Case Sharing

I wrote this as a parents who walked through the journey with my daughter suffering from eating disorders symptoms back 14-15 years ago when she was 13. It all started with a very trivial matter - I innocently bought a book on calories for her as she wanted to eat more healthily and look slimmer.

While Christmas is often described as one of the most anticipated times of the year, surprisingly it was the polar opposite for an anorexic patient — whereas the fancy lights and decorations and rollicking carols were among the actual enjoyable elements of the supposedly merry festival, the table-full of turkey and gravy and chocolate cake were unfortunately perceived as monstrous, threatening and wicked.

I used to think anorexia wasn’t an illness, I saw it as a lifestyle. A conscious choice, really. Like when you choose to be vegetarian or when you choose your haircut. The same way, I thought, I chose not to eat, and I was fine with it, I thought.

When a psychiatrist told me my daughter had been suffering from binge eating for 8 years, I could not believe it. I could not believe I had been ignorant of my daughter’s illness even though we had been living together for so many years.

It’s been 3 years since I discovered that my daughter was diagnosed with eating disorder. Fortunately, she has fully recovered. But the recovery process was like a war for my wife and me.

The hardest time is over! Every time I look back on the pains and sufferings, I see a glimpse of hope – that’s our society and our home, where we talk to and help one another.