Family's Battle With Their Daughter's Eating Disorder
The following article was posted on the Huffington Post this morning Craig and Marc Kielburger, co-founders of Free the Children. This article outlines the struggles of a young girl who lost her battle with bulimia and drug addiction and how her family noy honors her life by helping others who struggle with the similar illnesses.
Imagine watching a loved one slowly wither and having no idea what's wrong, or how to save them. Michale Cerswell was a beautiful teenager with a wicked sense of humour. Along with her sisters Leysa, Naomi, and Andrea, she grew up on her father Jim's dairy farm located in Simcoe County, north of Toronto, Ontario. Their mother, Kelly Hall-Holland, was a chartered accountant.
At 14, in 1996, the family began to notice that after meals Michale would frequently slip away to the bathroom. They could hear her throwing up.
Michale had fallen victim to one of Canada's most common mental illnesses -- an eating disorder. One in five Canadian high school girls and one boy for every 10 girls will develop an eating disorder. One in 10 of those who develop anorexia die. Yet without a source of information or support for eating disorders in Simcoe County, the Cerswell family was lost.
"It seemed so foreign, it was so easy to be in denial," Leysa recalls.
Because Michale was able to hide many of the symptoms of her eating disorder, the family accepted Michale's reassurances. And for almost nine years, she struggled in near silence with her body issues, never seeking treatment.
Years of near-starvation exacted a toll on Michale's body. In 2005, she developed chronic pancreatitis -- one of many complications that can arise from eating disorders, along with kidney damage and heart problems. For the Cerswells, practically every moment of their lives from then on would revolve around supporting Michale in her fight to heal.
Jim put his career on hold to become his daughter's full-time caregiver. When she wasn't in the hospital, Michale lived with him on the family farm.
The greatest challenge was finding treatment.
"I can count the number of available child psychiatrists who are trained to treat eating disorders on two hands," laments Dr. Leora Pinhas, a past President of the Eating Disorders Association of Canada and a Senior Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto.
Pinhas says there are only about 20 hospital treatment programs across Canada -- none in Saskatchewan, New Brunswick and P.E.I. There are approximately 20 hospital beds in all of Ontario.
As a further complication, Michale had become addicted to oxycontin, a powerful painkiller she was prescribed to manage the agony of the pancreatitis. Pinhas notes it's not uncommon for problems like drug addiction to walk arm-in-arm with eating disorders. Michale faced a catch-22 -- eating disorder programs wouldn't take patients with an addiction and addiction treatment programs were unequipped to handle eating disorders.
Click here to read the full article
Side note: Fairwinds Treatment Center is one of only a few treatment facilities in the United State fully equipped to treat patients with both eating disorders and additions.
If you or someone you know are struggling with an eating disorder it is crucial to get them into an appropriate care facility as soon as possible. The admissions team at Fairwinds can be reached at 727-449-0300 or admissions@fairwindstreatment.com
Craig and Marc Kielburger are founders of international charity and educational partner, Free The Children. Its youth empowerment event, We Day, is in eight cities across Canada this year, inspiring more than 100,000 attendees. For more information, visit www.weday.com
Follow Craig and Marc Kielburger on Twitter: www.twitter.com/craigkielburger
