rate due to eating disorders, anorexia, bulimia and hyperphagia combined, is the highest of all mental illnesses. In Belgium, EDs are the second cause of death among young people, following road accidents.
If you or a loved one suffer from an eating disorder, do not hesitate to talk regarding it, isolation is never the solution, and to make an appointment in a specialized center.
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