Sick Enough Quotes

“The Appreciative Achiever arrives at the very same summit, takes a deep breath, and looks around in wonder. He says, “What a beautiful view. What a joy to have used my strength to accomplish this. How lucky I am to be standing at the top of this mountain.” Both hikers summited. They both achieved the very same accomplishment.”
― Jennifer L. Gaudiani, Sick Enough: A Guide to the Medical Complications of Eating Disorders

“This leads us to the first critical medical complication of nutritional rehabilitation: the refeeding syndrome. The refeeding syndrome describes the potentially deadly development of low phosphorus and other electrolyte levels in the blood and fluid shifts into body tissues that can occur when a starved person begins to take in nutrition. In the starved state, a person breaks down muscle and fat to create glucose, as I described in Chapter 4. Despite normal electrolyte levels in the blood, however, overall body stores of electrolytes may be low, as the body has “mined” electrolyte stores from body tissues in order to have access to normal levels in the bloodstream. Insulin levels start out very low during caloric restriction because insufficient carbohydrates are being consumed. When patients begin to eat more, insulin levels shoot up in order to drive life-saving glucose into hungry cells. Insulin also pushes electrolytes into cells, particularly phosphorus. This makes sense as phosphorus is one of the key electrolytes in cellular respiration, the process by which cells take in nutrients and turn them into energy to fuel the cell’s function. With phosphorus moving out of the bloodstream into cells, and also being used as cells become more energetic again, the blood levels of phosphorus can drop. High insulin levels can also cause the kidneys to retain salt and water, rather than excreting those as usual. As”
― Jennifer L. Gaudiani, Sick Enough: A Guide to the Medical Complications of Eating Disorders

“Eating disorders are mental illnesses, not lifestyle choices. Patients often have great judgement when it comes to almost everything else in life…except food and their bodies. They are used to trusting their judgement and decision making, so they forget to question the way in which this mental illness has taken over and distorted their perceptions of this one narrow set of topics.”
― Jennifer L. Gaudiani, Sick Enough: A Guide to the Medical Complications of Eating Disorders

“Two hikers, the Perfectionist and the Appreciative Achiever, set off to climb a mountain. The Perfectionist arrives at the summit and is full of dissatisfaction. He says, “I didn’t climb the mountain fast enough, I didn’t train hard enough, I didn’t take the optimal route, and my equipment didn’t work as well as it should have.”
― Jennifer L. Gaudiani, Sick Enough: A Guide to the Medical Complications of Eating Disorders