My sister is anorexic. What do I do?

LegacyUser

I'm at my wits end. I know for a fact that my sister is anorexic, and seem unable to do a thing.

To cut a long story short, my mother works full time and I have an illness which is currently preventing me from going to university. Myself, my sister and 2 younger siblings all live at home. I clean the house and all that for mam while she's working and about a month ago I was cleaning my sisters room and found probably about 2 weeks worth of lunches in her bin, covered over with tissues and papers. Later the same week I found an a4 pad with only a few pages left in it so I flicked through it to see if I could throw it out and there was a food diary and weights written down and notes of how many calories she was eating as well as a graph she drew on the last page of her current weight at the time she obviously started (121 lbs) and then the day before's weight which was 117lbs (8st 3).

I've since been watching her like a hawk and noticing all the little things she's doing, like eating a pink and white and taking the wafer off or if we have dongeal catch for dinner she takes the breadcrumbs off. She drinks a ridiculous amount of water and aside from everything else she looks skeletal. I said this to mam about a week ago, but mam told me that she was just stressed because of her leaving cert and not to mention it again. I confronted my sister and said that I knew she was calorie counting and she said she wasnt and walked off. My mam is overweight and I know that in our house, any weight lost is good weight lost.

My sister is basically committing suicide, and my mam won't notice a thing. What am I supposed to do? Wait and see if it really is leaving cert stress and see what her excuse is when she keeps losing weight in the summer? I dont know what to do. I know there was a thread similar to this before but I dont know if my sister is involved in anorexia chatrooms, I just know that she isnt eating more than 800 calories a day and 1000cal days are marked with sadfaces.

coadyj

Well first off i would calm down, she has only lost 4 pounds, which isn't a lot. Anorexic people tend to eat a lot less the 800 cals a day, but you should inform your sister that she should really try to keep her cal intake to over 1200 per day.

She is probably feeling a little self conscious about her weight, maybe she had some teasing in school, I don't know here height, but if you take her weight and height and put it into a bmi calculator, if it is under 18 then you should tell your mother, if she is over 18 then don't worry.

LegacyUser

Show your mam the A4 pad. Yes it is an invasion of your sisters privacy but this is an exeptional situation. Your sister is hopefully not too severely anorexic- yet.

As a 19 year old female I have seen far too much of this..one of my best friends has had an eating disorder for years that cumulated (sp?) in her not being able to complete 6th year, she still will only eat pears and always makes herself sick twice on a night out (imagine, a beautiful girl all done up like) as she is terrified of the calories in drink. I know somebody else that had to repeat 5th year also due to anorexia..I am sure you would not like to see that happen to your sister.

You say you have been ill yourself, it would be terrible for your mother to see your sister in the grip of such a horrific illness. Anorexia is not simply a lifestyle choice, it can end in death. No matter how angry your sister gets, you need to make it clear to your mam how serious this is, and how much worse it could get. If she has any sense after seeing that food diary and stuff she will take your sis to the GP and he can take it from there. Best of luck, please take my advice.

dudara

It's hard to give you a definite answer but check out bodywhys for information and advice. She is doing her Leaving Cert and this can be a funny time. I know that I lost a lot weight during my Leaving (although not intentionally).

Nervous Wreck

I know it sounds silly and juvenile but........ tell your mom.

smileykey

I don't think someone with an aimed cal intake of 800 a day would be classified as anorexic but it may be a sign that she's heading there, if she's that obsessed with what she eats and with her weight. I'd listen to the advice above contact bodywhys, a lot of what they do is advice people in your situation.

Does she know you found her notebook and her old lunches?