Attitudes towards anorexia nervosa: The burdensome world of anorexia nervosa
Even when people were refusing treatment or wanting to continue having anorexia nervosa, everyone we spoke to who had anorexia nervosa described it as a huge burden to have.
Anorexia nervosa can feel very frightening, because it overwhelms a person. It can also threaten a person's life, because of the physical consequences of weight loss and the strategies to lose weight; and also because of the despair and hopelessness that people with anorexia nervosa can feel.
| It is very, very scary. I was just absolutely terrified. … it was filling my life, I had nothing in my life but the eating disorder, I didn't know whether I wanted to get rid of it, even though if I didn't get rid of it then I would have died. 12P |
| I think it's a horrible disease and it's very nasty, it's a vicious circle that's very difficult to get out of. And [it] does need treatment if it gets beyond a certain stage. And it's dangerous. 17P |
| It's a horrible illness, absolutely horrible. It deprives you of so much in life and it kills you as well. So it's got nothing good about it. And that's why I say that it, we don't have a choice, because I'm sure, the majority of these girls, I mean, including me wouldn't want to die, do you know what I mean? It's only when you're in the real grips of it that it doesn't look like a way out, that that's what you want to do. So that's what I think. 18P |
Anorexia nervosa can also fill a person's life, so that everything and every decision becomes a burden.
I think it's horrible and I think it takes over your whole life, so you've got nothing else and it's very hard to get rid of. Well it can take over your whole day, so it's all that you think about and then it means you can't do normal things, because it's like, you wake up in the morning and then you've got to think about doing exercise and eating the right things and you can't just get up and live - and then you end up missing doing so many things, because you get taken over. Interviewer: Right, so it sounds like it is a thing that takes over your life. I was very struck by what you said about you can't just get up and live and I wonder if you can tell me a bit more about that? 7 Um, like normal people just get up in the morning and they just decide what they're going to do in the day and they don't have to think about limitations on things, as such, whereas it's like I can't do that because if I do that it's going to be the wrong time to eat. I won't be able to eat there and I won't be able to eat the right things and then it means that I can't just do, I can't just decide what I'm going to do, everything's got to be thought through totally, so I can cope with it. 30P |
