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Appetite
Disturbances
You
thought you were doing better this semester, but your report
card was a disaster. You got two B's and a C. You run all
the way home from school and head straight for the refrigerator
freezer, where you find an unopened quart of strawberry
ice cream. Your mother won't be home for a couple of hours,
so you'll have time to run out and get some more, you think,
as you start scooping straight out of the container and
into your mouth. You've been starving all day. You had just
a banana for breakfast and nothing for lunch. The ice cream
feels cool and creamy. Nothing else makes you feel this
good. You realize you're eating more than you need. In fact,
you've nearly consumed the whole quart, and your stomach
is starting to hurt. But you want to finish it off. There's
no point in leaving just a few scoops at the bottom.
You
take the empty container outside to the trash so no one
will find it. On your way back into the house, you feel
nauseated. Why did you do it? Now you just have more calories
to burn off. Couldn't you have stopped after a bite or two?
Your whole life is out of control. Your grades are bad,
you're overweight, and you can't control your eating. You
head upstairs to the bathroom, bend over the toilet, and
vomit. You keep going until all of the ice cream is out
of your stomach and you feel the cleansing burn of acid
in your mouth. You flush, rinse your mouth, and spray air
freshener around the room.
This
chapter covers the following topics:
- Appetite
Disturbances
- Anorexia
Nervosa Is an Illness of Eating too Little
- In
Bulimia, Binge Eating Is Followed by Purging
- Obesity
Is Usually a Metabolic, Not Psychiatric, Illness
- Appetite
and Eating Are Disturbed in Several Other Mental Illnesses
- How
to Cope with Appetite and Eating Disturbances
This
excerpt may not be reproduced without written permission
from the publishers.
Fifty Signs of Mental Illness: A Guide to Understanding
Mental Health
Yale University Press / New Haven and London
Copyright © 2005 by James Whitney Hicks
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