Dr. Phil: "Deadly Thin"

I am sitting her watching Dr. Phil where he is profiling Amy who is an anorexic/bulimic and weighs 60 lbs.  It is the most disturbing show I have ever seen.  It is so scary to see how far out of control our weight issues can get.  Amy binges and purges and often purges up to 150x a day. I just want to reach out and hug her she seems so lost.  Is anyone else watching? It just puts everything in perspective- when we think we have problems, there is someone who has is so so much harder.   I will keep her in my thoughts and prayers. Susan

Susan, I aired here a day or so ago and it was such a moving episode.  I felt so bad for her and made me realize how easily out of control we can become if we allow ourselves to be.  The mind sure can play mean tricks on us.  It truly bought tears to my eyes also......sigh. Nancy

I watched this episode last week, so the airing schedule must be different in our particular areas.  My heart went out to Amy. It struck me how even though I weighed almost 5 times what she does, that we both had major food issues, just manifested in different ways. I hope she gets the help she needs.

This ran here last week.  I actually found myself getting incredibly angry and sad.  It may be because I teach about the Holocaust.  You could have taken her body and put in one of the piles of bodies found when the concentration camps were liberated and it would have fit right in.  I could only think about all the people who would have done almost anything to have another crust of bread to save their lives and she was eating many thousands of calories a day and then vomiting it up.  I understand that she is in the grip of a powerful disease.  It made me angry, nevertheless.

But honestly can't you turn that argument right back around on yourself? There are millions of people who are starving all around the world, and here we are stuffing ourselves to the point of making ourselves sick. If I donated half of the food that I ate before I was banded I probably could have fed a small village (or possible a large one!).

It's scary that she is not alone. I have two  teenage daughters who pretty much eat what they want and are thin. I have even heeard THEM comment a couple of times that they "fat".  It makes me sick that our cuklture creates such unrealistic body images for women that  even the young normal weight girls question their bodies!

I have a daughter 12 years old that could stand to loose about 30 pounds. I try not to say anything at all to her about it. She comes home crying yesterday because this little Shi* called her fat at school yesterday. I feel like finding him and pinching his little head off!

For most of my life I have been a restrained eater.  I never ate french fries, drank soda, ordered desserts in restaurants, spent years eating half a chicken sandwich and an apple at lunch while watching skinny co-workers eat whole grinders.  My weight gain was attributable to yo-yo dieting, a thyroid problem which went undiagnosed for somewhere between 6 and 10 years and inconsistent exercise due to knee and other joint problems.  I would also note that with the exception of joint problems, I, at the age of 52 (when I got my band) was healthy, eating 5-9 servings of fruits and vegetables a day, eating oatmeal for breakfast, drinking my skim milk and avoiding red meats and too much cheese.