Stateline Transcript!

Ok, so after much begging, I FINALLY got to see the Stateline that Hannah recorded for me (Thanks Hannah) but I can't keep it :'( Pitty cos I really wanted to look at myself forever. /Sarcasm.

I thought I would post the transcript. Oneday we will work out how to put the entry up on youtube for the viewing pleasure of the masses.

We will also scan in a copy of City News (once my scanner is rescued from the grave) and when the others update they can give you more details of the interview and what it's like to be under cameras and lights! lol.

I will stop babbling (and you can call me Brooke if you like...and please don't be offended if your name is Brooke. It is a very pretty name!)

Here is the transcript:

1300 550 236 Eating Disorders Foundation VictoriaCATHERINE GARRETT, PRESENTER: Eating disorders such as bulimia and anorexia are every parent's nightmare. They're psychiatric illnesses that affect mostly teenage girls. Eating disorders have one of the highest death rates of any psychiatric condition. Often blamed on the media's obsession with skinny models and celebrities, the causes are more complex than that. So, too, are the cures.A very brave trio of young women agreed to speak to Stateline about their experiences with an eating disorder and their concerns about the lack of treatment available in Canberra.KATE SCOTT: It happened quite suddenly and quite quickly with me. It happened in a really sort of steep curve. I just spiralled down very quickly.HANNAH MCALISTER: I stopped going to school. I couldn't get out of bed, I was too cold, I was too tired. I didn't have the energy. I didn't think there was any way out. I thought I was stuck. I thought I am going to have to die to get out of thisNOELLE GRAHAM: It's a devastating illness for the person and it's a devastating illness for the family.DR VIVIENNE LEWIS, CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST, UC: Nobody would ever wish an eating disorder upon themselves or even upon their worst enemy. It's a horrible disorder to have, a horrible mental illness to have.Primarily it does tend to be society's obsession with thinness and appearance and looking a particular way and that's certainly is the initial manifestation of it. However what tends to actually make somebody develop an eating disorder are numerous other factors, such as genetic, so where mum or dad or somebody else might have suffered from an eating disorder, where there's been a huge stress that's occurred. Certainly teasing and bullying about appearance, peer pressure or a general feeling of low self-esteem or self-worth.NOELLE GRAHAM: Look, I think the reasons are different for everybody. I was bullied a lot in school and I'm pretty sure that that didn't help. I was teased about my name, mainly: Noelle, Christmas carol, that kind of thing. Clothes, my hair was long and I had glasses and then I ended up getting braces.KATE SCOTT: I think things like my brother suffering from leukaemia when he was quite young, that was very stressful, having very high achieving parents, going to an all girls school. Being in year 11 and being very high achieving. I think all of those qualities probably all added up. But having said that I don't think every single person who goes to an all girls school will end up with an eating disorder. So I think it's a very individual thing. and I'm not sure that I myself can even pinpoint it.HANNAH MCALISTER: I actually developed depression before I developed an eating disorder and I found that really hard to deal with. I wasn't getting appropriate treatment for my depression and I didn't decide to get an eating disorder but eating less was sort of... it was something that made me feel better.KATE SCOTT: I was put into hospital at about the age of 16. I was halfway through year 11 and I was hospitalised with all over the place electrolyte levels, heart rate was abnormal, so I was put in for medical reasons. I was put into a private psychiatric hospital in Canberra which did not specialise in eating disorders and I was there for two months, including my 17th birthday.HANNAH MCALISTER: My first GP, I don't think she knew how to deal with eating disorders. I don't think she intentionally meant to be hurtful. But I don't think there was enough education around. I don't think she understood. She would say things like, you know, I have sick babies in the waiting room who need my attention, I don't want to waste my time on you. She took me behind a curtain, got my mum out of the room so no one could hear and basically, you know, told me I was a liar, told me that I was doing this to hurt my family, and that's really upsetting because that's a professional, that's someone who's supposed to know how to deal with these things.I've been hospitalised 17 times. I've been hospitalised in Canberra first. In a medical ward where they do tube feeding and bed rest. They don't really do any therapy. It's a weight gain program. I've been hospitalised in Sydney at a specialist eating disorders unit which has been the most helpful place I've been to. The problem with that is it's a private hospital, it's very expensive and it's in Sydney.NOELLE GRAHAM: For me, I went and saw a doctor, and from there I was referred on to the Eating Disorders Program, which... they offered me five one-hour sessions of cognitive behavioural therapy which wasn't enough. I ended up going to Melbourne for treatment because my mum could see that I wasn't getting any better and likely that I wouldn't get any better while I was in Canberra. So she found this particular program in Melbourne and, yeah, I went along to a workshop that they ran for two days and it was the worst two days of my life because it was kind of exposing everything that was going through my head to a whole room of people and I didn't think that other people felt like this. I thought, you know, maybe I was just going crazy.CATHERINE GARRETT: Is it good enough that these girls are having to travel interstate to get help?VIVIENNE LEWIS: I don't think so. I think you should be able to receive treatment where you're living, especially because eating disorders require the family being involved in treatment as well. What we need is we need better funding so that we can have more of the services that we've currently got.KATE SCOTT: I actually found the programs and the psychiatrists that I was seeing more of a negative effect than a positive effect because I was treated like a naughty little child. So my treatment experience in terms of medical professionals was quite a negative one and it left me, after sort of being through this journey, it left me feeling quite upset with the way Canberra and really anywhere deals with eating disorders and that's part of the reason why I'm here today is because we want to fight that and we want to actually say that there has to be better care.HANNAH MCALISTER: The hospital experience in Canberra is horrible. I've been hospitalised in a psychiatric ward. It isn't a good environment if you're 16.NOELLE GRAHAM: It's not tailored to individual needs and I think that's something that really needs to change because every eating disorder is different. Every eating disorder sufferer is different and you can't just put everyone in a box and go, OK, they're done now, they've got an eating disorder. You can't just fix the illness like that.VIVIENNE LEWIS: Getting the treatment early, so having a parent or teacher recognise that there are problems really early on so we know that those that seek early treatment have much more effective outcomes. So people with an eating disorder tend to do best when they see a psychologist, dietitian, GP, maybe a psychiatrist as well because eating disorders are quite severe mental illnesses and where the school is supportive of the adolescents as well and friends and family.It's a very difficult disorder to treat. It tends to be very ingrained and people have often held beliefs about their bodies or poor self-esteem for a very long time, so you're talking about trying to reverse years of self-loathing.CATHERINE GARRETT: What is the head space you're in when you're anorexic?HANNAH MCALISTER: At the beginning, it's a purposeful sort of, you know, dieting losing weight type thing. But then it turns into something else and I did not honestly feel as though I had any control over what I could do. I remember thinking, when I was at my worst, there is no way I can get out of this, I am stuck. I could not imagine beginning to eat again and the weight gain that would go with that.NOELLE GRAHAM: I couldn't see it for a very long time but then I could. But I couldn't stop because I was too far into it that I don't even know what I was doing it for but I had to keep going. I had to keep trying to lose weight. I had to keep going, keep going. That kind of thing.CATHERINE GARRETT: Is that sort of punishment? Self-punishment or control?NOELLE GRAHAM: Definitely, it's punishment, and guilt and control and self- hatred. I find it so hard to explain just how much you hate yourself when you're in that headspace. You would do anything to disappear because, you know, you're a burden on your family, you don't deserve to be alive, you don't deserve anything. It's not a disease of vanity and it's not a choice. And so many people have said, you know, you're doing this to be a brat, you're just doing this because you want attention from your mum.And that's... I mean, I love my mum dearly but that's not true. That's not why I was doing it. I was doing it because I hated myself. I figured that was the easiest way to punish myself.HANNAH MCALISTER: It just seems like it's been forever! It seems like it's been such a long time and I can't believe that I've spent so much time doing this, in and out of hospital so many times, not being able to study, not being able to hold down a job, not being able to live a normal life, not being able to have normal relationships. It's just... and just to think that it started with, oh, maybe it would be cool if I lost some weight and it turned into something I haven't manage to get out of yet.For my story I would like people to know that although it takes a long time, you will get there in the end. Like, I've been doing this for a long time and it seems like it's taken forever, but when I look back at what I've done, I can see that I have come a long way and it's really important to recognise that it's hard, it's horrible, it's just an awful place to be in. But, you know, I've seen people get better and I believe that I can get better and that's the main thing.KATE SCOTT: It wasn't until I got out that I realised that there are a lot of hard yards to go because getting to a healthy weight's one thing but getting to a healthy head space is another. And the healthy head space is so hard.We do want to make a difference, we do want to set up support groups and that people understand that this is an illness that affects not only the sufferer but the families and that everyone needs as much support as they can get.BACK ANNOUNCEMENT: CATHERINE GARRETT: AND THOSE IMPRESSIVE YOUNG WOMEN - ARE PETITIONING - HEALTH MINISTER - KATY GALLAGHER - FOR FUNDS TO IMPROVE TREATMENT OPTIONS - WE'LL LET YOU KNOW HOW THEY GO. WE'LL ALSO - HAVE SOME USEFUL LINKS - ON OUR WEBSITE ON MONDAY - IF YOU'RE WORRIED ABOUT YOURSELF - OR SOMEONE IN YOUR FAMILY - YOU CAN CALL EATING DISORDERS VICTORIA ON 1300 550 236.THE PHONE IS ANSWERED DURING NORMAL BUSINESS HOURS - BUT IN THE MEANTIME YOU CAN LEAVE A MESSAGE. THEY WILL CALL YOU BACK - AND THEY WILL BE DISCREET.

<3
Noelle