IDAHO FALL – Kimmie Smith had an extreme phobia of gaining weight. In her mind she had to be skinny – regardless of the cost.
The 25-year-old was just ten when her struggle with food began. Like many families, her parents were careful about what they ate, and her mother often talked about diet.
Low-calorie snacks were in the closet, exercise was a topic of discussion and a scale in the bathroom was used daily.
“I had this thing in my head that was healthy skinny and saw my mom’s patterns. I was like, ‘Oh, I need to eat fewer calories, count my calories and stay that weight forever,'” Smith told EastIdahoNews “I was obsessed with it and when I was almost 11 I had to go to a series of doctor’s appointments because my weight had dropped so much. I reached £ 50 pounds at the age of 10.”
Kimmie Smith says her eating disorder started when she was 10 years old. | Thanks to Kimmie Smith
The average ten-year-old weighs between 70 and 80 pounds, and Kimmie was told that if she did not gain weight, she would have to give up her favorite hobby.
“The doctor said I can not ride a horse when I am 50 pounds, I have to sit in a car seat, and my heart will start to weaken if I do not start eating again,” Smith recalls.
Emma Anderson relates to Smith’s story. The 19-year-old graduate of Hillcrest High School says there has always been talk of weight loss and healthy eating habits in her home.
She was never overweight, but feels under pressure to stay lean.
Emma Anderson says her eating disorder started when she was in 3rd grade. | Thanks to Emma Anderson
“When I was in third grade, I remembered running around the kitchen quite a few times, going into my parents’ bathroom, and jumping on the scales to see if I had lost weight,” says Anderson. . “I did it for 20 minutes just to see how many times I could run really fast and then jump on the scale to see if the number dropped.”
Both women say their eating disorders only got worse as they entered their teens. They often ate very little and were 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, it’s good for your body, because that’s what the diet industry is telling us,” Anderson says. ‘My menstrual cycle stopped, I did not eat much and limited. No one would have known I was struggling with this. ”
Smith and Anderson attended high school and moved to Rexburg to attend Brigham Young University-Idaho. Their eating disorders came with them, and Smith at one point ate only peanut butter. Both had severe anxiety and realized they needed professional help.
Get help
They heard from Liz Stephenson, the only certified eating disorder specialist in the Rexburg area. She is very busy with clients and is regularly booked for months on end.
Stephenson says the stories of Smith and Anderson are not uncommon for women their age, but what worries her is how many girls and boys started eating disorders at a younger age.
Liz Stephenson is a certified eating disorder counselor who practices in Rexburg. | Nate Eaton, EastIdahoNews.com
“It used to be that people with eating disorders would probably be 15 years and older,” Stephenson says. ‘We are now seeing children from the age of eight who are starting to struggle with eating disorders. It’s 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, where you eat very little or you are hungry, and bulimia, where you eat a lot of food and purify it. But diagnosing a specific eating disorder can be challenging.
“People assume there are these two classic cases of anorexia and bulimia, and those are all eating disorders,” Stephenson says. ‘There’s another subcategory called’ Other specified eating disorders’ that we call OSFED. Eighty percent of people with eating disorders fall into this category. They do not have enough criteria to be able to name anorexia or bulimia, but they have enough of the same problems or a mixture that they are in the other category. ”
Stephenson says eating disorders start in the brain – often at a traumatic time in someone’s life, such as parents divorcing, being bullied as a child or feeling unloved or coveted. Food becomes something you can control, even with the risk of severe malnutrition.
‘People can die from bulimia, but it does not appear on the death certificate. It shows heart failure, but there are parents out there who will tell you, ‘My daughter died because of vomiting or from using laxatives and diuretics,’ ‘Stephenson says.
After Smith and Anderson started dating Stephenson, they learned that there is no shame in having illness or getting help, and there is no quick fix.
“You need to completely rewire your brain and get rid of all the propaganda the world has told you,” Smith said. ” An eating disorder is like a best friend, but it’s also an abusive relationship. It’s something that’s comfortable, and that you want to go back to, because it’s something that’s familiar, but at the end of the day, it’s beating you and you feel terrible. ‘
Stephenson recommends that parents do a few things while raising their children in a society that is obsessed with being skinny:
- See people first and bodies second.
- Do not focus on ‘good’ or ‘bad’ food. If you eat a variety of healthy foods, it is good to eat.
- Have open conversations about how your children feel about their bodies.
- Realize that health is not weight. Health is behavior.
“Someone can be 115 pounds, and they look healthy, but if they vomit or go hungry, it’s not healthy,” she says. “It’s healthy to go out and move your body because you enjoy moving your body, not because you punish yourself for eating 1,000 calories today.”
Move forward
After continuous hard work, Anderson says she has now been the healthiest since she was a child. She knows her battle is not over yet and encourages anyone struggling with an eating disorder to get help.
Thanks to Emma Anderson
‘I would say it was a lifesaver for me and was life-changing. I have grown so much and am much more confident because of counseling, ”she says.
As for Smith, she compares her disorder to a roller coaster. Some days are over and some days are over, but at least she has the knowledge to know how to handle it.
“It’s very important to talk to someone,” says Smith. “You have to be very honest, and you have to tell someone, because you do not want it for 14 years.”
Thanks to Kimmie Smith
Tomorrow on EastIdahoNews.com we examine how eating disorders affect men.