IDAHO FALLS – Kimmie Smith had an extreme phobia of gaining weight. In her mind, she had to be thin – no matter what the cost.
The 25-year-old was only 10 when her battle with food began. Like many families, his parents were careful about what they ate and his mother always talked about diet.
Low-calorie snacks were in the closet, exercise was a topic of discussion, and a bathroom scale was used daily.
“I had one thing in my head that it’s healthy to be thin and see my mom’s standards, I was like, ‘Oh, I need to eat less calories, count my calories and keep this weight off forever,” said Smith to EastIdahoNews .with. “I became obsessed with it and when I was almost 11 years old I had to go to a series of medical appointments because my weight was dropping a lot. I got to the point where I was 50 pounds at 10 years old. “
Kimmie Smith says her eating disorder started when she was 10 years old. | Courtesy Kimmie Smith
The average 10-year-old weighs between 30 and 36 kg, and Kimmie was told that if she didn’t gain weight, she would have to give up her favorite hobby.
“The doctor said I can’t ride a horse if I weigh 22 kilos, I would have to be in a car seat and my heart would start to fail if I didn’t start eating again,” recalls Smith.
Emma Anderson relates to Smith’s story. The 19-year-old Hillcrest High School graduate says weight loss and healthy eating have always been talked about in her home as she grew up.
She was never overweight, but she felt the pressure to stay thin.
Emma Anderson says her eating disorder started when she was in 3rd grade. | Courtesy Emma Anderson
“When I was in third grade, I remember running around the kitchen several times, going to my parents’ bathroom and jumping on the scale to see if I had lost weight,” says Anderson. “I did this for 20 minutes just to see how many times I could run really fast and then jump on the scale to see if that number was going down.”
Both women say that entering adolescence only made their eating disorders worse. They often ate very little and became depressed. They say that their idea of a healthy body was someone very thin.
“I thought the less you ate, the healthier you would be and the more you exercised, that’s good for your body, because that’s what the diet industry is telling us,” says Anderson. “My menstrual cycle stopped, I didn’t eat much and I was restricting. No one would know that I was fighting this. “
Smith and Anderson graduated from high school and moved to Rexburg to study at Brigham Young University-Idaho. Their eating disorders came with them, and at one point, Smith ate only peanut butter. Both of them suffered from strong anxiety and realized that they needed professional help.
Getting help
They heard about Liz Stephenson, the only certified specialist in eating disorders counseling in the Rexburg area. She is extremely busy with customers and usually makes reservations for months.
Stephenson says Smith and Anderson’s stories are not uncommon for women her age, but what is alarming for her is how many girls and boys are starting to fight eating disorders at a younger age.
Liz Stephenson is a certified eating disorder counseling specialist based in Rexburg. | Nate Eaton, EastIdahoNews.com
“In the past, people with eating disorders would probably be 15 or older,” says Stephenson. “Now we are seeing children as young as 8 years old who are starting to fight eating disorders. It is getting younger and younger. “
About 20 million women and 10 million men in the United States will have an eating disorder at some point in their lives, according to the National Eating Disorders Association. Most of us are aware of anorexia, in which you eat very little or go hungry, and bulimia, in which you eat a lot and purge everything. But diagnosing a specific eating disorder can be challenging.
“People assume that there are these two classic cases of anorexia and bulimia, and that’s all eating disorders are,” says Stephenson. “There is another subcategory called ‘Other Specific Eating Disorders’ or what we call OSFED. Eighty percent of people with eating disorders fall into this category. They don’t have enough criteria to be called anorexia or bulimia, but they have enough of the same problems or a mixture of those in the other category. “
Stephenson says eating disorders start in the brain – often at a traumatic time in someone’s life, like parents getting divorced, being bullied as a child or feeling unloved or desired. Food becomes something you can control, even at the risk of severe malnutrition.
“People can die from bulimia, but it is not on the death certificate. He shows heart failure, but there are parents who will tell him: ‘My daughter died from vomiting or from using laxatives and diuretics’, ”says Stephenson.
After Smith and Anderson started meeting Stephenson, they learned that there is no shame in having a disorder or getting help, and there is no quick fix.
“You have to completely reconnect your brain and completely get rid of all the advertising that the world has said to you,” says Smith. “An eating disorder is like a best friend, but it is also an abusive relationship. It is something that is comfortable, and you want to come back because it is something familiar, but then, at the end of the day, it hits you and you feel terrible. “
Stephenson recommends that parents do a few things while raising their children in a society obsessed with being thin:
- See the people first and then the bodies.
- Do not focus on “good” or “bad” food. If you eat a variety of healthy foods, it’s okay to make a treat.
- Have open conversations about how your children feel about their bodies.
- Realize that health is not weight. Health are behaviors.
“Someone can weigh 35 pounds and look healthy, but if he is vomiting or starving, it is not healthy,” she says. “Healthy is getting out and moving your body because you like to move it, not because you’re punishing yourself for eating 1,000 calories today.”
Moving on
After consistent hard work, Anderson says he is now healthier since he was a child. She knows that her battle is not over yet and encourages anyone with an eating disorder to seek help.
Courtesy Emma Anderson
“I would say it was a life saver and life changing for me. I grew up a lot and I am much more confident in myself because of the counseling ”, she says.
As for Smith, she likens her illness to a roller coaster. Some days are over and others are over, but at least she has the knowledge to know how to deal with it.
“It is very important to talk to someone,” says Smith. “You need to be very honest and tell someone because you don’t want to have this for 14 years.”
Courtesy Kimmie Smith
Tomorrow at EastIdahoNews.com, we will explore how eating disorders affect men.