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www.insideHALTON.com | OAKVILLE BEAVER | Thursday, May 9, 2013 | 6 Overcoming an eating disorder by John Bkila Oakville Beaver Staff Spotlight "Connected to your Community" Editor's Note: The names of the young person and her parents featured in this story have been changed to protect their privacy. Victoria was a typical teenager. She had friends, went to school, played hockey, soccer, and rugby, and even found time for a part-time job and a boyfriend. But gradually, Victoria started seeing herself differently. There was a change in attitude, she would play with her food, stay in her room, avoid her family and just be miserable. Her parents, Don and Beth, at first thought it was their daughter just acting like a typical teenage girl -- it was anything but. Victoria would eventually be diagnosed with anorexia, but not before being near death. "I remember making myself sick sometimes, but not think anything of it. I would just do it," said Victoria, as she and her parents recounted the emotional ordeal of her struggle with and recovery from anorexia with the Oakville Beaver. "In Grade 10, I was playing a lot of sports... and all my friends around me started getting really thin and I felt like I needed to fit in and join them, so I started excessively working out. I would go to the gym and then play two or three sports that same night, but wouldn't eat in between." If she did, Victoria said she would feel sick or make herself feel sick and purge at school. Recognizing the signs Dr. Alan Brown, chief of psychiatry at Halton Healthcare Services (HHS) and Joseph Brant Memorial Hospital, says that's one of the clear signs of an eating disorder, which is an anxiety disorder centred around perfectionistic, obsessive-compulsive traits, especially in women aged 14-25. It is the third most chronic mental illness in adolescent girls. "It's all driven around the body image," said Brown. "An obsessive preoccupation that they're not good enough and they become obsessed with the thought of, `If I just lost more weight, or maintained my weight, I'll become more attractive Janice Brown on the go, so it was hard to notice, said Don -- in retrospect, her parents say they wish they had known enough to recognize the signs sooner. Victoria's loss of energy and strength got so bad, she would struggle to open a door, Don explained. "We saw her go from the strongest she's ever been to being deathly weak... in a matter of months," he said. What happens Victoria (not her real name) was a typical teenager who played sports, had lots of friends, a boyfriend and a part-time job, but found herself battling back after experiencing an eating disorder. | photo by Nikki Wesley­ Oakville Beaver (Follow on Twitter @halton_photog) Claudia Barning pressure on the heart can even lead to a heart attack in young people. Help arrived For Victoria, help came in April 2012, after she asked her parents if she could see a nutritionist, who recognized the signs of an eating disorder and told the family about the HHS Eating Disorder Program. Funded through the Local Health Integration Networks (LHIN), the regional aid is part of the Central West Eating Disorder Program (CWEDP) and offered between HHS, the William Osler Health Centre, Credit Valley Hospital and Trellis Mental Health and Development Services. The Halton program was launched in 1997 and last year, helped 193 new patients, including children, adolescents and adults in the region. Once a person is referred to the program by their family doctor, they are assessed, diagnosed and a treatment plan is then set up for them, which includes meeting with a nurse, social worker, dietician and psychiatrist. While each person's treatment will be different and varies in how long they stay in the program, generally, there are three phases, explains Janice Brown, a nurse with the Eating Disorder Program. First, the treatment team gets the individual to eat again, stop their negative behaviours and reintroduces nutrition. "Once control comes back to the see Travelling on p.7 Mental Health Week is May 6-12 and Halton Healthcare Services (HHS) is focusing on youth mental health -- identifying the issues and proper treatments, and the importance of getting and more accepted by the world around me.'" When asked why she started making herself sick and starving herself, Victoria says she believed it was partly due to her boyfriend. "He would always talk down to me and make me not feel good about myself and I felt I had to change (and) I always felt like I was in competition with other girls," she said. "Once people started notic- the conversation started. The Oakville Beaver's two-part report, The Inside Story, explores the issue locally with personal stories, information and resources for support. ing and telling me, `Oh, you've lost weight,' I just got addicted to it and eventually it got really bad... to the point where I was really unhealthy." In hindsight Victoria's parents said the change in their daughter was not so noticeable at first because it was a gradual progression. She was a driven athlete, had a busy schedule and was always What happens physically to someone with an eating disorder is essentially their body is starving, which then leads to a series of other medical issues, explains Brown. The body tries to take calories from wherever it can and as a result, muscle deterioration will occur along with an emaciated heart, he noted. In some cases, osteoporosis and infertility can also occur at a young age. "Mentally, eating disorders are marked by anxiety -- an increased sense of despair and depression as the person realizes all their efforts, all their terrible discipline to try and maintain their body image is not making them feel better about who they are," Brown said. "There's a sense of giving up and hopelessness, which can lead to impaired social connections, becoming withdrawn, and in some cases, can lead to suicide." He goes on to say without help and treatment, victims of eating disorders eventually starve their bodies to death -- the excessive