It's Where I Am with Zandra Polard

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Zandra Polard 0:53
Good morning, Las Vegas. It's non drapeau lard with it's where I am. Today, we're talking about eating disorders. And eating disorders are behaviors that have serious consequences for our physical and mental well being. So today, I have my guests from our Women's Conference. Megan Cohen. Hello, hello. Yes, who is a eating disorder expert. And she's going to educate us about things we really don't know about. Absolutely.

Unknown Speaker 1:26
Yeah, I think there's a lot to that there's a lot that we don't know about eating disorders. Yeah,

Zandra Polard 1:32
you know, I was looking up some stuff. And I was like, do I have an eating disorder? You know, like, well,

Unknown Speaker 1:38
and I think one of the things that I always say to people is eating disorders are really secretive. So they are a secret of disease. And when we serve patients who, you know, have eating disorders, it's, it's really strange because your food is a part of your daily life, right? So you wake up, you're at, you know, you're supposed to have your three meals a day, you're three snacks a day, and how these balanced diets, but with eating disorders, it becomes secretive, because you're starting to do these things and not tell people and you're starting to be restrictive, and you're in. So it's a very shameful and secretive experience that I've kind of observed over my years of working with clients with eating disorders. And so that's why I always say it's a very secretive disease.

Zandra Polard 2:21
You know, there's so much that I research and I have so many questions for you. Because as I said, you know, I was wondering if I had an issue now, I don't have an eating disorder. But there were some things that resonated with me, right. So it was, well, one, I think, is a good thing, which is, I don't eat after eight o'clock. Okay, so that works out for me. But sometimes, as of lately, I want to eat in the middle of the night. Oh,

Unknown Speaker 2:54
absolutely. I love a good midnight snack.

Zandra Polard 2:56
Oh, my God, you know, it's so it's so it's supposed to be really bad for you in terms of acid reflux, because that's an issue, right? Also, just so you know, you're not gaining those extra pounds, you know, by eating late. So there's some other variables. But I've gotten really strict about not eating. And so as I said, lately, I said, You know what, Gosh, darn it, I'm gonna have some ice cream at two o'clock. Because I feel like, that's

Unknown Speaker 3:29
beautiful. I love it. And I love to hear that. I think one of the things too, is, you know, we're always so quick to be like, Okay, do I have this disorder? Or do I meet this and you can Google anything, right, and say, I Oh, I've got a little bit of that I've got a little bit of that. And so there is some major differences between there is such thing as you know, eating disorders, as we know, as anorexia, bulimia, but there's also disordered eating. And that comes to with other, you know, mental health issues and just in general, you know, not everybody was raised to the same we sometimes learn our eating habits, you know, from our parents, or from the family that raised us and, you know, I myself was raised by a single mom who, you know, we TV dinners, and you know, we weren't on that regimen, three meals a day and so, in my adult life even I've had to kind of teach myself and educate myself on what is you know, the quote unquote, normal or what is the healthiest aspect and one of the things we really try to focus on is intuitive eating and so listening to our body listening to our own hunger cues. And there is no you know, it it's there is no wrong or right way or there there's no different things work for different folks. However, one of the things that comes with it is like you said, is this bad for us? Is this bad for us? What do we do but you know, there's no such thing as bad food there's no such thing as good food as we've always heard everything in moderation. And when we start to see that uptick though, and that you know, I'm not going to eat past eight o'clock and because I'm going to do this for health reasons, I'm going to do this you know, I have acid reflux and You know, it messes with my body and messes with my sleep schedule. When on the other foot though you have a whole variety of women and men and you know, children who are struggling with, I'm not going to eat, you know, at all today, and I'm going to make sure that I'm restricting to 300 calories, I'm going to make sure that I'm restricting to, you know, X amount. And what happens is, there's usually what happens in turn with that, too, is that there's the other portion of that body dysmorphia, and there's also that fear of weight gain. So when you're speaking, you're like, hey, it gives me acid reflux. I kind of feel crappy in the morning. You know, I'm somebody that I don't like to eat dairy late at night, because if I wake up in the morning, I'm all Flemmi. That doesn't mean I have an eating disorder. You know, I'm doing that for health benefits. However, what happens is we have clients who, like I said, that there's that fear there. Oh, my gosh, I eat a cheeseburger. And there's that guilt. There's that shame that comes with that after having that cheeseburger. And so, you know, we see a variety of things from people maybe purging and so you know, they're choosing to dispose and get rid of, you know, by making themselves or,

Zandra Polard 6:05
you know, I was reading eating so much that you just feel bad and you don't even purge it. Absolutely. And so this affects you, psychologically, and physically, you know, and so I had questions about pica. So I used to eat a lot ice. Like, I would go to the local Mini Mart and get the good Isla de

Unknown Speaker 6:31
Sonic. Oh, the sonic guys is my favorite. Yes, yes.

Zandra Polard 6:34
But I found out I I was I had anemia. So it was making me crave the ice. Absolutely. But included with that pika is choc soap. You know, the hair follicles?

Unknown Speaker 6:52
Yeah, we, we treat patients and there's people who will eat hair follicles?

Zandra Polard 6:59
In middle school who used to eat or scabs?

Unknown Speaker 7:02
Yeah, I, I'm, I've heard Stranger Things. Oh

Zandra Polard 7:08
my god. So when you hear of sometimes like a pregnant woman who was craving things like soap, or whatever pencils, things like that I've heard that's going to, you know, affect you as far as malnutrition. Right? And so then how do you treat that? So

Unknown Speaker 7:31
for us specifically, and so with the work that we do, um,

Zandra Polard 7:35
let me back you up, because you need to let us know who you're working with. What's the name of the clinic?

Unknown Speaker 7:41
Absolutely. Um, so I am with an organization called Moriah behavioral health. We have been in Vegas for over four years now. And we treat a variety of things. One of our specialties is eating disorders for adolescent and adult females struggling with eating disorders. And so we also do have a other division that treats just strictly for mood and anxiety. And that is for adolescents as well. So that is for young boys and girls who are struggling with mental health issues, you know, suicidal ideation, anxiety, mood disorders, and things of that nature. My most recent work, though, has been working in our eating disorder clinics, and that's kind of my first love, I love working with the eating disorder population. And outpatient or even is it's outpatient currently. Um, so we do PHP and IOP level of care. We are actually right off of Sahara and the 15th. So right over by Palace station, is our office in our clinics. And we have our two tracks, which is adolescents and adults. And we are currently doing female care. And so with that, and as you kind of mentioned the pica and so that's not an eating disorder that you know, really is gonna fall under our wheelhouse. We're focusing on binge eating disorder.

Zandra Polard 9:01
Like what the pika that's more talk to your health care provider? Absolutely.

Unknown Speaker 9:05
Not that it can't because they mean, again, when we're looking at disordered eating, it can come in a lot of ways, as I'm a nurse by trade, and so if I were to be assessing a client, and they're like, hey, you know, I just can't stop eating ice or, Hey, I can't stop eating dirt or chalk or you know, whatever it may be. One of the questions that that's gonna raise for me is that, hey, you need to go talk to your health care provider and get some blood work done, because as you found out, you know, you were anemic. And so, usually that kind of flags us to be like, something's probably off because, you know, our body is craving what we're missing, in a lot of ways too, when it comes to that. With the other though, like I said, we will focus on binge eating disorder, anorexia, and so as well as arfid and then they would harvest so are fed is tastes and textures. So you have to People who are just either fearful and it's not usually by the factor of they're afraid to gain weight or the body dysmorphia so much, but there's actually, you know, a sensory or that there's a texture thing. So

Zandra Polard 10:12
in turn will not eat beans or spaghetti.

Unknown Speaker 10:16
And you know, and so, for a lot of people, you know, we all have our preferences, there are certain things like Bobby

Zandra Polard 10:22
said, but he said, well, so well, why won't you eat beans? Or spaghetti? Because those are like the go to Rice, right? He said, Well, beans remind me of bugs and spaghetti reminds me of worms.

Unknown Speaker 10:34
I mean, Fair enough. Fair enough. I don't think I'm going to look at spaghetti and beans. Now the same. But you know, just just we all have our personal preferences. I'm not a fan of like eggplant. You know, it's just not the thing. However, if they're, you know, if I'm on a deserted island, and we're, it's filled of eggplant, I'm going to eat I plant to survive, there's not going to be that fear there. And then, you know, so when we're looking at that, there's also and I'm not completely sure, I'd have to actually look it up for orthorexia. And so, in this day and age, we're seeing a lot of people who are struggling with the Clean Eating modalities. And so they're just kind of obsessed with this thought that whole foods and organic foods and, you know, if you brought this person at McDonald's cheeseburger grand and McDonald's isn't the best for you. We all know that I love their French fries every once in a while. However, people who are struggling with orthorexia also have this fear of, oh my gosh, I can never I can never eat a McDonald's cheeseburger, and they won't. And so again, if they are on that stranded island, and there's only a McDonald's, they will choose not to because there is that fear of it's not even so much of gaining weight, but it's, you know, that is not nourishing to my body, or you know that that is a bad food. And there's a such thing as bad and good foods,

Zandra Polard 11:52
right? Yeah, you know, I had one of my kids when they were in middle school, she only have one girl, she would count the calories on everything, because she learned it in school, but then she took it to a whole nother level.

Unknown Speaker 12:09
And so you know, why I have two daughters. And one of the things that it's still so strange to me, and it, you know, it just it really does irked me that we're still teaching in health class, like, hey, you know, good, good food, bad food and to count calories. Um, because there's such an emphasis, and we still live in this day and age of this diet culture and fad diets. And, you know, to be especially, I think, for women to be thin is beautiful. And so, I think that there needs to be so much more education within our school systems to have, you know, what is healthy what we are teaching, especially again, eye eating disorders do not discriminate, they affect males and females, however, you know, historically, and what we do see is females who are struggling it and struggling with body image. And I think that is because of social media, of what we're learning in our schools. And that we're not, we're not teaching correctly to nourish our bodies, we're being taught to count calories, but that's not being taught, you know, one of the things that I love, like Michelle Obama, she's got her MyPlate. And it's a you know, a very simple graph. And it's, you know, kind of probably from when you and I were in school, like you should have a fistful of potatoes, and you know, the fistful of vegetables and a handful of chicken. But instead of teaching, hey, this is what a well balanced nourished meal looks like, we're teaching, hey, you should only have you know, 1500 calories a day. And we're not also not teaching what those calories should look like. Because, you know, people will get that and be like, Okay, well, that means I can have one, you know, one McDonald's cheeseburger a day for 1000 calories, and that's all I'm going to eat. But that's not nourishing your body. And so I think there has to be that education piece that we're doing, you know, as a community. And what I'm really excited about the work that we do is we are able to educate people on how we're looking at the youth, how we're teaching about how we speak about diets, how we speak about food intake, and nourishment and nutrition and all of those areas. Yeah. And you

Zandra Polard 14:05
know, what, there's also the issue with obesity here, especially in the United States, we're the most obese country, absolutely in the world. So I think that's where the calorie counting comes in. But again, I understand what you're saying, What does nutrition look like? And that's the message right? Absolutely. So I also wanted to go into dieting. There are a few women I know, that are avid dieters, they have been on this diet, that diet for most of their lives. Now, I was reading that that's a big issue. I was dieting. So and then that's how you can fall into a depression. Because, you know, you cheated on your diet and

Unknown Speaker 14:53
that again, and so it's that shame that comes with it. Right. So when we're looking at there's so many I mean You know, there's so many different diets and there's, there's always the new diet, there's always the new one that you're reading about on that comes on, you know, on social media. And so again, that conversation of what does nutrition look like? Because I think, again, looking at women, we're always on some kind of diet, we always have an event, or I want to fit into this dress, or I want to look at this that have this have a certain way. And so

Unknown Speaker 15:20
I want to do it without exercise. Absolutely.

Unknown Speaker 15:23
You know, and so that's when that restriction cycle comes in. And what we see is that, you know, the restriction, and then they may treat themselves, quote, unquote, to having a meal, and then that shame and that anxiety comes up. And so, again, what we're trying to teach is that there is no good diet. Bottom line, if you're asking,

Zandra Polard 15:48
who's getting taught, like people once they already have a problem? So like, where's the, you know, preventive measures as far as so for just to know, how to eat better if you're not getting that from home?

Unknown Speaker 16:06
Absolutely, I think, you know, the hope would be that it's coming from, you know, our communities, from our school systems, what we're putting on TV, but that's just not the case. Right? And so to dove. Yeah, exactly that I love their new campaign and brought tears to my eyes. And so however, while

Zandra Polard 16:25
you're on the show, I saw the commercial.

Unknown Speaker 16:29
However, though, we know that that's not the normal. And so it's going to take people like mean to people like you who are able to speak up to, you know, take every opportunity to say, hey, you know, the, this isn't the normal, this isn't how you know, things should be and to do those teachings and get in to be able to spread that word.

Zandra Polard 16:47
And you know, what I learned from you from the women conference is embracing your own body. Oh, we all have different body types.

Unknown Speaker 16:56
Nope, my favorite thing to you I'm in it's one of my little you know, cheeky jokes. But when we're looking at where we come from, as people as humans in, you know what my lineage is, right? So I am of Irish descent, I'm built for the strong, you know, winters. And so that's kind of my joke is that, you know, I am not going to maybe look like this model on Instagram, but like understanding where my heritage comes from, and understanding why my body is built the way that I'm built, and you know, why your body is built the way that you're built and having appreciation. Because what I have found is, I don't think I've ever met anybody in my life, who is like, I 100% love myself all the time. I love my body all the time. And I don't think that's a realistic goal for anybody. But if we can appreciate the fact that, hey, you know, I might not like the way that this looks right. And, um, but I understand I have appreciation. And I think that's one of the first steps into having that love for yourself. Because it's hard to have love for yourself all the time. It's hard to be like, you know, to have that self confidence all the time. And so we do a lot of work. It's called the body positive. And so it does, it looks at those, you know, where I come from, who I am, and just getting some appreciation for that as well.

Zandra Polard 18:09
You know, I had a, it's funny, all things all came into, excuse me into alignment. Because I was talking to my daughter who was pregnant with her second child.

Unknown Speaker 18:22
Congratulations.

Zandra Polard 18:23
Thank you. She is already talking to me about her post birth, if that's the word. Yeah, both birth weight. And I'm like, Well, right now you need to concentrate on feeding the baby, and then you take care of your stuff. Yeah, later.

Unknown Speaker 18:45
And again, looking at us as women having those conversations with one another. And again, I think it's the societal norms of as a woman, you should give birth and look like the celebrities and be right back at it and you know, have that perfect body if that's just not the case. And you know, some women are very blessed. Some people are very blessed of just having that natural, you know, metabolism and all of those things. But what also comes into play, and as a society, there is nothing wrong with fat, there's that is not a bad word. Fat is not a swear word. And there's nothing wrong with being right.

Zandra Polard 19:18
And I'll take a little bit on the back end. Exactly, exactly. I

Unknown Speaker 19:22
you know, I'm thicker than a snicker and I appreciate it. Right? So I think looking at those things to of how one does start in the home of how we're teaching our children, how we're teaching our sons and daughters what nutrition looks like, but also, like you said, Doug did a really great job of how we as a society, present what beauty looks like, and we as a society that I grew up, you know, in a fad where it was the worst thing ever to be fat. And if you called somebody fat, like I mean, it was just a hope beside myself as an adult. I mean, I have obviously a lot of years Now behind me in some perspective in life, but I think one of the biggest things that I think is just so silly No, I'm like, that's not a bad word. And you know, there's nothing wrong with having some fat on your there's nothing wrong with not being stick figure, there's nothing wrong. I'm, you know, even sitting here with you today I've had I have kids and there's a reason I've got the mom pooch I wear my, um, where my battle scars, you know, very proudly because there is beauty and not. And so I think some of the work we just need to do as a society is how do we reframe that? How do we, you know, get away from that? This, I guess, textbook beauty? How do we expand on that? Because there's so many different body types, so many different human beings in this world, that they're beautiful, and they might not be a size zero, right? Right.

Zandra Polard 20:51
Or if they're a zero, they don't like me zero, like whatever. And you

Unknown Speaker 20:55
know what, I think that's also not spoken about a lot as well. We do see people who are really struggling with body image Who are you know, of a smaller size, and I think it's hard for people to see that they are struggling because they're trying to gain weight. And so there's that other, you know, the spectrum too. I had a friend in high school, and they would call her stringing, you know, and that that crushed her. And, you know, there's nothing wrong with being thin. There's nothing wrong with being fat, there's nothing wrong with being in your own body. I mean, you know, I am a Christian descent. So you know, I God made to me, everybody beautiful, and you're the way you exactly you're supposed to be. So I think us as a community and us as just a society, we really need to do a better job of promoting real bodies. And I've seen some of our real retailers start to do it. I've seen, you know, more plus size models I've seen, you know, with different size bodies in different people on you know, the TV screen and in ADS. And so I think we're moving in that direction. It's just a very slow burn, because it's not what we have built as a society is our normal.

Zandra Polard 22:00
I agree. I agree. And so we're talking about eating disorders, eating behaviors, that have serious consequences, to our physical, and our mental well being. And we have Megan Cohen here, from the Mariah behavioral

Unknown Speaker 22:20
clinic yet, Mariah Behavioral Health here in Las Vegas, Uriah behavioral health.

Zandra Polard 22:25
So how do you know, if you have an eating disorder, aside from throwing up on purpose, and not eating

Unknown Speaker 22:35
things, there's a lot of things in it. Again, it depends because eating disorders also come in all forms, shapes and sizes. The biggest one that I say is that fear of gaining weight, and then that body dysmorphia, so if there's a lot of shame, if there is a lot of, hey, I eaten this, and now I'm like, Oh, my gosh, I, you know, I feel disgusted with myself, or there is again, what we commonly see with the restricting of calories, you know, and hey, I can only have x amount, and there's also again, the binge and restricting cycle that happens. So you have people who are like, Okay, I'm going to do really good today, and I'm not going to eat all day, and they don't eat all day, and then it gets tonight, and you know, we're eating the whole pantry. And so it comes in all different sizes. But the biggest thing is, when you're thinking about your own relationship with food, what does that look like? How does that make you feel? What kind of gets brought up for you? And is it now becoming a struggle in your everyday life? Is it becoming a struggle? Are you being humming obsessive about it? And so there's a lot of red flags, but the biggest one I say is when you are thinking about your body, and when you're thinking about food in your relationship with your body and with okay, then what does that get brought up for you because I think what also comes up is that people have, again, what society is portrayed as an eating disorders, you know, anorexia nervosa, which, you know, type a are typical. And that is a very thin figure and not eating any calories at all, or, you know, needing very minimal and just being very thin stature, that it's not the only eating disorder, and there's also something called anorexia. Atypical where you have somebody who is in a quote unquote, normal body or maybe even living in a larger body, and with that, they are still restricting and they are you know, still having everything you know, that you would see in a quote unquote, anorexic person, but they're not presenting with that thin figure so people aren't taking that eating disorder seriously.

Zandra Polard 24:43
You know, what, and also men. So I was also researching that, you know, men, usually people or men who are into athletics, where they have to make weight, right, so something like weight, right? Yeah, yeah, boxing, things like that.

Unknown Speaker 24:59
Absolutely we see it again, in men and women. And when we're looking at, you know, all this intermittent fasting diet, and so it becomes kind of normalized. However, that's it's not, you know how we're built as humans to be going with out so many calories and without so many hours without eating. So again, my best advice is, hey, if you're struggling with any of this, or even, you know, you may think maybe I have one, maybe I don't, you're always welcome to come check our website, but call our admissions line, somebody will talk to you. And, you know, we're here to give you the right information.

Zandra Polard 25:35
And what is that number for the mission slider?

Unknown Speaker 25:36
Our phone number is 1-844-624-0454. Okay,

Zandra Polard 25:44
and let's get that number out one more time.

Unknown Speaker 25:46
And that would be 1-844-624-0454. Now, I'm

Zandra Polard 25:53
thinking you probably have, like peer support groups there. Yes, absolutely.

Unknown Speaker 25:58
So one of our slogans on which I really love is we are with you for life is the Mariah slogan. And so we do offer a variety of different support groups. From the moment that you're going to be admitted into one of our programs into our outpatient when we're looking at eating disorders, we have depending on which level of care you are about anywhere from five to eight hours of programming a day, and that includes group support, meal support, as well as individualized clinical support. So you're seeing your individualized therapist, okay. And even then from step down, when we say we're with you for life, after you've you know, left our facilities, you're not maybe even within our care, you're not seeing therapist anymore, we have alumni support groups. And so those are meeting weekly, and it is from anybody who has been in any level of care, they come together, it's a anonymous group that they meet weekly. And it is like, there's a clinician there from one of our team. So if you are struggling, and hey, you know, I need to talk to somebody, but I haven't, you know, been within your care in a year or two, that's okay, we're gonna get you. And we do it weekly. And it's posted for all of our patients who've been with us, okay,

Zandra Polard 27:12
so I would say, if you are a lifelong Dieter, or if you are purging food or not eating food, I would call that number before I take the next diet, or before I make that next drastic change.

Unknown Speaker 27:29
And I think too, you know, Mariah behavioral health.com, it has a lot of information too. There is a self assessment on there that you can take. And I'm, we're not in the business of saying, hey, if you've been on a diet, you definitely have an eating disorder. But hey, if you're not feeling so great, if you're feeling that I'm struggling, and you know, I'm not able to kind of take care of myself or you know, hey, my mind's going crazy, because, you know, I'm just having a really tough relationship with food or whatever that may be. Give us a call. I mean, we definitely are the experts here in town, and we're able to kind of, you know, at least easier path and give you some information. Maybe it's not us, but we can, you know, help you carry that load. I think that a lot of people don't know that there's help out there. And a lot of people carry this shame that there's something wrong with me or you know, I'm embarrassed. And we really are here for you. We've seen it all. And so just give us a call. Wonderful.

Zandra Polard 28:25
Well, thank you so much, Megan, for coming on, and educating our listeners on eating disorders that have negative consequences, physically, and with our mental well being. So I thank you all for tuning in. My name is Andre Dillard. I'm here every Saturday at 7:30am. And I look forward to speaking with you again soon. Thank you. We'll see you next week. Bye.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai