Dallas woman uses her own recovery from eating disorder to help others

by Stan Ascher

Now working as a counselor, she reminds us that this last week of February is National Eating Disorders Awareness Week.

DALLAS — Abbie Chesney knows what it's like to be hungry. She also knows what it's like to be depressed. When the Dallas native was 16 and a student at Lake Highlands High School, she fell into a cycle: She would stop eating to make herself feel better, but then feel worse because she was not eating. So she'd abstain from eating even more.

"If I didn't eat, I would focus on the fact that I was so hungry, and not think about being depressed," she says.

The problem got so bad that she lost more than a third of her body weight in eight months. By age 16, she was diagnosed with anorexia and ended up at Baylor Hospital's eating disorder treatment program for five weeks.

"My body had deteriorated so bad that I had four leaking heart valves," she says.

Abbie Chesney

Today, Chesney, 32, works as counselor with the LifeWorks Counseling Associates, a consulting group for people with eating disorders. She started out with a career in sports marketing but left after two years because she wanted to help people the way she says her counselors couldn't help her.

"To be in counseling and not have the therapist be able to relate to what you're really talking about is real difficult thing," she says.

The National Eating Disorders Association estimates that 10 million women and 1 million men in the United States suffer from bulimia or anorexia, and has designated the last week of February as "National Eating Disorders Awareness Week". To promote awareness, Chesney wants to dispel some of the myths about eating disorders, and the first one is that it's about food.

"It's really about emotional problems," she says.

It's hard for someone with a disorder to even know that they have one.

"The brain really protects us from how severe it is," she says.

Many people associate eating disorders with younger women, but they can hit any age group. "I've seen women that are well in their 60's dealing with this, and girls that are 14 dealing with this," Chesney says.

The best thing to do if a friend or loved one is showing signs of an eating disorder, she says, is to be supportive and not confrontational. She suggests just letting them know that there appears to be some sort of problem, and that there are people who can help.

"The worst thing to do is to express concern [about the food] because that is what they're most scared of," she says. "They can’t believe that they can get better, but I did it and I’m no one special and they can do it, too," she said.

Early warning signs of an eating disorder include:

• A marked increase or decrease in weight not related to a medical condition.

• The development of abnormal eating habits such as severe dieting, preference for strange foods, withdrawn or ritualized behavior at mealtime, or secretive binging.

• An intense preoccupation with weight and body image.

• Compulsive or excessive exercising.

• Self-induced vomiting, periods of fasting, or laxative, diet pill, or diuretic abuse.

• Feelings of isolation, depression, or irritability.

Stan Ascher is an intern from the University of North Texas