Julia Antipova seriously ill

cruzceleste · Sep 15, 2014

bellflower said:
Not at all, better safe than sorry! I'm glad that your coach cares about the health of the students instead of only caring about gold medals.

And about Yulia: I seriously cannot imagine how thin she must be right now. I saw her Worlds program and she was such a tiny thing, borderline on what I (personally) consider beautiful.

According to reports, they did tried to stop her, she wasn´t allowed to train, they offer medical assistance (that the family declained), evne other skater tried to help her, the problem it seem that anorexia is like alcoholism (sorry if it sounds offensive), unless the person realize she/he has an illness and accept help is very hard to recover.

One of my high school friends had anorexia, in part because compared herself to other girls and she thought herself "fat" (she´s about 1.70m and big hips kind of girl, used to weight about 130, she compared herself to me and my weight I´m only 1.46m and weight about 100pounds), so she started starving herself. We didn´t notice until one time during recess she past out. She was in care of doctor for about a year, an even now almost 12years later her body is still suffering with the damage she caused herself. She no longer can eat food that is consider heavy (meat, hot dogs, chilly), have to take lot´s of medicine and falls ill very easy.

MK's Winter · Sep 15, 2014

So horribly sad to here. She is in my thoughts. Sending positive energy for her recovery<\3

MalAssada · Sep 15, 2014

I know, sorry if my post sounded offensive. I just wish it hadn't gotten this far, hopefully she will recover

LiamForeman · Sep 15, 2014

Sam-Skwantch said:
I've seen this first hand far too many times. I could barely find the strength to finish reading this story and many painful memories are impossible to forget. My only hope is that I can one day soon put the final chapter of this story in my Global Language of Inspiration thread. May she find help and hope.

As someone who used bulimia to keep my weight 'optimal' for sports, my heart breaks. Anorexia is a whole different situation. Best wishes to her. This is no longer an eating 'disorder' but a life/death matter. It is no longer about weight, but now control. My heart hurts for her.

sillylionlove · Sep 15, 2014

I just think about all the times on here people have talked about skaters weight (mostly how big they are) and I choose not to participate in this discussion. You never know what comments we make have an effect on someone who is struggling with the very thing we are commenting about. It's a shame what standards people, especially women fell that have to live up to. Especially pairs skaters who are thrown, lifted and who knows what else. I imagine that it can't be easy. I hope she gets the help she needs.

Amei · Sep 15, 2014

cruzceleste said:
According to reports, they did tried to stop her, she wasn´t allowed to train, they offer medical assistance (that the family declained), evne other skater tried to help her, the problem it seem that anorexia is like alcoholism (sorry if it sounds offensive), unless the person realize she/he has an illness and accept help is very hard to recover..

Best quote I've heard: help isn't for people that need it, but for the people that want it. Hopefully Julia is at the point where she wants it.

Sai Bon · Sep 16, 2014

supsu said:
Really sad to hear.

I assume they weren't skating in Russian test skates or open skates?
I hope she finds a way to get healthy again.

Has there been skaters that have been hospitalized for this before? I mean Akiko was ill and Mary-Kate come to mind, but were they hospitalized?

Akiko was hospitalised. Her weight went down to 29kg or something crazy. According to her autobiography, she was warned that the average recovery time was 3 years, but she was so desperate to get back on the ice that she was able to resume a "normal" life in a year. But she says the struggle with the anorexia mentality went on for years after that, although she was able to overcome it and return to the top level of competition. She says she's honestly glad to have had the experience, because it taught her so much and by rebuilding her body and technique from scratch, she developed an incredible inner strength. The same strength no doubt that allowed her to master the triple-triple when she was considered far too old. She is a truly amazing person as well as a beautiful skater and I admire her so much, but sadly I think such successful outcomes are rare for anorexia.

surimi · Sep 16, 2014

Sai Bon said:
Akiko was hospitalised. Her weight went down to 29kg or something crazy. According to her autobiography, she was warned that the average recovery time was 3 years, but she was so desperate to get back on the ice that she was able to resume a "normal" life in a year.

I kind of wish the treatment for Julia would include a meeting with Akiko. Advice from a top skater who won the battle with her eating disorder, might be just what Julia needs.
I don't think I'll ever understand why people want to be thin. In FS lifts, twists and throws, I get it, but still, don't drastic diets do much more harm than they do good? Is it really worth the loss of speed, jump height and stability, the strength to support oneself in elements?

starlight97 said:
One will notice then if it was something else or if it's an eating disorder because if it's the latter the girl will refuse/ will not put on the weight.

I don't know... I lost about 3 kg last year because of a stress situation. It may not always be an eating disorder if the weight isn't returning. And maybe I'm just weird, but my weight difference when hungry and after a meal is easily 1 kg. Just saying that it's possible to be superthin with fluctuating weight, but without disorders and dieting involved.

mikeko666 · Sep 16, 2014

Sai Bon said:
Akiko was hospitalised. Her weight went down to 29kg or something crazy. According to her autobiography, she was warned that the average recovery time was 3 years, but she was so desperate to get back on the ice that she was able to resume a "normal" life in a year. But she says the struggle with the anorexia mentality went on for years after that, although she was able to overcome it and return to the top level of competition. She says she's honestly glad to have had the experience, because it taught her so much and by rebuilding her body and technique from scratch, she developed an incredible inner strength. The same strength no doubt that allowed her to master the triple-triple when she was considered far too old. She is a truly amazing person as well as a beautiful skater and I admire her so much, but sadly I think such successful outcomes are rare for anorexia.

Suzuki's weight dropped to 32 kg, but she stayed home. She would have had to be hospitalized if her weight had gone under 30 kg. She really wanted to avoid hospitalization, which would make much more difficult for her to go back on the ice. One of the reason that she could recover much faster than average was that her psychiatrist quickly identified her relationship with her mother as a cause of the illness. Her mother used to be a typical skate mom, and often compared her to other girls. She tried to be a perfect child to please her, and tried to control everything, including her weight. Then her perfectionism went out of control. Suzuki said that probably it was more difficult for her mother to admit that her own daughter had an eating disorder. She could start eating again when her mother started accepting her daughter as she was. She has written about her experience in her book, and talked about it on TV programs and lectures. In her book, she wrote "don't compare yourself to others".

cruzceleste · Sep 16, 2014

^Only 80 pounds? Akiko is 1.60m. Not adult woman should ever weight so little.

louisa05 · Sep 16, 2014

Saying that skating causes anorexia or even that anyone noticing weight or talking about weight causes anorexia is a gross oversimplification of a very complex disease.

Research is indicating that there are multiple factors in developing eating disorders which are biological, environmental and societal. One factor is not enough. Some research indicates a potential relationship to serotonin levels similar to clinical depression. Personality factors are noted which include perfectionism, ability to focus and persevere and obsessive-compulsive traits. Interestingly, the first two could very well be the reason that there is a higher level of eating disorders in elite sports as they are the very qualities that allow a person to excel on that level. So the correlation of eating disorders and elite sports very well may have to do with personality type much more than with the sport itself.

More info: http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/anorexia/basics/causes/con-20033002

Sai Bon · Sep 16, 2014

cruzceleste said:
^Only 80 pounds? Akiko is 1.60m. Not adult woman should ever weight so little.

Of course no adult woman should. Akiko was very sick. She said she couldn't do anything, even sleep. As mikeko666 (thanks for the factual corrections btw, I don't have the book on me and it was a while back that I read it).

From what research I've done, anorexics tend to be have certain personality traits that are often encouraged/effective for elite sports, like obsessiveness and perfectionism, but these traits channeled in the wrong direction produce a dire (and sometimes fatal) outcome. The pressure that athletes have to deal with is no doubt an exacerbating factor.

I hope Julia gets the best treatment and lots of love and support from those closest to her. It's going to be a long battle.

LongTimeLurker · Sep 16, 2014

As louisa05 indicated, anorexia is indeed very complex, and the reasons for it are not straightforward. In my case, many of the typical boxes were ticked, from perfectionism to elite sports (had a private gymnastics coach by the time I was seven years old). It wasn't until I was an adult that I realized that my mother's mental illness also played a role. To this day, she still occasionally mentions my weight, even though I wear a size 2P and have been vanity-sized out of some stores altogether. Anyway, as an adult, I finally understood that her obsession with appearance was her problem. She will have to deal with her unacknowledged demons for the rest of her life. As for me, anorexia will always be there, even though I will never go down that road again. I wish Julia (and anyone dealing with disordered eating) all the best. You CAN get better, but it takes a long time to essentially reprogram your brain. It's not easy, but it is worth it. YOU are worth it!

Sandpiper · Sep 17, 2014

Best wishes to Julia. I can't believe it's reached the point where she's hospitalized.

LiamForeman · Sep 17, 2014

louisa05 said:
Saying that skating causes anorexia or even that anyone noticing weight or talking about weight causes anorexia is a gross oversimplification of a very complex disease.

More info: http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/anorexia/basics/causes/con-20033002

Thank you for your entire post. Anorexia isn't about weight control, it's about life control that goes out of whack. And yes OCD, depression, external influences like critical parents are more likely to cause the anorexia than someone saying s/he should lose five pounds. A friend of mine growing up, who is male, suffered from anorexia. He was on Geraldo back in the 80s, maybe it was Sally Jessie, on a show about men with anorexia. He's thankfully still alive, but he has positively destroyed his looks (he modeled) from the disease. He didn't think he was fat, he was skeletal and knew it. He just had to have absolute control of his life. And what he put in his mouth was the first start. It had nothing to do with talking about his weight. Sorry to run off on this, it brings back bad memories for me, and I hate to hear people oversimplicize (sp?) that eating disorders especially anorexia are caused by someone making a comment on someone's weight. It's just not true.

Hyena · Sep 17, 2014

LiamForeman said:
Thank you for your entire post. Anorexia isn't about weight control, it's about life control that goes out of whack. And yes OCD, depression, external influences like critical parents are more likely to cause the anorexia than someone saying s/he should lose five pounds. A friend of mine growing up, who is male, suffered from anorexia. He was on Geraldo back in the 80s, maybe it was Sally Jessie, on a show about men with anorexia. He's thankfully still alive, but he has positively destroyed his looks (he modeled) from the disease. He didn't think he was fat, he was skeletal and knew it. He just had to have absolute control of his life. And what he put in his mouth was the first start. It had nothing to do with talking about his weight. Sorry to run off on this, it brings back bad memories for me, and I hate to hear people oversimplicize (sp?) that eating disorders especially anorexia are caused by someone making a comment on someone's weight. It's just not true.

I'm a mental health provider, and I want to add that sometimes it's about life control and sometimes it's about weight control. Sometimes it's about something else entirely. Causes are complex and multidimensional and the "straw that breaks the camel's back" absolutely can be a comment about weight from someone else, or more typically, many different comments about weight as well as being in a culture that emphasizes the importance of skinniness (which I believe skating does, to an extent).

All the best to Julia. I went back and watched their short program from Worlds and found it quite beautiful. I hope she gets all the support and care she needs.

Alba · Sep 17, 2014

Since yesterday thanks to the very expensive substances she was given the weight loss stopped! For the first time since the beginning of the treatment there were some positive changes. And, most importantly, Yulia's mood changed, she felt the help and the attention, agreed to meet friends and is high! Nodari Maisuradze will visit her tomorrow and bring her the posters the fans from `Zimnii' forum made for her. There is still lots of work for the doctors and the girl, but she made the first step. I will keep you updated on her state, her perspective and her future plans. Thins changed for the better!

From Russia with love [#14]: Summer to Autumn 2014

surimi · Sep 18, 2014

Alba said:
From Russia with love [#14]: Summer to Autumn 2014

That is great news. All the best to Julia. :clap:

LRK · Sep 18, 2014

Thanks for sharing that, Alba (and thanks to the original FSU poster, of course). I'm so glad to hear that. I hope she feels appreciated and loved, and that it will help give her strength for the struggle ahead.

cruzceleste · Sep 18, 2014

Alba said:
From Russia with love [#14]: Summer to Autumn 2014

Great news, thanks for sharing. Praying for more positive news and total recovery.

Julia Antipova seriously ill

cruzceleste

MK's Winter

MalAssada

LiamForeman

William/Uilyam

sillylionlove

Amei

Sai Bon

surimi

Congrats to Sota, #10 in World Standings!

mikeko666

cruzceleste

louisa05

Sai Bon

LongTimeLurker

Sandpiper

LiamForeman

William/Uilyam

Hyena

Tous les whiskys

Alba

surimi

Congrats to Sota, #10 in World Standings!

LRK

cruzceleste

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