What To Make Of The Latest From Louis Theroux

If you've been following my blog over the past couple of months, you'll remember my review of Netflix's latest film to address eating disorders: To The Bone.  Several of my friends had recently watched and were talking about Louis Theroux's latest documentary on BBC Two: "Talking To Anorexia".

As difficult to watch as it may be for me because it's a personal subject, I had to have a look at it to see if it surpassed my expectations at being informative.

Was I right?  ...OK, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be but it still only just scraped the surface of the sheer basics of the mental disorder- described as "a pathological fear of eating and gaining weight" (I couldn't help but think this was a bit of a one-dimensional definition of the illness, but we'll go with it).

To those of us who have experience with the disease and know it well, the programme only seemed to cover the typical symptoms everyone hears about: cold hands, blue fingernails, loss of hair and periods and partial loss of sight and hearing  Purging was barely addressed but the damage that calorie-burning activities such as over-exercising can do was emphasised heavily.  Changing your outlook and reasoning for exercise shows that it can be used in a positive way- I can vouch for this.  Even still, watching the programme was a huge wake-up call coming to terms with the extent to which I related to phrases such as: "I'm not allowed..../only allowed..." or "I don't deserve...".  

It sounds more dangerous when someone else says it.  But it did have some valuable points: 

• On the increase in women and men, it has the highest mortality rate of any other mental disorder
• Sufferers don't think they look attractive, but are convinced they should keep losing more weight
• Sufferers seek control and inflict self-punishment through forms of restriction and over-exercising or purging
• (For really oblivious audiences) Victims of eating disorders do get hungry, but use habitual methods of control to avoid or dispose of food

Much of the programme was spent in the Mental Health Unit at St. Ann's Hospital and specialist clinic Vincent Square in London.  These are two of the biggest eating disorder-specialist centres in the UK, run by the NHS Mental Health Trust.  Focusing largely on inpatient treatment, one sufferer described the whole system's regime as "military"- with designated meal and snack times and constant surveillance.  The same patient remembered getting a "thrill" from the feeling of skipping meals, but revealed you would be force-fed if you refused to eat there.  

Most of the treatment took place in the documentary at
St Ann's Hospital (with a renowned mental health unit)

Recovery wasn't presented as a one-time process, the programme did illustrate that relapses are common but I don't think it gave the struggle and hardship it causes enough recognition.  A therapist described the cyclical process as exhausting: patients spend their free time being dictated to by their anorexia as well as friends and family at home, and their inpatient time being dictated  to by their doctors.  This may have been news to some viewers, but I'd hoped they would delve deeper into the reason it occurs in the first place.

It can sometimes be hard for people without disordered thinking to distinguish between what the "right" and "wrong" things to say.  Louis Theroux demonstrated this perfectly by awkwardly dancing around attempted compliments on weight gain and progress throughout the programme, wondering what to say to avoid upsetting or triggering them.  It did highlight the damaging impact it has on home life and the mirrored frustration, anger and depression that family and friends may feel.

It was troubling to hear some of the sufferers' self-punishing thoughts when put into words.  One interviewee revealed they wanted to "physically tear their excess skin off after eating".  Another reported that when weight loss was no longer possible they would rather die than living without being able to continue losing.

One of the first words I think of when you say the word "anorexia" is "DEFIANCE".  Anyone who has any experience with the mental illness will agree that it affects your mood and judgement, feelings of rejection, aggression and frustration are just as (if not more) common than feelings of fragility and vulnerability.  

In the media, anorexics are too commonly portrayed as timid and ashamed, although many of these patients appeared self-conscious, at least two of them were visibly angry or frustrated either with a family member, carer or even Theroux himself.  One woman (who at age 63 had been suffering from anorexia for over 40 years) was considerably self-assured and surprisingly open about her eating disorder and her rules.

She put Louis on the spot when she asked:

"Would you have known I was anorexic if you saw me in the street?  If you didn't think I was then I'd stop eating again until you thought I did."

I didn't like how the programmed was edited appearing to make her seem proud without clarifying that some comments came from part of the cunning, devious nature of the patient's warped disorder.

Overall, I thought the documentary could have used a wider range of patients, all of them were female and apparently couldn't attribute a concrete reason for the development of their disorder.  It loosely attributed biological, psychological and environmental factors as an influence- as well as certain personality traits (such as obsessive and perfectionist behaviours).

Ultimately, it ended without really addressing what many of us know to be the true extent of this mental illness.  Disappointingly, it didn't convey how to recognise, combat, prevent or further understand it either.  Doctors stated that patients had a need to cling to their disorder as a coping mechanism, even when making progress in recovery.  They suggested that they could retain a "safe" part of their eating disorder and still continue to successfully move forward.  It was unclear which part of the illness they deemed "safe".  Recovery in this instance is portrayed as incomplete, making being truly rid of anorexia as impossible.  

Often, treatment is still proving to not be enough, without any real progressive treatment and prevention methods being explored.  Whilst it is a forward step by addressing this issue and the wider topic of mental health in the media, this one- in my opinion, only briefly touched on it.

What did you think?  

Watch it here online:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09d5nk2