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Starving for perfection

Student Leanne Nordal always thought if she could just attain the perfect, thin body, she’d be happy.

But in the quest for perfection, she lost control of her life. It was three years before she realized she needed help.

“I remember sitting in a room full of social workers and no one said anything,” said Nordal, who is studying social work at the U of C.

“No one was saying anything, and I was dying.”

Feb. 1 - 7 marks Canada’s annual National Eating Disorders Awareness Week, which brings attention to the dangers of eating disorders. This awareness is especially important in a country where 90 per cent of women and girls aren’t happy with their bodies, according to the Canadian Women’s Health Network.

Nordal, 24, was diagnosed with anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. It began when she was 19 and was in the process of moving home after living overseas.

Family dysfunction disrupted Nordel’s life. Experiencing too much change at once turned her world on its head, she said.

“In your life you jump from one cliff to another cliff, and most people make it over the cliff and jump the gully, and some people slip,” said Nordal. “What I let fall was me.”

She began using exercise to avoid dealing with her problems, being encouraged by others. As a student, the constant pressure to do well at school, financial stress, coupled with a sense of abandonment, helped her disorders thrive.

At 5’10”, she said she never looked emaciated but just really fit. She said as a dancer she was told constantly throughout her life that she wasn’t thin enough. She finally sought help after feeling constantly exhausted and began having suicidal thoughts.

“I went to group counselling one day and there were women of all ages there. There were these older women who had no one in their (lives) because this consumes your whole life.
“I don’t want that life.”

SAIT student counselling services supervisor Lois Hayward said she hasn’t encountered many students coming in for eating disorder counselling, but this doesn’t mean it’s not a problem.

Hayward said often health services will flag patients with related problems, such as dental issues from excessive vomiting, and recommend a counsellor. She said students in the past have come forward seeking help for roommates.

“I think part of it is that many people don’t recognize that they have an eating disorder,” said Hayward. “They don’t self-disclose until it has really affected their life substantially.

Nordal said she found talking about her experience difficult at first, but she needed to tell people because it helps others. “I don’t regret having it if this is the impact I can have in the end,” said Nordal. “If you know someone who needs help, tell them you love them and that you’ll walk through this with them.”

Statistics:
Eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of all mental illnesses. Roughly 10 to 20 per cent of people eventually die from complications. Long-term health effects include infertility. Source Statistics Canada

Warning Signs for Eating Disorders (including bulimia nervosa, anorexia nervosa, binge-eating):
• low self-esteem
• social withdrawal
• claims of feeling fat when weight is normal or low
• preoccupation with food, weight, counting calories and with what people think
• denial that there is a problem
• wanting to be perfect
• intolerance of others
• inability to concentrate
Source: Canadian Mental Health Association

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