Reflection During National Eating Disorder Week
by Chaya Jundef
It’s National Eating Disorder Week … A time which I usually celebrate. Ironically, I spent much of the week in bed
due to a serious brain infection. All
the resting hours have given me time to think…and think…
During the last week, I have been enveloped in love. From the moment my brain
infection was diagnosed, family and friends came running: Can I help? Do you
need supplies? Can I stay with you in the clinic?
The doctors treated me respectfully; reviewing the diagnosis and treatment
options. The nurses were kind and happy to converse. My employers were
understanding, and insisted I take off work. I was a PERSON, not an illness.
NO one said:
• What did you do wrong to get a brain infection?
• Why don’t you just get rid of it?
• If you try hard enough, the infection will go away on its own.
• It’s really selfish of you to develop a brain infection.
• This infection of yours is ruining your family.
And while I appreciate the kindness this week, my heart hurts. It hurts
because I can’t help but contrast this reaction to my experience of 15 years
battling a different type of brain infection….called an Eating Disorder.
During the years when my brain was “infected”, the reactions were not so
kind. I experienced constant rejection:
• I was fired from my job of 8 years, where I had invested unlimited
passion, after my boss discovered I had an eating disorder.
• The director of a National Youth Group (for which I volunteered 12 years)
refused to allow me on the bus because, “You don’t belong with children” even
though I had organized the entire trip.
• I vacationed with 4 girls in Miami who heard about my eating disorder
while I was strolling outside. They placed my luggage on the porch, and locked
me out of the house. I spent the rest of the vacation alone in a small motel.
• I was kicked out of the Israeli camp that I was
directing after a friend told the owner about my eating disorder. I wandered the streets in Israel for 3 days
because I was too embarrassed to tell anyone….tired, dehydrated, lonely…. I
finally boarded a plane to America and stayed in the airport because my parents
wouldn’t allow me home. I had nowhere to go.
And then there were the comments….can I ever forget those hurtful comments?
Friend: “You need to try harder.
Everyone can eat. So can you, if you try hard enough.”
Rabbi: “You know that you will go
to Hell for destroying your body.” (Thanks,
but I’m already experiencing Hell just living with an eating disorder.)
Neighbor: “I cannot allow you to
enter my home because I have children, and you are contagious.”
Random Lady: “I never saw someone with
so little hair. Did you just have chemo?” (Do
you think I would tell a random stranger even if I did?)
Cousin: “You know, you were a
pretty girl before you developed this illness.” (And now I’m just ugly?)
Aunt: “You destroyed all your
chances of getting married.”
Principal: “You cannot have any
communication with your students anymore, even outside of work. You are not a
proper role model, and the students might catch your disease.”
Sister-in-Law: “Ummm….so I read about
this THING that you have….and um….don’t worry, this THING doesn’t bother me.” (Thing = eating disorder…why can’t you just
say it?)
Relative: “You know that your
father’s hair turned white because of you.” (I
loved my father, and his pain just increased mine.)
Rabbi: “You obviously are not a
good Orthodox girl. You are trying to adopt secular culture, which idolizes
fashion. You need to get this nonsense out of your head.”
Sister: “You are embarrassing me
in front of all my friends.”
Sales Clerk: “What is wrong with girls
nowadays? Are you trying to compete with the mannequin?”
Young Woman in Social Work
Grad School: “It’s really interesting to speak to an anorexic. I mean, I learned about
it, but you seem normal…… I recently read in a textbook that eating disorders
are related to abuse. Were you sexually abused?” (Umm...does she honestly think I would discuss that with a stranger???)
Matchmaker: “You’re making it very
difficult for your siblings. No one will want to marry someone whose sister has
an eating disorder.”
Brother: “I have an idea. Let’s put
you in a room with a tape recorder that says, ‘eat spaghetti’. And if you
listen to it all day, you will start eating!” (Guess if that worked…??!!)
Friend: “I wish you could teach me how to be anorexic for 2
weeks. My sister is getting married, and
I must lose weight before the wedding.” (Should I also teach you how to have cancer?
Or diabetes? Or lung disease? It’s so cool to know that illnesses can be
TAUGHT.)
Principal of My High School (where I had been a star
student, despite fainting numerous times) after I told her that I suspected a
student had an eating disorder: “No student in this school has ever had an
eating disorder. We are a respectable institution.” (Umm…So, I DIDN’T attend this respectable institution? That’s strange
because my picture is hanging on the wall.)
Relative: “Do you realize how selfish
you’re being?” (Do you have any idea how
much I care for others, and how much I struggle to do anything for myself??)
Employer: “I suggest you teach boys
instead of girls. Your illness won’t be contagious there.” (Because NO MALES develop eating disorders…???)
Friend: “Why are you trying so hard
to look like a model?” (I had never even seen
a model! I grew up without television or movies.)
Biology Teacher Who Saw Me
in Hospital: “It would be interesting if you could come to my class. I could teach my
students the entire human anatomy just by looking at you. You can see every
bone protruding, even your ribs.” (Should
I have agreed and charged for the lecture? Great idea for a future career…)
Social Worker Assigned to My
Case:
"So, you are an Orthodox young woman. I assume that your illness is your
way of showing that you feel constrained within your religion." (No! No! NO! I only stayed alive because of
my faith.)
Nutritionist Untrained in
Eating Disorders: “So, have you been behaving good this
week?” (Wow. Isn’t it great to know that
my symptoms make me good or bad?)
Another Nutritionist
Untrained in Eating Disorders: “So, you tell me that you’re not
afraid of eating ketchup. In that case,
I want you to eat 4 cups of ketchup daily – 1 for each meal and 1 for snack. It
makes no difference what you eat as long as you get calories.” (Honestly. And I followed
instructions…until I got physically sick.)
Nurse: “I can’t believe anything
you say. I read that all anorexics are manipulative liars.” (Sure, because I'm just a textbook case. Do you
know anything about my core values? How much I treasure honesty?)
Direct Care Worker: “I had plans for the
weekend, but now I’m forced to work because a spoiled brat like you refuses to
eat, and needs an adult to sit next to her by meals. It’s pathetic.”
Passerby: “Hey, Anorexic, get into
hospital.” (Yup. That’s me. I have no name or identity. Just “anorexic”.)
Relative: If you really wanted to recover, you would go for
treatment. You clearly don’t mind being sick. (Do you know that I have been on a treatment
waiting list for months? That I have to fight for insurance for any form of
help?)
Friend: “You’ve done this long
enough. Stop already.” (Oh. That's easy.)
Acquaintance: There are some people who are REALLY sick, like with
cancer. They probably wish they could switch places with you. (Okay, let’s try it. I’m not sure they
would agree once they experienced a day in the life of an eating disorder.)
Relative: “Don’t you think you
already got enough attention? How much longer are you going to do this?” (I guess until I get MORE
attention.....seriously, do you notice that I hide my symptoms? How embarrassed
I am of my own behaviors?)
Aunt: “Your ED program sounds
great. All you do is sit around all day, and meals are served to you. I wish I
could have such a vacation. Stop complaining, and appreciate it.” (You’re right. I can’t believe I had the
audacity to suggest treatment is hard.)
Matchmaker: “You have to be realistic
about who will date you. I can suggest a paralyzed young man with cystic
fibrosis, who can’t have children, and is missing one ear, but is WILLING to
date a girl with your history.” (True
story.)
Matchmaker # 2: “There is a man who is in
his mid- 40s. He is currently unemployed and doesn’t look at women because he
is really religious. I think he would be a good suggestion for you because he
is obese, and you can teach him how to lose weight.” (Another true story.)
I would like to say Health
Care Workers were better, but most were not educated:
• My pulse was below 40 one Friday…I went to the ER for help…after waiting
for hours, the doctor said, “We don’t
treat people like you. You need a psychiatric ward. Better yet, go home and eat
some chicken soup with matzo balls.” Shabbos had already begun, so I
explained that I couldn’t take a cab. He responded: “So walk”. Never mind that I was too weak to stand, and it was 10
degrees below zero.
• When the nurse tried to inject my first IV, I retreated in fear. She
yanked my arm in frustration, pulling so hard that my shoulder was wrenched out
of the socket, and left that way for nearly 24 hours. After all, I was just a
crazy psychiatric patient who was overreacting.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What can I say? My brain infection lasted 30 days. It was not terribly
painful after the first few days of antibiotics. But, my eating disorder lasted
5, 475 days. Yes, five thousand, four hundred and seventy five days. Torturous
days. Lonely days. Days where I prayed at night that I shouldn’t wake up in the
morning b/c I couldn’t face another moment of this agony. Days where I sobbed
and sobbed because I was so misunderstood, and the comments pierced my soul.
And days where I didn’t cry at all because the pain was so great that I shut
down completely.
I received concern and access to top treatment for one illness. And
rejection, scorn, and impatience for the other.
But they are both brain infections, aren’t they? An eating disorder is also an
infected brain…
I thank God for the miracle of the brain to rejuvenate. To heal. To start
again. But my brain remembers. It remembers the rejection, the comments, the
pain. And my heart remembers too. The brain healed, but my heart didn't.
I do not write from bitterness. No, I write from a deep desire to educate.
To teach. To change. Why is a brain infection different than an infected brain?
Why is one illness more deserving of care than another? Why aren’t people with
eating disorders treated with the love and compassion that they deserve?
Some days I want to climb the Empire State Building, the one that is currently
lit in color in honor of NEDAW. I want to cry out to the world, “I had an infected brain. But I AM NOT
infected! And neither are the thousands of men and woman struggling around
the world.”
Brain infections are real. Even the ones you can’t see on an MRI.
