Tackling stigma, raising awareness of eating disorders goal of walk
Danielle Gaio and Bailea Watt know how your own mind can mess with you when you have an eating disorder.
The two friends, now both 22, were in their mid-teens when they started to feel powerful compulsions.
For Gaio, a Niagara-on-the-Lake teen who now lives in St. Catharines, it was to starve herself.
For Watt, of Fonthill, it was to purge herself after eating.
Gaio had anorexia nervosa, a disorder that compels people to shed weight to dangerously low levels through behaviour that can include starving themselves, exercising intensely, and/or purging through self-induced vomiting or misuse of medications like laxatives, diuretics, enemas or insulin, the Torontobased non-profit National Eating Disorder Information Centre says.
Watt had bulimia, typically marked by recurring episodes of food restriction followed by binge eating, often followed by purging through methods such as selfinduced vomiting, fasting or the misuse of laxatives, diuretics or enemas.
Both conditions can be lifethreatening.
The national eating disorder centre said purging can lead to imbalances in essential body minerals and salts, which can cause cardiac arrest and/or stroke.
Anorexia is also linked with cardiac arrest, suicidal thinking and other causes of death, the
centre says.
Despite the danger of eating disorders, Gaio said it’s difficult to withstand the compulsions that come with the mental illnesses.
“It’s like there’s someone else inside of you,” she said. “It’s like there’s a voice inside your head saying you need to starve.”
Gaio and Watt eventually got therapy from experts in Hamilton, but not before suffering in silence for some time.
They want other Niagara residents struggling with eating disorders to know they don’t have to go it alone and are determined to chip away at the pervasive stigma attached to those disorders.
They’ve organized the inaugural Niagara Eating Disorder Fundraiser Walk, hoping to raise funds for Niagara’s Pathstone Mental Health and the national eating disorder centre.
It’s scheduled for Sunday, Aug. 5 at Oakes Park on Morrison Street at Stanley Avenue in Niagara Falls.
Sitting in the serene setting of the park, Watt and Gaio talked about how the eating disorders are intertwined with anxiety and depression, of the vicious cycles that can come with purging and starving, and the fear of others knowing they have the disorders.
“It’s an illness, it’s not a choice,” said Gaio. “I didn’t choose to have this. I didn’t choose to feel depressed.
“It’s not as easy as ‘Why don’t you just go eat a hamburger?’”
Gaio said eating disorders don’t just impact those suffering from them. Their families also pay a steep price because of the helplessness of watching a loved one’s destructive patterns.
“My family definitely suffered a lot,” she said. “I would never wish it on anybody. It’s a terrible illness.”
Watt hopes the walk will raise awareness of the services of Pathstone, the region’s expert agency on child mental illness and health, which includes treatment of eating disorders.
“The biggest thing is to show people that there is help that they can reach out for in our own community,” she said.
Pathstone CEO Shaun Baylis said eating disorders carry the highest death toll of all mental health conditions, partly due to the higher-than-average rate of suicide among those with eating disorders and partly to medical complications associated with the disorders.
“Teen eating disorders are perhaps the most dangerous of all,” he said.
That’s because the most common age of onset for eating disorders is between 12 and 25 years old, and for females between 15 and 24 years old who suffer from anorexia, the mortality rate associated with the illness is far higher than peers without the disorder.
Baylis stressed recovery is possible.
“Because of the severity and complexities of these conditions, a comprehensive and professional treatment team specializing in eating disorders is often fundamental in establishing healing and recovery.”
His agency has the ability to assess if a youth is suffering from an eating disorder and depending or the severity a clinician will provide the treatment or will make a referral to an appropriate community resource.”
Pathstone recently launched its Heart and Now walk-in clinic, which runs Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and which offers a single session, one-on-one session with a Pathstone mental health therapist. There is no fee, no appointment is necessary, and you don’t need a health card.
The Aug. 5 event, running from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. with a $5 registration, will include guest speakers and demonstrations such as Zumba and a wellness coach. Watt hopes it will be a first step for people with eating disorders to seek help.
“If I was struggling and didn’t know where to do, this is a great place to start,” she said.