Recovery Stories - Sharon's story

Recovery from Anorexia Nervosa

Limiting her food intake and exercising excessively to be thin were ways that Sharon could take control of her life. But these “controls” nearly proved fatal. In 2007, at the urging of her internist, she checked into Belmont Center for Comprehensive Treatment’s Eating Disorders Program. She weighed 69 pounds and had only days to live unless she received medical help. Upon being admitted to Belmont, Sharon was so severely malnourished that the lining of her heart was being eaten away. She remained on bed rest for the first month and then graduated to a wheelchair. It was seven weeks before she was strong enough to walk.

After years of living with anorexia nervosa, Sharon was ready to battle the disease, along with the anxiety and obsessive compulsive disorders that had taken control of her life. She is now in recovery, weighing a healthy 135 pounds. Anorexia nervosa is a complex, psychological disorder that can have devastating consequences. “Most people with this disorder look emaciated and typically weigh at least 15 percent below normal for their age and height, yet complain of feeling fat,” says Lauren Strobeck, Psy.D., Program Coordinator of Belmont’s Eating Disorders Program. Characteristics of anorexia nervosa include self-imposed starvation and dieting; an obsession with food; an intense fear of gaining weight and an unrealistic body image.

According to Dr. Strobeck, “although no exact cause of anorexia is known, there are a number of factors that can contribute to people (mostly girls and women) developing this condition, such as: societal pressure to be thin; low sense of self-worth; strong need for approval, or a history of sexual, physical or emotional trauma.” As Sharon’s story highlights, without treatment, anorexia can lead to life-threatening health problems and even death.

Since college, Sharon was overly concerned with food and being thin, but was able to function well. In her mid-thirties, things spiraled out of control. Sharon and her family were living in Israel when in 2006, the war with Lebanon broke out. People lived in constant fear of bombings and hid in bomb shelters regularly. Living with a pervasive threat of danger exacerbated her anorexia. She couldn’t control the bombings, but she could control how much she ate. Her family moved back to Philadelphia in 2006. Soon after, Sharon tripped and fell and broke her leg due to brittle bones from anorexia. Unable to do her rigorous workouts each day increased her depression and obsessive thoughts about being thin.

Desperate to prevent weight gain, she drastically limited her food intake to one bowl of cream of wheat each night with margarine and jelly mixed in, and drank a glass of water with Chinese herbal drops.

Despite wasting away, she continued these rituals. When her leg healed, she resumed exercising several hours a day. When asked what she saw when she looked in the mirror, Sharon says “she saw someone who was athletic.” “People with eating disorders have a very distorted body image, so if you or I saw Sharon, we would have seen someone severely underweight and sickly, yet Sharon thought she looked strong and athletic,” says Dr. Strobeck.

The turning point came when Sharon could no longer hug or kiss her children for fear that she would gain weight. Intellectually she knew she couldn’t gain weight through physical contact with someone who has just eaten, but she couldn’t fight these obsessive thoughts. The realization that these irrational thoughts were preventing her from loving and nurturing her children, motivated her to get help.

She finally decided to admit herself to the Eating Disorders Program at the Belmont Center. During her four month inpatient treatment, Sharon participated in daily psychiatry meetings, individual, group and family therapy, a body image group, art and music therapy, yoga and journal writing. She learned how to normalize her food intake and understand the emotional reasons for her difficulties with food, weight and body image. Following inpatient care, Sharon transitioned to a partial hospitalization program at Belmont where she continued intensive therapies during the day and returned home at night. From there, she progressed to outpatient therapy, meeting with a therapist on a weekly basis.

When she thinks about her path to recovery, Sharon credits the care she received at Belmont along with her faith. Today she feels good when she eats knowing she is taking care of her body and mind. She has check-ups twice a month with her primary care physician and her exercise regimen is mainly walking her two dogs. Sharon volunteers as a motivational speaker at Belmont, visiting patients in the Eating Disorders Program to encourage them in their recovery. Once a week she brings her dogs to visit residents at a nursing home for pet therapy. Sharon has come a long way and is grateful for her mental and physical well-being.