This week's video I'm going to tell you seven facts about anorexia.

Why it's serious and why we need to get help as soon as possible.

So, like I said, today I want to talk to you about seven facts that you may or may not know about anorexia.

And why it's so so important that we get help sooner rather than later.

Now the first fact I want to talk to you about is something that you may not even know, or have noticed.

And that is bad breath.

Now this has nothing to do with how much you floss or brush your teeth

it's nothing to do with how you are hygienically.

What happens when we're malnourished for a long period of time is that our body begins to eat itself, for lack

of a better term.

It can eat at our muscle, it'll eat away anything that our body doesn't need right now and for survival.

Okay? And so the bad breath is actually something that's coming from our body.

And it kind of eating on itself or decomposing on itself.

And so what we're breathing out is that smell. And it can be really difficult to get rid of if we're not nourishing ourselves.

And it can also really hinder some of our relationships, so it's something I would definitely pay attention to and

get help as soon as possible.

When our body is lacking the nutrients and the food that it needs, it's going to find other ways to get that.

And so once it runs out of what's in our stomach, it's going to begin eating different portions of our body.

Number one being muscle.

Our heart is a muscle. And so it begins to digest portions of that and our heart size goes down.

And the reason that that's so so scary for someone who's struggling, for the family around them, for the therapist

who's treating them is that we can have heart attacks.

And it's the most common way for people who struggle with eating disorders to pass away.

And I've seen it happen personally, I've had colleagues go through it, I've seen families go through it.

It's really, really scary.

And the signs that you may feel before are some kind of palpitations, or arrhythmias

You may just feel something off, like you may feel your heart beating a little irregularly.

Please, please, please go see your doctor. As soon as possible.

Today. Yesterday. Whenever you can get in, please go get checked out.

Go to your general practitioner and if they can't help you please ask for a referral to see a cardiologist.

We need to see people who know how to help us.

So please, I'm urging you, we're working together, right?

I care about you, I care about your welfare, I want you to get help and I want you to get better so

please make an appointment as soon as you can.

So fact number three. Now this one's something that's probably a little bit more common and you've probably

heard of, and that's osteoporosis and osteopenia.

Now, like I've talked about in the other two facts, our body when it doesn't have the nutrients because of what

we're digesting, what we're eating, it's going to find it somewhere else.

And our bones have a lot of nutrients.

A lot of calcium, a lot of things that our body needs and it will start leeching from our bones to help us survive.

And so it will first show itself as Osteopenia, which is kind of

You've seen the pictures in the doctors office, it shows the bone and it'll show little divots in it and it's kind of

more porous, and that's the beginning stages of Osteoporosis, which is a more severe form of that.

And this is something that your doctor can test you for.

And it's something that, if they know, if we're honest with our treatment team, right?

With our therapist with our doctor, if we're honest with them about what we're struggling with they will run these tests.

They will make sure that your bones are strong and the thing that's great about it is if we catch it early

we can stop it.

And some of the medications out there now can even repair a little bit of the damage.

So if we start finding these things when they're in Osteopenia and not Osteoporosis,

it will make our bones stronger so that when we're old we don't break a hip all of a sudden because it's

so weakened, right? And this is something that the sooner we get help the better just like everything else,

so if you have any worry about this please call your doctor and make an appointment.

So fact number four that you need to know about anorexia is that it can affect our skin and our hair.

We'll lose our hair because like anything else like I'm talking about, our body,

when it doesn't need something, it won't put any energy into it because it doesn't have any extra energy to give out.

So we'll start losing our hair.

And our skin, because we need a lot of water, we need a lot of nutrients, we need the proper green leafy vegetables

and protein and fats to make our skin supple and gorgeous, and if we are not getting that, we will age quickly.

Now for any of you who are clinicians like myself and you've worked in hospitals where people are being

tube-fed or you've worked in inpatient treatment centers where people are really sick you've noticed that they

come in and they say "Oh and you're next patient will be 22" and you look out there and you're like "You mean that

36 year old waiting in the waiting room?"

And it's really sad but it's very true, you can't help it.

Your body cannot keep your skin healthy.

A lot of my clients will even tell me "Kati I have wrinkles already and I'm only 24 years old" or "I'm only 19, why

do I have wrinkles?"

Or they'll have a lot of acne issues, and it's because that's something that our body's not going to put energy into

and it will make our skin, it'll give us really difficult skin.

Whether it's dry, whether you have acne, whether it's wrinkles,

and it's really unfortunate and the best thing we can do for ourselves is to get a dietician and start giving our bodies the

nutrients it needs.

Now fact number five that you need to know, is cognitive functioning.

And I know, whether you want to admit it or not, if you've been struggling with anorexia for any length of time

you've noticed that your focus is not there,

you're memory, it's really hard. School can be so hard.

Because, our brain works on proper nutrition.

We need fats. We need green leafy vegetables. We need proteins.

We need sugars. We need things to keep all our neurons firing and for us to be really active and "Oh I

remember that, and oh that's a funny joke from that movie we watched six months ago"

We struggle to remember things and to stay focused.

We will struggle to stay awake, that's oftentimes why a lot of my clients, we work on lowering their caffeine intake, because

our body's tired. It needs the energy to keep us going and to keep us focused.

And I can tell you right now, cause I'm studying for my exams,

I am never hungrier than after I just took a 3 hour practice exam.

I like, am crazed for food.

And that's because our brain actually uses a lot of energy to function.

And so if you are struggling with this, I encourage you, please look for a therapist in your area and a dietician

so that we can get your body the nutrients it needs so you can do better in school,

you can function better with your friends and you can be there, and be more present, okay?

So fact number six about anorexia, is that it does not discriminate

Doesn't matter how old you are. Doesn't matter if you're a boy or a girl.

Doesn't matter what religion you are. Doesn't matter where you live.

You can be anywhere in the world. You can be any sex. Any whatever.

And you can still struggle.

Because what I've talked about forever is that an eating disorder is really a coping skill, right?

Has nothing to do with us being a certain race, or a certain age, or any of that.

And the worst thing that we can keep sharing and keep believing as the truth is that it's a white rich girl problem

I'm here to tell you that that's a bunch of bullshit.

And it's just going to make people feel more alienated.

And we know, right? We know that it doesn't discriminate.

We know that it's a struggle for all of us, and the more that we can share this information,

the more you can hit the like button, you can put this on your page

you can let people know, so that people know that it's okay to get help.

And we're all in this together, right? We're a community.

We don't discriminate, eating disorders don't discriminate.

And we're here to get better.

Now the seventh fact that you need to know about anorexia, is that you can recover.

You can get better.

I know it's hard. I know that when we first start in recovery we can think that it's just getting worse.

But it's worth it.

If we find healthy coping skills to replace this unhealthy coping skill, we can get better.

I've seen it happen over and over and over.

Whether it's in my own practice, whether it's in the clinics that I've worked at, whether it's online

and you've let me know how many days since you've last utilized your eating disorder,

or you just got out of treatment and you're doing great,

I know that it's possible.

I know it's hard work, but you're worth it. You can do it.

And together we will break through the stigma of eating disorders, we will break through the stigma

that they only affect certain types of people, we will help share information and change the way that

people get information about this and receive help.

So please, please, please, help grow our community.

Share, make sure to subscribe. Like this. Take the link and post it around so people know that they're not alone

and that we're a great community of people ready to help one another, right?

We're working together. So help me, as I help you

work towards a healthy mind and a healthy body.

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