Thursday, July 3, 2014

Ten Things

Wow. Wish my pediatrician had read this ten years ago.

Ten Things I Wish Physicians Would Know About Eating Disorders

I wonder where I would be now.

8 comments:

  1. Thanks! Good read! My only problem with this guy's article is that it was very BMI-focussed which is just incorrect thinking. I actually piggy backed on someone's comment about that. Hopefully he'll read it.

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    1. I definitely agree - bmi is problematic. I wish he had used a different metric, maybe weight history or percentile (for kids).

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  2. This was amazing Kaylee
    Do you mind if I re-blog this on my blog?
    I think my readers would be very interested in it x

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  3. I still disagree with the weight thing. While I was once underweight, I am now over what I'd consider my IBW, and my ED behaviors haven't changed much -- my body just has over time. That doesn't mean I have any less of an ED because of my higher weight, you know?

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    1. I agree to an extent, and I should have been more clear—obviously weight or BMI cannot be used in isolation to diagnose or determine the severity of an ED. However, I do think that at times it can be an important indicator; it can and should be one piece of a huge and complex puzzle. This is not to say that someone with a "normal" bmi is necessarily less sick than someone with a higher or lower bmi, but I also don't think weight should be taken out of the equation because it is not always irrelevant—particularly in kids. For example, I had always tracked around the 50th percentile for height and weight until around age 12 or 13, when my weight jumped up a tad and then abruptly dropped off a cliff. Regardless of what my other vitals were showing and regardless of the fact that I was a savvy little thing and convinced by pediatrician that "I'M FINE, I EAT, NBD," the weight change alone should have been a BIG RED FLAG. At the same time, if I had been maintaining a steady weight but bingeing and purging rather than restricting, I would have also been seriously sick. And as many of us have discovered, sometimes weight does crazy things that appear to have no relation to our behaviors. And obviously, our thoughts and mental state are as much a part of an eating disorder as our behaviors and physical condition. So, my point is that it depends, and weight should be treated as a not-predominant but also not-irrelevant factor.

      Hope this makes sense and thanks for making me think about it more clearly.

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    2. I should also add that I certainly do not think this "Ten Things" list is perfect, but it hits a lot of points that are overlooked by non-ed specialists (and even some specialists....", particularly the idea that mental/physical symptoms are equally involved in an eating disorder, vital signs can be deceptive, and that thorough, long-term, multifaceted treatment is essential for a long, long time.

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  4. Thanks for the very well thought out response! I wasn't trying to say that weight shouldn't be a factor (and I agree it's esp. important for kids). Just that it pisses me off (to be frank) when anyone gets too focused on the weight thing and overlooks other things. :)

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