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Advice for people with eating disorders, and their loved ones, this Christmas

Some people start to deny themselves food in the weeks leading up to Christmas, while others binge eat.

CHRISTMAS CAN BE a difficult time for people who have eating disorders.

Indeed, 2020 has been a difficult period in general.

This year has had some parallels with the festive season – for many people it involved time off work, or working from home; being around family more; and a lack of structure.

The uncertainty and anxiety of the Covid-19 pandemic had a negative impact on many people’s lives, particularly people who were already struggling with a mental health issue or eating disorder.

There was an increase in the number of people seeking help or information from Bodywhys, the national voluntary organisation supporting people affected by eating disorders, in 2020.

There was a 110% increase in the number of people engaging with online support groups this year, for example.

Bodywhys_COVID-POSTER_PROOF (1) Bodywhys Bodywhys

Bodywhys received 1,240 emails seeking support from March to October 2019. In the same period this year, the group received 1,460 support emails – an 18% increase.

From April to October 2019, there were 274 calls to its helpline, and 406 calls in the same period in 2020 – a 48% increase.

People who get in touch with Bodywhys are often seeking advice about anorexia, bulimia or binge eating. 

A lot of focus is placed on food in the run-up to and during Christmas. Some people start to deny themselves food in the weeks leading up to Christmas, while others binge eat. 

Barry Murphy, who works with Bodywhys, said people need to be particularly supportive of loved ones who have eating disorders at this time of year.

“People with eating disorders have a dysfunctional relationship with food. Therefore they can’t relax around it in the same way as the rest of the population who don’t have an eating disorder would tend to do.

“They can’t have a more flexible or more straightforward relationship with food, they’re looking at it through different perspective, which is through the perspective of illness.”

As well as the anxiety and desire for control that many people with eating disorders feel, the pandemic has caused “a lot more uncertainty” and “put a very different lens on Christmas this year”, Murphy told TheJournal.ie.

“That uncertainty will certainly be front and centre in the minds of people with eating disorders in the weeks and months ahead.”

Advice

In terms of Christmas advice for people who have an eating disorder, Murphy encouraged them to try to identify their “primary stressors” in advance.

“What are the things you’ve experienced stress over around Christmas in the past that might come up again? Put in place things that might just make them less intense.

“When Christmas starts coming around, have a little bit of a plan but try to keep it flexible too.

“That’s really important, but it is something people with eating disorders struggle with because the black-and-white thinking can be quite dominant.”

Murphy said people should set some boundaries for themselves in terms of what they’re comfortable with in relation to food, something their loved ones should respect.

He urged people to have support networks in place over the Christmas season, if they can – such as an online or phone session with a therapist, or a friend or family member they can talk to.

“If you’re in touch with any support structures and tools, have those in your back pocket and use them to manage Christmas stress.

“Certainly, if you’re linked in with your family, you need to try and communicate that you would like some input into how the Christmas is set up for your family, even the daily routine, just to give you that structure.”

Murphy said “open communication” within a family is vital and encouraged relatives to “be aware of the needs of the person with an eating disorder” and be supportive.

If someone, inadvertently or otherwise, comments on the food the person is eating or not eating, it may help the person to have a prepared response that’s “not defensive”, he advised.

“So, if you do get those offhand comments from other family members who might not be aware of what’s going on, you can be in a position to respond to something that might be difficult or upsetting.”

Murphy said part of the difficulty with an eating disorder is that it “has a purpose for the person, or purposes plural”.

“So, it’s not going to switch itself off over Christmas. And I think families need to be aware of that too. A person with an eating disorder, their relationship with food isn’t suddenly going to normalise because of a family dinner or that kind of thing.

As difficult as it is for everyone, both the person and the family too, just say ‘Okay, this is their coping mechanism at that time, it’s not up to me to try and up end it’.

“Because recovery is a very slow burn process, it does take time. It depends on how the person is thinking, their own view of the control is part of that as well.”

Murphy said early research, as well as anecdotal evidence shared with Bodywhys, would suggest that many people’s eating disorders have worsened during the pandemic. 

“People have described the intensification of the overall eating disorder experience.”

Murphy noted that, “early on in the pandemic” there was a lot of talk about fitness regimes, diets and so-called “self-improvement” – which had a negative effect on how some people view themselves.

Murphy said there seems to be an increase in binge eating and “emotional overeating” during the pandemic. He noted that the fact people can’t “go out to socially eat” leads to more eating alone, and this can have implications for people who are living with eating disorders.

Need support? Call 01 210 7906 (Christmas helpline hours can be read here) or email alex@bodywhys.ie. More information is available here.

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    Mute Bob O'Driscoll
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    Nov 4th 2014, 3:16 PM

    Why not do a ‘search’ every week?

    237
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    Mute Philip King
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    Nov 4th 2014, 10:22 PM

    Guards don’t work in prison. That would be prison officers.

    32
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    Mute andrew
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    Nov 4th 2014, 3:05 PM

    The search was based on intelligence gathered

    Must have taken some time. Proably easier to find the cocaine than the intelligence

    174
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    Mute Dirk Diggler
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    Nov 4th 2014, 3:15 PM

    It’s very easy to jam mobile phone signals, i cant see why they don’t use this tech.. in prisons.

    168
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    Mute Dirk Diggler
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    Nov 4th 2014, 3:20 PM

    Surely a quick sniffer dog patrol every day would root out a lot of the drugs. It’s probebly easier to leave drugs in to keep the peace. A PR search every now and again to keep the powers that be happy.

    129
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    Mute Reg
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    Nov 4th 2014, 3:06 PM

    Elmo had it under the pillow. No wonder it was found!

    154
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    Mute Martin Sinnott
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    Nov 4th 2014, 3:02 PM

    “Intelligence led” they were looking @ Love/Hate

    100
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    Mute peter
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    Nov 4th 2014, 3:48 PM

    They should not have tv’s, radios and mobile phone signals should be blocked so even if they had a phone it would be useless.
    The net over the yard to catch drugs should be doubled or trebled to reduce the amount that gets in.
    Any one with a previous conviction should not be allowed make a visit.
    They should have toilets instead of pots and they should have a course on life skills and courses they make being employed easier as prison is about reform not just locking people away.

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    Mute Shawn Rahoon
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    Nov 4th 2014, 3:12 PM

    How could they have missed the 72inch tv?

    80
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    Mute Silent Majority
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    Nov 4th 2014, 3:16 PM

    I don’t understand prison drug trades. Presumably drugs are more expensive than on the street due to increased risks, and they ain’t cheap on the streets, so how do prisoners pay for them?

    71
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    Mute Darren Connolly
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    Nov 4th 2014, 3:26 PM

    Quite simply they use there mobile to ring a loved one who meets some from the prisoner selling its family and pays them the agreed price….
    Ecery week a tennies ball will be hit over the wall at an agreed time when prisoners are in the yard the risks are actually less yet again they agree this time by a mobile phone call

    48
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    Mute Colin Howell
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    Nov 4th 2014, 3:22 PM

    That they can charge their phones is surprising

    50
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    Mute Darren Connolly
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    Nov 4th 2014, 3:28 PM

    its not really when prisoners doing life have TV s in there cells

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    Mute Colin Howell
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    Nov 4th 2014, 7:54 PM

    Yes but access to electricity is hardly a good thing to have in a prison cell. Potentially dangerous

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    Mute Dermot Ryan
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    Nov 4th 2014, 3:24 PM

    “Anything going on tonight?”
    “Party in Wing F. Tonight !”

    38
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    Mute Andrew McQuillan
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    Nov 4th 2014, 6:17 PM

    And still the Irish media treat John Lonergan as if he was some kind of wise visionary, rather than someone who benignly oversaw this tolerated drug den from start to finish during his term as governor.

    I’m convinced there must be a genuine desire of the authorities to NOT address the drug problem (with the exception of PR smoke screens like today).

    Preventing solid items from entering an enclosed and heavily guarded premises should not be as impossible as it appears to be in the Joy.

    So are the criminals unbelievably clever? Or the guards unbelievably complicit?

    24
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    Mute Mick Jordan
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    Nov 4th 2014, 9:15 PM

    Andrew its neither. It more a lack of resources. There are only 6 OSG staff on duty each day in Mountjoy. 3 of which work in the visitor search area and the other 3 are tasked with searching cells, listening in to prisoner phone calls and gathering intelligence. The other Staff in in Mountjoy are given approx 15- 20 mins per day to do a daily search of 2 Cells on each landing. Now its not just Prison Officers that work in Mountjoy there are several diffrent groups of civilian staff from Teachers, Psychologists, Dentists, Doctors, Pharmacists, Probation Officers, Delivery men and with all the renovation going on Contractors and their vehicles.
    What you don’t hear about are the arrests on a daily basis of people being caught attempting to smuggle contraband. To make Mountjoy or any prison completely contraband free would require a massive boost in both manpower and resources both of which cost money. Money the Government are not prepared to spend and I a sure most Tax payers are not prepared to fund. So Officers do the best they can with one hand tied behind their back and one eye covered.

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    Mute Niall Donnelly
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    Nov 4th 2014, 5:59 PM

    It can be easily sorted. Just make it compulsory for every SIM card to be registered with id and proof of address.

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    Mute Thierry Rat
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    Nov 4th 2014, 3:00 PM

    This isn’t news

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    Mute Paperboy2
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    Nov 4th 2014, 3:12 PM

    It is news if you haven’t heard about it already…

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    Mute Zoltar
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    Nov 4th 2014, 10:26 PM

    They can’t even control drugs in prisons…

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    Mute John Waters
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    Nov 4th 2014, 3:26 PM

    Must be Frann and co from Love Hate lol

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    Mute Emer Caffrey
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    Nov 4th 2014, 10:23 PM

    how hard can it be to block coverage to mobiles in a confined area, simple

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    Mute Kustin J Crush
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    Nov 5th 2014, 12:17 AM

    I just wonder how it coats 70k each year to keep someone in jail, it isn’t as if they have to hire a guard for each lag!

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