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When
she was thirteen years old, Virginia Isley decided that she wanted
to lose weight. In a matter of months she had lost twenty-five pounds.
However, this wasn’t enough for Virginia. Controlling her intake
of food had become an obsession. Her mother, Carolyn, recalls, "Virginia
really cut back on her eating, was really restricting her food and
exercising compulsively. She would do an exercise routine in her
room, she would bike for hours." Not only did Virginia’s
weight begin to drop, she became distracted and lost touch with
her friends. By the autumn of her first year of high school, Virginia
was diagnosed with anorexia nervosa.
Virginia was prescribed antidepressants for her condition. But her
disordered eating continued. She says, "I just hated how I
looked. I thought I was fat. I thought I was incredibly fat. I just
started wearing really baggy clothes." At her lowest point,
Virginia barely weighed seventy-five pounds and her pulse rate had
dropped so low that her mother feared she would stop breathing during
the night. She was starving herself to death. She says, "my
uterus and ovaries and reproductive system was shutting down. It
was like I was a seventy year old postmenopausal woman." Concerned
that she was going to starve herself to death, Virginia’s family
checked her into the hospital.
Virginia
spent two and a half months in hospital in a refeeding program.
Although she regained some of the weight that she had lost,
Virginia was readmitted three months later. Her second stay
wasn’t any more effective than the first. Virginia and
her family looked for alternatives to conventional care. They
discovered Bridgeport, an alternative facility for the treatment
of eating disorders. At Bridgeport, group therapy and counselling
are an important part of the treatment. Music and art therapy
are also used. Virginia finally conquered her eating disorder.
She says, "something clicked a little bit and I sort of
decided that maybe I don’t want to live like this, with
this demon in myself."
Even after Virginia was finished with her treatment at Bridgeport,
she had to battle for her health. Her digestive system had been
damaged by her self-inflicted starvation. She began to see naturopathic
doctor Doug Amell. He supplemented her diet with minerals that
could strengthen her digestive system. He says, "I used
a lot of zinc and I used high amounts of other vitamins and
minerals . . . I wanted to make sure that she was getting adequate
amounts of protein as well." Virginia has conquered her
eating disorder, but she still relies on the support of her
family. She says, "I would not be alive today without the
support of my family." Virginia was strong enough to pull
herself back from the edge – now she’s sharing that
strength with her family. |
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"I just hated how I looked.
I thought I was fat. I thought I was incredibly fat. I just started
wearing really baggy clothes."
-Virginia Isley
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