Information About Eating Disorders: As Seen in For the Love of Nancy
In typical psychology textbooks, “eating disorders” are addressed in the section on hunger; one of the four main motivations of behaviors. Although a vast majority of information exists on the subject, personal accounts of eating disorders, specifically anorexia, are somewhat more difficult to come by. Anorexia, as defined by the text in its most simple definition, is “a disorder in which a person becomes significantly underweight (typically, 15 percent or more) yet feels fat and is obsessed with losing weight.” Anorexia is, however, anything but simple.
Tracey Gold stars in “For the Love of Nancy,” a true-life account of the case of Nancy Walsh. Nancy Walsh suffered severely from anorexia and was taken to court by her parents so they could legally make her medical decisions. Because she was over 18 years old and able to check herself out of hospitals, for example, her health was extremely at risk and her parents did the only thing they could to keep their daughter alive.
In the movie, the director did a great job of portraying the typical habits or behaviors of someone who is stricken with this disease. Tracey Gold, who is actually a recovered anorexic, had to be “padded” in the beginning of the movie so her 95-pound body wouldn’t give her away. As the character “Nancy” loses weight, they slowly took the padding away to reveal the tiny girl beneath.
Although an exact cause is not known, psychiatrists can agree on basic triggers and personality types that may lead a person to anorexia.
One of the most informative resources out there is www.something-fishy.org, a pro-recovery site for eating disorders. This site has gained international recognition as being both helpful and credible. The site maintainers are a husband and wife team who have gone through the painful experiences when the wife recovered from anorexia herself.
“People living with the illness often have a low self-esteem and a tremendous need to control their surroundings and emotions,” according to Somethingfishy. Quite often the eating disorder is a unique reaction to an array of external and internal conflicts, such as stress, anxiety, and unhappiness. Anorexia is a negative way to cope with these emotions.”
“The person suffering with Anorexia may be abnormally sensitive about being perceived as fat, or have a massive fear of becoming fat — they may be afraid of losing control over the amount of food they eat, accompanied by the desire to control their emotions and reactions to their emotions. With a low self-esteem and need for acceptance, they will turn to obsessive dieting and starvation as a way to control not only their weight, but their feelings and actions regarding the emotions attached.
The site also offers some typical behavior sign which are portrayed in the movie.
The movie begins with Nancy leaving home for college. She’s very anxious and really doesn’t want to leave home. This is a classic starting point for many anorectics. Some people can’t deal with change, suffer from low self esteem or confidence problems. She was scared of the future and leaving her safe home. Anorexia is a long-term problem though, so it isn’t completely accurate to say that’s what sparked it in her. The emotional problems had been brewing for sometime. What triggered the eating behaviors in Nancy was getting her wisdom teeth removed. As with most people when they have their wisdom teeth removed, she couldn’t eat. After a few weeks, it became almost a compulsion – she couldn’t eat. Weeks passed by and after hiding food and lying about how much she ate, her brother asked her if she had lost weight. She said no of course and that she was still “120 soaking wet,” but when she steps on the scale immediately after the conversation, it says 114. This was, however, just the beginning.
Nancy also becomes very isolated – another classic sign. Her friends invite her to come out with them, but she declines. Instead, she’d rather hang out at home, or in her single dorm room, instead of socializing with other people. She becomes so withdrawn, that even on her weekends at home, Nancy doesn’t get out of bed until late morning – and even then it’s her mother pushing her to do so. Her mother invited her best friend over to the house even though Nancy had no desire to see her.
Perfection is a common characteristic in folks with anorexia. They tend to be people-pleasers and have streaks of obsessive-compulsive behaviors as well. From aligning hair brushes on a table top or organizing cans of food, as we see Nancy doing, to the incessant thoughts of food, calories taken in and burned off, fat grams, eating and not eating take over the mind and suddenly it becomes a struggle for control. The person turns to food to find control in their life, and within a certain amount of time, even that control is no longer their own. The inner conflicts and emotional battles are what make this disease so complex; aside from the many, many physical problems.
Nancy also engages in obsessive exercise behaviors – often pushing her body to the point of exhaustion. There are a few scenes of her running, but as she gets sicker, in one scene as she is running up and down football stadium seating rows, she falls down because he body is too weak to continue.
Within a month or two, family friends begin to notice Nancy’s dramatic weight loss. The mother is in total denial, but after a few more months, during a Christmas party, she walks in on her daughter standing in her bra and panties in front of a full-length mirror. Nancy is so thin her ribs and other bones are showing. This is the point where her family realizes there is a problem and they check her in to a hospital. The entire time, Nancy is denying there’s a problem, promises to eat and begs her parents to trust her. She isn’t the same girl who used to be true to her word – it’s beyond her control. Nancy says time and time again throughout the movie that she wants to eat, but just can’t. The family really doesn’t understand this. She has one older brother who seems very concerned and wants to help her, and another brother who doesn’t want to deal with it. Both parents blame themselves for Nancy’s problems.
Other physical signs, other than the weight loss, is the fact that Nancy can’t keep warm. She often wears baggy clothes which at first were worn to hide the weight loss. She reaches a point where she hurts just laying on the couch because she has no more cushioning on her body. She tells her mother she doesn’t know how to stop it. Another true to life symptom of losing weight is the absence of a menstrual cycle in females, and a soft downy hair covering the body to help keep it warm. Other signs and symptoms are heart problems, depression, fear of food, low blood pressure, dizziness, pale skin and hair loss. Perhaps the worst, and most fatal part of all, is when the body turns to itself for fuel. The body will begin to feed on it organs, including the brain, to maintain it’s basic function.
At the hospital, Nancy is very uncooperative. She sees recovery as a means to getting “fat” and she refuses her meals. She hides food in her napkins at snack time, and when unattended in her room, she punches a hole into her closet wall and dumps the food into the hole. Nancy pricks holes in her IVs and manages to exercise by running in place with the IV in. After the doctors see she isn’t gaining weight, they insert a food tube into her, although they never really show that in the movie. Soon, they weigh her and she’s gained six pounds. She checks herself out and tells her family “she’s better.” Nancy’s family finally realizes that she doesn’t have control over these. The doctor at the hospital tries to explain it to the parents, but they have a hard time accepting it. He tried to explain that the not eating is not the disease, it’s a symptom of it. The disease is how Nancy feels about herself; which leads back to the low self esteem issues. Body image is also another important factor.
In no time at all, Nancy begins losing weight again. Aside from hiding food, the food she does eat – mostly just lettuce – she tears into tiny little pieces. The rituals with food are often more significant and serve as a distraction so she can get away without actually eating. She also cooks big meals for other people , but wont actually eat them herself. Another classic sign. The mom, dad and brother all yell at her at one point or another because they are so frustrated by her behaviors. The lying about food is the worst of all. The mom even found several plates of food hidden under Nancy’s bed and she knew she just couldn’t trust her daughter.
One discussion with between Nancy and her brother stands out as particularly harsh. They were at the mall and the brother had a brilliant idea of how she can start eating again: she could eat just the things she really, really loves – like the lemon meringue pie he bought her. She tells him she just can’t eat it; that she wants it but can’t eat it. He doesn’t buy it and tells her she controls her own brain.
“I don’t control anything anymore – especially my brain!” she said.
“Well, you’d better get a grip because you’re driving everyone nuts,” he said, as he walks away from her. She sort of puts her head down and says to herself, “I’m not doing it on purpose.” Obviously, family isn’t the answer. Her parents can see her behaviors are out of control and nothing they can do will “fix” their daughter.
After some time at home, Nancy suffers from a severe kidney infection which lands her in the hospital again. From there, the story line turns in to the parents’ fight for the legal right to make her medical decisions.
The end is a bit unrealistic because it shows her eating tiny pieces of a bagel and she is supposedly “cured” after a second time in the hospital. Anorexia can be a lifetime problem, and doesn’t necessary go away, Nancy later says to a group of anorectics at the hospital she was in. Nancy said although it may never be gone, she learned how to deal with the things that triggered it and will live happily ever after.
Although this movie, along with the other books and movies portraying an anorectic’s story, is a great tool for people to see what life can be like with an eating disorder, it is somewhat unrealistic. Nancy was portrayed as the ‘perfect’ anorexic. She ‘got’ anorexia, didn’t eat for five months, and then “saw the light” and changed her ways. It doesn’t usually happen that way. An anorectic’s mind is filled with turmoil and inner conflict. There is a line between wanting to be “better” and wanting to get “thinner” is constantly wriggling and nearly impossible for a person suffering to know what they want from minute to minute. Only through the help of a trained psychologist or psychiatrist can they begin working in the deep-rooted issues that started the ball rolling in the first place.
An anorexic person may even have periods of eating normally for awhile, but this doesn’t mean the eating disorder has somehow magically gone away, according to the site. Some people only have sporadic episodes of restriction, whereas some people with anorexia actually purge. There are a few differences between anorexia-purging type and bulimia, but many anorexics will suffer bouts of bulimia too.
The bottom line is, although “For the Love of Nancy” was a good portrayal of a person’s life with anorexia, it doesn’t exactly paint the most accurate picture for a real person’s experience.
