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Hard To Swallow Monologue

Catherine was brought home from the hospital at 21 years old weighing only 3 stone after an unsuccessful stay to treat her anorexia. Her family took responsibility for her eating in hopes of preventing her death and increasing her weight to 5 stone in 4 weeks. However, Catherine's anorexia was not fully addressed and she continued to starve herself when not in treatment. Proper treatment of anorexia requires addressing the underlying psychological causes in addition to weight management, through techniques like learning to cook and eat with others as well as rebuilding self-esteem.

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sidjones07
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906 views2 pages

Hard To Swallow Monologue

Catherine was brought home from the hospital at 21 years old weighing only 3 stone after an unsuccessful stay to treat her anorexia. Her family took responsibility for her eating in hopes of preventing her death and increasing her weight to 5 stone in 4 weeks. However, Catherine's anorexia was not fully addressed and she continued to starve herself when not in treatment. Proper treatment of anorexia requires addressing the underlying psychological causes in addition to weight management, through techniques like learning to cook and eat with others as well as rebuilding self-esteem.

Uploaded by

sidjones07
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Hard to Swallow Monologue

On the morning of Catherine’s twenty-first birthday I persuaded her to let me

Take two polaroid photographs of her.

She had just been released from an…

Entirely unsuccessful stay in hospital weighing little over 3 stone. She was

Incontinent and had lost all muscle control. I hoped to shock her into seeing

How she really looked.

Remember, Catherine was twenty-one years old.

The one condition I made before agreeing to bring Catherine home was that

She handed over her responsibility for eating to me. I made no mention of

Weight target, my overwhelming desire was that she could increase her weight

Sufficiently to prevent her death.

Four weeks after this Catherine weighed 5 stone. It seemed like a miracle.

She acquired a job looking after two adorable little girls- Chistina, aged

One year, and Sarah who was three. She loved it and became very attached to

The children.
Pg 43-45

I knew we shouldn’t have gone out. We should have realised that after

All the effort she put into last night she’d feel empty this morning- and

When she stayed in bed this morning … we shouldn’t have gone out.

At half past ten that night the phone rang. She’s obviously changed her mind

Since this afternoon.

Whilst we were at the hospital, the Doctor came up to John in a very agitated

State making out that John had corroborated with her discharge.

She came home with us and, for some days afterwards remained in bed,

sleeping a great deal. John and I planned a week’s visit to the Holy Land to

mark our 25th wedding anniversary and we were undecided about whether to
Hard to Swallow Monologue
go or not.
Pg45

Our trip to the Holy Land became a pilgrimage on Catherine’s

behalf.

Pg 49-50

It was the same old story. She was co-operating to get out and then starve

herself again at home.

There was no attempt to determine the underlying causes of her anorexia and

to deal with them.

Anorexia nervosa represents an arrest of puberty, and , in severe cases, a

reversion towards childhood, reflected in the appearance and attitudes of the

individual. She gains satisfaction and security from the way in which she is

able to suppress her hunger and control both her body weight and body shape.

Every aspect of anorexia needs to be treated, not just the weight problem-

how to cook food without becoming frenetic, how to sit down and eat with

other people and most importantly… how to form relationships. It is vitally

important to help the patient make plans for the future and to rebuild her

self-esteem. Whenever possible, but particularly in severe cases, the

treatment should be carried out by a specialist team, in a specialist unit, able

to provide 24 hr support, and therapy. I thought these ‘experts’ knew what

they were doing.

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