WEIGH DAY WITH ANOREXIA 

Weigh day:

 

Weigh day is the dreaded day of the week. It causes so much anxiety and stress, pressures mounting on the person with anorexia both from their illness and loved ones. The worries about gaining, losing, maintaining, but more prominently, the worry of not satisfying anorexia and be left with feelings of quilt and sadness. Weight needs to be checked due to health reasons and needs to be within a healthy range to allow room for accessing therapeutic interventions once the eating disorder symptoms are treated. In the early stages of anorexia, checking weight and other physical observations helps the sufferer access the correct nutritional support and psychological help. It's very common for those with anorexia to become fixated on a number, often the lower the better in the eyes of the illness. Therefore, weight restoration must be in progress alongside treatment. When a person is struggling with anorexia, weight loss and physical deterioration will often be present. The body will be depleted of food stores and the body will lose muscle and fat as a way of energising the body. The body will be depleted from vital organs bone and tissues to cope with malnutrition.

 

The meaning placed on weight:

 

Eating disorders often result in the sufferer never feeling small enough and be tormented by the compulsion to lose weight. Often gaining weight results in anorexia bullying the sufferer so they feel they have failed their illness and convince them that they look

"healthy" and make themselves see their body larger than it really is. Maintaining weight may cook up manageable emotions but may create feelings of it not being enough. If a weight loss has occurred, it's seen as a victory for anorexia and creates momentary happiness and relief. But this never lasts, anorexia will always want more. Anorexia sufferers will become consumed by thoughts around weight and will place negative meanings on weight restoration and positive connotations around weight deteriorations. Weight is a construct that carries extraordinary meaning in eating disorders. Weight is a common source to measure progress and mental well-being. For those with and without these disorders, weight is a common source of concern and is often given disproportionate influence as a vital sign measure.

 

The feelings weigh day creates:

 

A number on a scale can operate as a definition of who we are fundamentally are. Anorexia often makes sufferers essential value as an individual become attached to a number on a scale. While it can be recognised by the individual that weight shouldn't hold so much power over our life, eating disorders aren't rational and will trick the individual into thinking they need it in their life. The topic of weighing in eating disorders aren't a simple concept. The aim of treatment is to diminish the power of the scale and reduce the amount of distress when presented our weight. It can help indicate eating disorder behaviours as well as weight restoration progress. It's often overemphasised in treatment as a reliable marker of health or progress in treatment. Weight is not the only primary determinant of health. Therefore, it strikes the conversation around whether the sufferer should know their weight, or they should access treatment unaware.

 

How weight is used in treatment:

 

Deciding how weight should be referred to in treatment should be decided among the eating disorder team and the patient. It is completely individual and depends on their unique place in recovery. Weight shouldn't be the only indicator of health but anxiety around a number shouldn't affect recovery. It is a difficult situation and can change throughout treatment in correspondence to the individuals place in recovery. Contrary to this, phrases used when weighing should be decided between clinicians and patients. The use of the phrase "gaining weight" can be extremely detrimental to getting better, so alternative phrases like "gaining energy" may be more appropriate. It is very individual and varies from patient to patient depending on their core beliefs and their ability to handle triggers. The end goal of weight should be to accept it at a healthy range and to shut down anorexic cognitions to exist at a low body weight. Weight should just be one aspect to consider, it shouldn't determine how we value our worth and our body.

 

Knowing your weight:

 

The aim of blind weighing is to reduce the amount of power that a number has on a person and to redirect attention and space towards other indicators in recovery.

But inadvertently it can strengthen the power of secrecy and the number in stigma. Blind weighing is just one method, trying to decrease the power of the number.

Weight can be a very triggering distressing and upsetting concept and can arouse all these feelings when known to an anorexia sufferer. This number alone can affect the persons compliance in treatment and can make anorexia become unhappy and result in anorexic behaviours and tendencies. The aim is to remove weight’s ability to impact us beyond what would be expected for any other simple metric.

 

Positives and negatives of weighing:

 

Weighing helps work through uncomfortable emotions and encourage weight gain alongside support. It will also be encouraged to sit with emotions in a therapeutic setting. Using a scale in treatment can be both beneficial and unhelpful. It mainly benefits the multidisciplinary team to manage physical health and ensure safety but produces so much more distressing emotions for the sufferer. It offers opportunities for discussion around negative thinking, new emotions and seeing goals. It can also help the sufferer learn to move away from the number on the scale and begin to adapt to the feelings and sensations in their body, rather than a number.  

 

 

Feelings and thoughts on weigh day from those who have struggled with an eating disorder:

 

 

• "Being conflicted between pleasing anorexia and pleasing doctors"

 

• "I dread weigh day. My anxiety goes through the roof, my main worry is seeing weight gain'

 

• "Worried about seeing weight gain"

 

• "Feeling worried as people focus more on weight than mental struggles"

 

• "Feeling the need to eat less the days before weigh day. Huge stress factor"

 

• "Weight gain fear. Part of me doesn’t want to see the number but another part of me really wants to know"

 

• "The guilt felt around secretly being proud if you haven’t gained"

 

• "The anxiety of not gaining and disappointing my family"

 

 

 

Abs: “Weigh Day. A phrase that sends goosebumps down my spine. The day anorexia is the loudest by far. If makes the day and the remainder of the week so hard to navigate and your head seems like such a scary place. Anorexia thrives on weight loss and physical deterioration. Hopeful smiles washed off loved ones faces as the number on the scale decreases. The feeling of pride and happiness when the scale tells no lies. But the relief never lasts, it can't last, anorexia always wants more. Weights are used primarily to monitor physical wellbeing and used alongside mental presentation to measure progress and anorexic behaviours. But as this is a useful tool for clinicians, it is a truly distressing time for patients. Firm reminders for before and after weigh day-no matter what the outcome is! Gain loss, maintain, doesn't matter. Everyone is on their own individual journey”

 

• you must not restrict prior to or because of weigh day

 

•  be honest, don't do anything that could determine a false or inaccurate weight on the scale

 

• be vocal, talk about how you feel and what is helpful for you both therapeutically and verbally

 

• never forget why you’re doing it. 

 

 

“Anorexia will always try to make you believe that your life is better lives at lower weight. But all it gives you is a restricted and unhappy life!”