Throughout my short career of being a barista at caribou coffee in downtown Wayzata, I learned all roasts of coffee (did you know dark has less caffeine than light? It's a fact that confuses most people, but because darker blends are roaster longer, the caffeine "cooks out" much like when cooking with alcohol) all types of tea, how to makt the perfect latte and how to please unrelenting rich people. The one exposure I never would expected when I first started working there was getting a first hand look at a disease I thought to be a high school fad: Anorexia Nervosa.
When I first met Alyssa, I was impressed with her ability to make 15 drinks at one time without breaking a sweat, her preference for the same music I liked to listen to, and her tiny, spindly body. At first, I didn't suspect that it was the product of self abuse but rather just natural, genetic thinness that some girls are blessed with. I was horribly wrong. Alyssa suffered from a Cartesian mind-body dualism, known to the medical world as an eating disorder. Her body, emaciated to the point where you could almost see it trying to eat itself as a last resort for fuel, went unrecognized by her mind, which believed that every bite of food and every sip of even water, would turn her obese. Despite looking like this, she believed she looked more like this
and that it would get worse with every bite of food. Water, a zero calorie liquid essential for survival would sometimes be too much.
I believe anorexia is one of the most misunderstood disorders prevalent in western culture today. Many "cases" of eating disorders seen in young girls are likely just cries for attention, such as skipping meals or complaining about being "fat" during the difficult middle school years. Anorexia is much deeper and more complex than superficial desire to look like the models in the Victoria's secret fashion show. It is a mental illness, a irrational fear of food and being overweight, a fear of losing control. It is a complete separation of the mind and the body, a split that can become fatal if treatment isn't sought and destructive behaviors allowed to continue. I remember one morning distinctly. We were both opening the store (at 5AM mind you) and she was just reaching for coffees to brew and she collapsed onto the floor. Her body finally gave her mind the middle finger and couldn't take it anymore. She couldn't get up, no matter how hard her mind wanted to pull her to her feet and act like everything was okay, her body could not do it. She had a small infection in her intestines, that a normal person could fight off with a prescription antibiotic, but instead she was hospitalized for over 11 days. This was a terrifying realization for me how severe this disorder was, and how life-threatening it could become when ignored or treated as normal.
I think this is a perfect example of Decartes mind-body dualism, because it clearly shows how each entity seems to have a "mind" or force of its own, and how the two can conflict when in this sort of a situation. Alyssa was trapped in a body that was slowly wasting away, and trapped with a mind telling her that it was never good enough, that she didn't deserve to eat, and that food was poison and not vital nutrition. Currently in the media, there is much talk about how models and celebrities are setting bad examples for young girls and can become the "cause" of an onset of anorexia or bulimia. Unfortunately, it is much more complex that that, and it is a misconception by society that forcing models to have a certain BMI in order to be employed will help treat people suffering from a mental disease. Thinspiration commonly blamed for giving girls fuel to (not) feed their fire and desire to be skinny, is only a scratch on the surface of this problem. Eating disorders stem from a deep desire within the people that they infect to be perfect, to be in control, and that desire manifests itself as the fight against fat. Viewing it so simplistically to say that it is merely a desire to look like Mary-Kate Olsen is a conclusion completely ignorant of true underlying causes to the problem. This is why it is important to have science to study true causes to problems, and have science try to make sense of them to treat them. The only way to seek solutions to problems is to first seek the root cause of the problem, otherwise all the methods of treating the more superficial components of the problem will be band-aids on a gaping wound; useless.
Alyssa is fortunately still alive despite her minds best efforts, and has made steps of progress against her disorder. She allows herself to drink water and even takes vitamins. She forces herself to eat at least once a day and now instead of fighting off the hunger pains, she fights the voices in her head that tell her that her body is fat. This reclaiming of her body and change of state of mind is helping her towards recovery, but it is a slow process and one that takes daily determination to not fall off the right track. She is doing for herself what society needs to do with any disorder or problem it faces: get to the root of it, and solve the problem from there. By confronting cause, we can change the effects, but by only treating effects, the cause will still exist and continue to undo all progress. It is with this that I wish to challenge everyone to look deeper into problems that confront them on a daily basis. When one is able to see past the surface, only then can solutions be implemented and problems abolished.
(Note, I changed the name of my friend to protect her identity)
This was a very interesting post! I think you raise a very good point about anorexia being an example of a mind-body split. Despite the fact that I disagree with Descartes notion that the mind and body are entirely seperable, I must admit this is a great example of how this mind-body split can be all-too-real at times. Alyssa's malnourished body is surely crying out for food, but her mind is deaf to these pleas. Her inability to properly feed herself is a scary example of how the mind can subvert the body's will to dangerous effect.
ReplyDeleteYou also raise a good point about society's unfortunate reductionist view on this disorder. While the desire to look thin like one's favorite supermodel, actress, etc. might be a contributing factor to this disorder, there are certainly many other possible influencing factors. I find it hard to believe that one could push one's own body to its physical limits just because you wish to look like Keira Knightley. Perhaps better understanding the nature of the mind-body split in people with eating disorders will help psychiatrists find better ways to treat them.
Your post is very well written and excellently expresses the conflict present between body and mind in an individual who suffers from an eating disorder. I have known a couple people with eating disorders, and feel that it is difficult for others to truly understand how devastating these disorders can be unless they have been touched by them personally.
ReplyDeleteAs mentioned in my post, I am quite interested by physiological explanations for diseases/disorders that are largely viewed as psychological in nature. I came across this fascinating blog post (http://jackkruse.com/primal-cpc-2-eating-disorder-etiology/) about a month or two ago. It proposes a cause for eating disorders that is rooted in chronically high cortisol levels, systemic inflammation, and an unlinking between appetite-regulatory hormones leptin and ghrelin. It is a bit "science-heavy", but I definitely recommend it.
I enjoyed reading your post. Your example explains Descartes of separable minds and bodies. As you said there is so much focus on maintaining a specific BMI. There are so many products, machines, and programs out there to try to eliminate obesity from the world. What many don't see that putting so much pressure and emphasis on obesity created another problem, eating disorders.
ReplyDeleteIt is amazing how much our bodies can try to keep agreeing with our minds, but when the breaking points come nothing can tell the body what to do. Descartes may be right about the relation between our bodies and minds, but there are many cases where your body will do what it needs to survive no matter what your mind wants. I think a good example is sleeping. Personally, there is no way I can push myself to stay up and study if I'm in an urgent need to sleep. My body gives up on me very easily and sleeping always wins.