Nov 16, 2007 9:04 am US/Central
Michele Tafoya's Struggle With Eating Disorders
(WCCO)
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"I've lived in Minnesota for 14 years now, but I grew up in California. Looking around my hometown, Manhattan Beach, you'll see sunbathers and surfers -- lots of skin and lots of thin," said Michele Tafoya.
CBS
Eleven million Americans struggle
with eating disorders. One of them is Michele Tafoya -- who was a sideline
reporter for "Monday Night Football" and a former WCCO-TV sports
anchor. She talked to WCCO about her personal struggle with the scale.
It's hard for people to understand
how anyone can lose so much weight and still feel fat.
I think being anorexic is a little
like being an alcoholic: you can get help, but the problem is always a part of
you.
I've lived in Minnesota
for 14 years now,
but I grew up in California.
Looking around my hometown, Manhattan
Beach, you'll see sunbathers and surfers -- lots of
skin and lots of thin.
Who knows? That bikini culture may
have contributed to my problem.
I was a bigger kid until I turned
13. That's when I stopped eating. My Mom
and my sister Juli remember it like all too well -- at first I looked good.
"It took quite a while ... before
I understood that it really was a problem. It must have been 6 or 8 weeks into
her starving herself," Wilma Tafoya, Michele's mom.
"She just kept going. And after a while, ya know, 'Ok, you look
good, you should stop, get back to a normal diet ... you're starting to look
crazy,'" Juli Geraci, Michele's sister.
At 5-foot-5 and a half inches and 87
pounds -- my parents didn't know how bad it was. But when they went on a
vacation, they asked Juli to make sure I ate -- 1200 calories a day.
Juli recalls one conversation: "And
one day I just remember, she came to me and said, 'Juli, I've eaten 1175
calories today! Isn't that great?' And I
said 'Yeah, just eat another nectarine and then you'll be set.' And she said 'No,
but then I'll be 19 calories over!'"
"But when we got home, she was
thinner than when we left," said Wilma.
Still, I wouldn't eat. Not until a
shower sent me crying to my sister.
"She took a comb through her
hair -- and I mean you can't believe how much hair -- and then she did it again
and I said 'Stop! Don't do it anymore. You're gonna lose all your hair,'" said
Juli.
"She came later that morning
and said, 'Mom, I need help," said Wilma.
You know what the doctor told me? "Have
a hamburger and a milkshake." That was it -- not much treatment back then.
When I was an anorexic, my family
was so angry with me, but I didn't stop eating to make them mad, this was
something that felt beyond my control.
"They just think if you'd only
eat, everything would be fine. It's not fine," said Dr. Joel Jahraus, an Eating
Disorders Institute Medical Director.
Jahraus heads
up the Eating Disorder Institute at Methodist
Hospital.
"What we're finding out more
and more now through research is that there is a genetic basis for much of
this," he said.
It isn't all in a person's head. Researchers
have found a genetic vulnerability to anorexia. That alone doesn't mean a
person will get it. It has to be triggered by something -- maybe parents, peers
or media images.
"They suddenly develop that
perception of what is the best look. What do I wanna look like? I wanna look
like that because that'll make me be popular. Everyone wants to be popular,"
said Jahraus.
Part of treatment, supervised eating.
"Some people are so challenged
with this that even a tiny amount of peanut butter or cream cheese can be a
huge issue to them because they can see it going straight to their thighs or
where ever," said Jahraus.
Gianni Marmo is in that place now --
she's a young woman terrified of eating.
Michele: "How low did your
weight get?"
Gianni: "No idea. I was never
told."
Michele: "Did they weigh you?"
Gianni: "Yeah."
Michele: "But they wouldn't
tell you what it was?
Gianni: "And I still have no
idea to this day."
Just like me, Gianni worried about
losing control and gaining weight.
"It's a huge fear. It's a big
fear, definitely," said Gianni.
Gianni went through two and a half
months of outpatient treatment. Still dropping weight, she was hospitalized for
16 days last summer.
Michele: "How aware are you
that this could have killed you?"
Gianni: "I was standing in
Barnes and Noble with my dad once and we were picking up books on like recovery
and stuff like that and he just started crying. He's just like, 'You're so
close -- I'm so close to losing you.' I was so, so close to just dropping dead."
Gianni is getting healthier. She graduated
from her outpatient treatment program last week and she's doing great.
As for me, I still struggle, but
sometimes, I can do what was impossible at age 13 -- sip a milk shake and enjoy
it.
Anorexia actually has the highest death rate of any mental health
problem. The doctor said around 50 percent of people fully recover and 25 percent
end up in and out of treatment.
The last 25 percent are on a chronic
course. They can't hold a job and often end up in the hospital.
Parents of those struggling with an
eating disorder are urged to get help and don't try to fix the problem
yourself.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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