Anorexia & Trauma Relationship

Anorexia: French model Isabelle Caro dead at 28

By Sandy Dechert, Examiner.com

Caro spoke about having anorexia nervosa since she was 13. At the worst of her eating disorder, her weight had gone as low as 55 pounds, with her height at 5 ft 5 in. Caro was hospitalized for the first time when she was 20. In 2006, she slipped into a coma. Her physician said that she would not survive the coma, but she did.

The model's anorexia was caused by what she called a "troubled childhood." Dr. Kimberly Dennis, a Chicago psychiatrist and nationally known specialist in treatment of eating and co-occurring disorders, says that girlhood trauma often precipitates anorexia. "If trauma occurs prior to the development of [certain essential functions like] the capacity to attach to caregivers, the regulation of anxiety, or the capacity for speech, then the related part of the brain and all the functions that depend on it may fail to develop in a healthy manner."

Dr. Dennis is medical director at Timberline Knolls in Lemont, Illinois, outside Chicago. The facility is one of the nation's leading residential treatment centers for eating and co-occurring disorders such as alcoholism and substance abuse, with or without trauma, in women.

For the full story: http://www.examiner.com/women-s-health-in-chicago/anorexia-french-model-isabelle-caro-dead-at-28