Ruslana Korshunova
Tuesday, 1 July 2008 // 20:40
Labels: Ruslana Korshunova
MODEL SUICIDE
// 20:32
MODEL SUICIDE
KAZAKH BEAUTY JUMPS TO DEATH IN FINANCIAL DISTRICT
By MELISSA JANE KRONFELD, TATIANA DELIGIANNAKIS and TOM LIDDY
Last updated: 3:07 pmJune 30, 2008
A stunning supermodel leaped from her swank downtown apartment to her death today in an apparent suicide, officials said.
Ruslana Korshunova, 20, whose face has graced the cover of French Elle and Russian Vogue, apparently jumped from her ninth-floor apartment in her Water Street building in the Financial District just before 2:30 p.m.
"I heard what sounded like a gunshot or a bomb or an explosion," said a stunned Con Ed worker talking to a cop nearby before the beauty leaped.
"I looked down the street, and I say to the cop, 'Did that person just get hit by a car?' " said the worker, who identified himself only as Patrick, 32, of Brooklyn.
The two men raced over. "Her arms were crushed," Patrick said. "Her head was on the left side and blood was coming out in a pool."
Cops said there were no signs of a struggle in the apartment.
The window from which she fell had a balcony, which had construction netting around it that appeared to have been cut.
The 5-foot-8 head-turner has been featured in ads for DKNY, Vera Wang and Christian Dior among others and was hailed as "the next big thing" in a profile in Vogue three years ago.
"She's one of the sweetest, nicest people you'll ever meet," said a friend, who did not want to be identified by name.
"I'm still in shock. The world lost a great person."
The lithe looker has been a mainstay at Fashion Week in the Big Apple and London, working with all-star designers Jill Stuart, Betsey Johnson, Rosa Cha, Lela Rose and Libertine.
The pal said that Korshunova had just returned from a modeling gig in Paris and seemed to be "on top of the world."
"There were no signs," he said. "That's what's driving me crazy. I don't see one reason why she would do that."
Korshunova, who had been sending money back to her parents in Kazakhstan, was in love with the city.
"She really liked New York," said the friend. "People made her feel comfortable here."
Korshunova's doorman, who did not want to be identified, remembered the catwalker as "very soft-spoken."
"She always said hi and bye," he said. "She was beautiful, beautiful."
Labels: Article, Ruslana Korshunova
Purging Disorder: The Little-Known Facts
// 20:28
Purging Disorder: The Little-Known Facts
We knew that some people suffer from
eating disorders, which are often triggered by emotional or psychological
stress. The most common of these, as we have seen on television, are bulimia nervosa and
anorexia nervosa. However, there are also little-known eating disorders that common among people for a long time already. One of these is the "purging disorder."
Purging disorder has not been an officially recognized diagnosis in the classification of eating disorders. The American Psychiatric Association has not recognized it as a distinct condition. In current classification, purging disorder belonged to EDNOS, or "eating disorder not otherwise specified.
"Both purging disorder and bulimia nervosa are characterized by recurrent purging right after eating in order to control body weight or shape. However, people suffering from bulimia nervosa take in large, usually uncontrolled, amounts of food while people with purging disorder usually consume normal amounts, or even less, before they purge.
Purging disorder also differs from anorexia nervosa because individuals with purging disorder are not underweight. Anorexia nervosa is characterized by the inability to consistently maintain adequate body weight, an intense fear of
becoming obese, and an unrealistic, negative body image. People with anorexia nervosa always "feel fat" despite their lanky appearance.
Like any other eating disorder, no one is really sure what causes purging disorder. Most often, it may be caused by stress or
anxiety.
There are also some people who, without any valid reason, feel guilty after they eat. It could be that they're guilty or scared that they might soon grow fat. Thus, they resort to purging in order to remove all that they have eaten.
This usually happens to people who had recently made a promise to themselves to reduce their food intake. When they eat, they often feel guilty about breaking their promise. Furthermore, people who had reduced their eating frequency often feel that their mouth or
stomach have a negative reaction every time they take in food. This could result to a psychological feeling of attempting to vomit the food or the feeling of being full already. Stomach discomforts may also be experienced.
Again, there is no exact and complete reason for the cause of purging disorder.
The dangers of purging disorder are similar to those of bulimia nervosa. These include potential dental problems due to self-induced
vomiting, dehydration, and electrolyte imbalances affecting the heart and
kidneys.There is currently no standard treatment for purging disorder. It is still uncertain whether treatment used for individuals suffering with bulimia nervosa will be effective for those with purging disorder.
For the meantime, friends and loved ones of individuals suffering with purging disorder are advised to help the person manage any eating-disorder-related medical problems, obtain healthy eating plan and nutrition education and learn to cope up with anxiety or
stress.
By: littlepinoy
Published: 06/30/08
Labels: Article
STARVED Anorexia is the bad friend who lies to you
// 20:16
STARVED Anorexia is the bad friend who lies to you
By Bettina Adragna/Features Writer
Julia, an 18-year-old from Arroyo Grande, got to know her friend ED during her sophomore year of high school.
She and her family had moved to Avila Beach from Arroyo Grande at the beginning of that school year, and she was becoming more and more isolated. On Valentine's Day, her boyfriend broke up with her. Julia took it hard because he was the only one she felt she could trust.ED told her that if she could listen to him and trust him, she would be OK. He was reassuring, at first.
But ED became more and more demanding. Julia began starving herself to death in an effort to avoid the shame she felt when she didn't do what he said.
Julia was diagnosed with anorexia at the end of her sophomore year in May 2006. Her friend “ED,” or her eating disorder, was revealed to be a false friend. But it took her a while to separate herself from him.
She checked in to the Central Coast Intensive Outpatient Eating Disorder Program (commonly called IOP) in San Luis Obispo, and was given one week to stop losing weight, or she would have to go to Stanford Hospital. It was at the IOP that she learned “ED's” true nature.
“I didn't care if I lived or died,” Julia said. “It took too much energy to think about purposefully hurting myself.”
Julia didn't have to go to Stanford at the end of the week, and began group therapy in San Luis Obispo, as well as sessions in Los Olivos, with registered dietitian Francie White.
White is the owner of the Central Coast IOP, and specializes in eating disorders.
Terry White, clinical director for the Central Coast IOP program and Francie's husband, said it takes a certain combination of factors to result in anorexia - a genetic predisposition in the individual, a perfectionistic, extrovert-focused culture, and traumatic or unhealthy circumstances or environment.
Holli Stewart, director of Dr. Holli Stewart and Associates Counseling and Psychotherapy and a specialist in eating disorders, said anorexia is encouraged by cultures that focus on an artificial body image. “It's certainly a societal thing, because we see it more in our culture than any other culture,” Stewart said.
Terry White said students in their first year of college have the highest statistical incidence of eating disorders. Stewart said she often sees cases starting in puberty.
“Puberty is a developmental age,” Stewart said. “Our brain is changing. Also, in our culture, youth are becoming aware of who they are (and) where they are in relation to others.”
Stewart said the causes tend to be multidimensional, and caused or aggravated by “the personality of the individual, the culture, the family, the friends, and how they interpret” the messages from those sources.
Francie White said anorexics tend to be introverts.
“As introverts, they don't feel seen, and anorexia can be a way of getting attended to,” Francie White said.
She blames a culture that is fragmented and competitive, and that “externalizes” life's problems by offering a solution outside the consumer in the form of a product.
“For the most part, there's sort of this standard that we're supposed to be happy, and if we're not, we take Prozac,” Francie White said. “The truth about life that the advertising doesn't allude to is it's a journey, and it involves great amounts of suffering or loss Š never mind the whole media setting a standard for weight that's impossible.”
According to Stewart, treatment for anorexia often involves addressing other issues such as other mental disorders and substance abuse. Anxiety and depression tend to be common in anorexics, so that SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors), a type of antidepressant, are sometimes prescribed by a psychiatrist.
Francie White said cognitive behavioral therapy is important to change erroneous core beliefs, such as “My worth is based on being thin,” and replacing them with beliefs such as “I have worth no matter what. I am a completely worthwhile, lovable human being.”
According to Francie White, a patient with anorexia needs a team composed of a physician, a psychotherapist, a registered dietitian, and sometimes a psychiatrist.
Nutrition therapy is necessary so the anorexia patient can be in good enough shape physically to go through therapy, Francie White said. The physician monitors the patient's physical condition and weight changes to make sure he or she is medically stable.
An Intensive Outpatient Program involves nine to 15 hours of therapy a week at the program's facilities. Outpatient care involves keeping the patient at home and working with the patient outside a facility. Inpatient care involves keeping a patient in a hospital or other institutional setting for 30 to 90 days.
Julia stayed at home with her parents while undergoing treatment. When her friends visited, they read magazines and watched movies. She wasn't allowed to do any strenuous physical activity.
She couldn't play tennis, her favorite sport, in the winter after she returned to school in the fall. But in her senior year, she got better and excelled in the sport.
Julia wants to go to Cal Poly and live in the dorms this fall. She's thinking of majoring in animal sciences, because she loves animals, or teaching, because she loves children.
She stopped going to church for a while, but has since regained her faith in God. She also has more faith in herself.
“Looking back, I'm kind of a better person,” Julia said. “I just have a way better sense of self.”
She learned that the people who love her would always be there for her, no matter what. And she's glad she's gone through anorexia and come out on the other side.
“I have total faith that it's going to work the way it's supposed to,” Julia said. “Looking back, it's like, why would you ever choose that other life?”
FYI:
Anorexia nervosa is a serious, potentially
life-threatening eating disorder characterized
by self-starvation andexcessive weight loss.
About 10 percent of patients with eatingdisorders are male.
Nearly 10 million women and 1 million men in the United States suffer from an eating disorder.
Anorexia nervosa has the highest
premature mortality rate of any psychiatric disorder.
- Source: TheNational Eating Disorders Association
Where to get help:
If you think someone you know has an eating disorder,
it's important to get professional help immediately.
The National Eating Disorders Association has an Information and Referral Help-line at (800) 931-2237. Information is also available at
www.nationaleatingdisorders.org.
Dr. Holli Stewart and Associates Counseling andPsychotherapy can be reached at 925-0898.
EDITOR'S NOTE:“Julia's” name has been changed to protect her privacy.
Labels: Article
One woman’s battle with anorexia
// 20:11
One woman’s battle with anorexia
A CHILDHOOD of abuse and neglect led 16-year-old Helena Wilkinson to starve herself until she weighed just five-and-a-half stone.
Writing a book about her experiences helped not only her own recovery, but has provided a shining light for thousands of other sufferers.
Now 44 and living in Swansea, Helena is dedicated to helping others overcome a range of eating disorders from her base at the Nicholaston House Christian retreat centre in Gower. She says she has finally beaten anorexia after developing the devastating illness in her teens.
“I was 13 when it started, but it wasn’t obvious,” she said. “It stayed at a low level for a few years, then suddenly I went downhill very quickly.
“I had been through a series of major traumas in my childhood – a lot of bullying and abuse, day and night. Anorexia was my coping mechanism, my way of shutting things out. I was at boarding school and had started to hit puberty and womanhood and it was then that my illness got particularly bad.
“There was nowhere to escape and because I could not control my environment I was controlling my body. It’s like a slow form of suicide.”
Helena put her body through a vigorous daily exercise regime and avoided mealtimes. But her teachers and peers mistook her illness for healthy dedication.
“I would get up at 5am and I would run around the hockey pitch so many times,” she said. “I wouldn’t have breakfast, then I would go into the gym at break times and make myself do a certain number of sit-ups.
“I was heavily into gymnastics and dancing so, to begin with, everyone saw me as just healthy because I was an athlete and a dancer. But then I would secretly miss meals and became very fearful of having anything that contained fat or sugar.
“But I didn’t actually know what anorexia was. I thought that if you had it that meant you didn’t eat at all and that because I ate fruit, I was OK. I think I knew in my heart that I was anorexic, but if anybody confronted me about it, I would lie about what I had eaten.
“I lost lots of weight very quickly. In one school term, I lost three stone, which was dangerous.”
Soon the strain of Helena’s punishing regime began to show. “I had stopped menstruating, but didn’t tell anybody. My skin was dry and my hair started to fall out. I found it hard to concentrate and had dreadful aches in my legs,” she said.
Out of desperation, Helena wrote to a teenage magazine. “I just said I felt very, very depressed and couldn’t eat,” she said. “The reply suggested I see a psychiatrist, but because I was in boarding school, everyone would have known about it, including my parents.
“I was brought up thinking that you weren’t allowed to have psychological problems and anorexia was a mental illness. So I did nothing.
Eventually, things got so bad that Helena was told she couldn’t go back to school unless she put on weight.
“I felt like I was in a spiral that could never stop. I was shy anyway and didn’t communicate much, but I had completely shut myself off at school. I wished I was dead.”
At 16, Helena almost got her wish. She was admitted to hospital, weighing only five-and-a-half stone.
“When they told me I had anorexia, I reacted with a mixture of disbelief and relief that someone was taking it out of my hands.”
But medical intervention to help her put on weight could not heal the emotional scars that had led to Helena’s eating disorder.
“The doctors were just concerned with how I would put weight back on, but I remember thinking why was nobody helping my head and curing my fear of life. I was so unhappy and felt completely trapped,” she said.
After a month, Helena slowly started gaining weight and visiting a child psychologist. But it was watching other patients fighting for life that provided a breakthrough.
“I was on an adult ward and I saw 11 patients die from things like cancer within three months,” said Helena. “They had no choice, but here I was wishing my life away. Seeing those people die in the hospital was the first turning point for me.”
Helena was discharged from hospital after three months. “I started writing, including a poem called Puppet On a String, which was about anorexia,” she said. “Then I was invited to a Christian youth camp and I started feeling secure in the knowledge of being loved and knowing there was a reason why I existed. Life started to make sense and I finally started to get better.”
Helena’s first book, Puppet on a String, was published when she was only 20 and she has subsequently written another seven, all of which have also been published. But with success came a great deal of responsibility.
“The book came out at a time when anorexia was not really spoken about and received a lot of media attention,” she said. “I felt hounded at a vulnerable time in my life.
“What I hadn’t anticipated when I wrote the book was that people would write back to me.
There was this flood of other desperate sufferers asking: ‘How can I recover too?’
“I felt it was my responsibility to help these people, which put me under massive pressure.”
Unable to cope, Helena left the UK for South Africa, where she worked as a doctor’s research assistant. “One day, the doctor told me about a young girl who he thought had anorexia,” she said. “He asked me to speak to her.
“I worked with her for quite a long time and she slowly started to get better. I think if you have a calling and you run away from it, it finds you.”
Helena now runs residential courses for eating disorder sufferers at Nicholaston House, Penmaen. For more information, visit www.nicholastonhouse.org or email
managers@nicholastonhouse.org
Labels: Article
The four-stone anorexic dubbed Skeletor who has battled back to health to become a model
// 20:05
The four-stone anorexic dubbed Skeletor who has battled back to health to become a model
A former anorexic dubbed Skeletor by strangers has battled back to health and into the finals of a modelling competition.
Becky Hands, 21, was crippled by insecurities as a schoolgirl and bullied for being different, driving her into an obsession over her weight.
At one point she was eating just 100 calories a day - one twentieth of the recommended 2000 for a healthy woman - and her weight plummeted to a dangerous four stone.
But after years spent in and out of hospital and disorder clinics, she has got her disorder under control and reached the finals of a modelling contest.
She is even brave enough to strut her stuff down the catwalk in a swimsuit.
Pretty Becky, from Southend, Essex, said she was picked on at Westcliff High School by pupils because she worked hard and wanted to achieve.
She said: 'I was bullied because I was a bit different. I felt like I didn't fit in, which I think was because I worked hard and wanted to do well and wasn't always messing about.
'Looking back, I never really got bullied about my weight. I realise now I was just normal size.
'But I got it into my head that I was fat and that gave me an excuse to blame all my insecurities on my weight.
'I looked at the most popular girls in school who were all really skinny and thought I wanted to be like that.
'Then after I lost weight, I got a lot of positive comments from people and from that moment I was in a spiral.
'I would obsess about every calorie I ate. Gradually it got worse until I was eating just 100 calories or so a day. I would also exercise to the point of collapsing and sometimes took laxatives.'
In the beginning, Becky tried to hide her obsession from family and friends but they soon noticed her dangerously skeletal frame.
She said: 'I would be in the street and people would call me Skeletor. It was really hard.'
At her lowest ebb, the beauty would eat just a bowl of lettuce and cucumber a day.
But after a long fight to overcome her demons, Becky has now gained the confidence to enter the modelling contest and has reached the finals of Miss Essex FM 2008.
She will take to the catwalk for the judging at Liquid and Envy nightclub in Basildon, Essex, next month.
Becky said: 'I never thought I would have the confidence to strut down the catwalk dressed in a bikini - it's something that wouldn't have entered my head.
'But getting through to the final and even having the courage to enter the contest has given me the confidence I need.
'I have been battling anorexia for so long but at last I finally feel I have turned a corner and am making a recovery.'
Now looking the picture of health, Becky said she did not think she would ever be free from the disorder.
She said: 'I don't think you can ever be fully cured of anorexia but I'm at a point now where I control it rather than the other way round.
'One of my biggest regrets is that because of my anorexia, I had to be pulled out of school so i never got any qualifications.
'I have tried to go to college since then, but I have had to drop out due to my health.
'I would love to get a job or go back to studying one day soon. It's just a matter of taking it one day at a time.'
Becky also hit out at websites encouraging impressionable youngsters to get into anorexia and other eating disorders.
She said: 'On these websites, girls talk about how much they want anorexia and share tips on how to get it.
'Anorexia isn't a fad or fashion accessory, it's a disease which kills a lot of people every year.'
Labels: Article
Woman battling anorexia returns home
Monday, 14 April 2008 // 17:10
Woman battling anorexia returns home
Anne Kelly, Record staffweb version
A Stratford woman with an extreme eating disorder, who was recently featured on the Dr Phil show, arrived back at her home in Stratford last night, after leaving an Alabama treatment facility early due to medical complications.
As she awaited her daughter’s return at her Stratford home, Aimee Moore’s mother Pat, said Aimee had been rushed to a Birmingham, Alabama, hospital Tuesday night, with extreme abdominal pain. A bowel obstruction was ruled out for the anorexic and bulimic, who was just 63 pounds when she entered residential treatment seven weeks ago at Magnolia Creek Treatment Centre, near Birmingham.
A doctor at the hospital determined Aimee’s stomach is not emptying properly, causing a backup in her gastrointestinal system and the formation of large, painful gas pockets.
He recommended she have a diagnostic scope of her gastrointestinal tract to determine what might be causing the problem.
It was Aimee’s decision to return home said Pat. Therapists at Magnolia Creek Treatment have told her she is welcome to come back to continue treatment at no charge when she feels ready, said Pat. They will counsel her over the phone until she can enter counseling at home.
Pat, who had an flight booked to Alabama to visit her daughter next week, was grappling with a mix of emotions last night after learning her daughter was flying home.
“I’m excited to see her. I’ve missed Aimee.”
“But there are certainly feelings of disappointment and just lots of thoughts about what’s going to happen next.
“In the past seven weeks she had made great progress considering where where she came from,” Pat added. “I’m very hopeful.”
Aimee has been battling anorexia and bulimia since age 14. Dr Phil host, Phil McGraw, said during the segment on her in February, that her disorder was the worst he’s seen. The show organized the stay at Magnolia Creek, which has been treating her for free.
Aimee has been in treatment facilities before, including two in the United States in recent years paid for the Ontario Ministry of Health. She left one early and was discharged from the other for not obeying the rules. After leaving treatment, her disorder worsened.
When she wrote to the Dr. Phil show in desperation, she was binging on up to 15,000 calories a day and vomiting up to 150 times a day.
Pat said she has experienced the problem with abdominal pain before when she starts a re-feeding program. But tests on her gastrointestinal tract two years ago at Stratford General Hospital indicated no problem.
Pat now hopes to get a second opinion at another hospital.
Aimee told her mother over the phone that she has gained about five founds. She had been keeping breakfast and lunch in without purging, but still purged after dinner. Pat said she her thinking was more rational and she seemed “like Aimee again”.
After the Waterloo Region Record first wrote about Aimee, a Waterloo woman who is part-way through treatment for anorexia in a Mississauga hospital, contacted the paper. Heather Coburn,35 , was featured in a story on Saturday, which described how the program at Credit Valley Hospital has given her hope. Coburn has since been in touch with Aimee and her mother by e-mail to offer encouragement.
Pat said she hopes the two can meet soon, adding her daughter was impressed with Coburn.
Labels: Article
