'A new version of myself:’ Virtual care supports St. Joe’s patients with eating disorders
Waheeda Giga has always been a conscious eater. When her father passed away, however, her attempt at self-care through dieting spiraled into an eating disorder.
“That’s when things went downhill,” recalls Giga, a Toronto-based patient of St. Joe’s Eating Disorders Program. “In hindsight, I think I was restricting food and exercising to deal with grief.”
In coping with her father’s death, intervals between meals got longer, and Giga started working out intensively three-to-four times daily.
“Before treatment, if you didn’t exercise you didn’t eat,” she says. “It became clockwork. I tracked calories for everything I ate, and became anxious if I hadn’t worked out. I was a prisoner in my body.”
Outside of work as a municipal employee, Giga’s social life involved going to the gym, boot camps, and yoga studios.
“I didn’t have a relationship, or a family, because those things took a back seat to measuring every morsel of food I ate and exercising,” she says.
Feeling mentally and physically exhausted, Giga went to her family doctor for help.
“When my doctor saw me, she said, ‘I don’t want to talk about anything else. I just want to know why a grown woman weighs 90 pounds?’” says Giga.
Support during COVID-19
Giga was in the early stages of treatment when COVID-19 hit, prompting her in-person cognitive behavioural therapy sessions to go virtual.
With lockdowns shuttering gyms, Giga worked with her care team to ease anxiety around reducing exercise while increasing food intake.
“I needed significant counselling to learn that I didn’t need to earn food,” she says. “I needed a complete rewiring.”
Through the program, Giga made changes to stop tracking food intake, and learned to accept healthy weight gain.
“In the program you’re treated like an adult,” she says. “My previous experiences have been more like, ‘There’s something wrong with you, let us make the decisions for you,’ instead of guiding you through the changes you need to make.”
Dr. Michele Laliberte, director of St. Joe’s Eating Disorders Program, says the pivot to virtual care has been positive for patients, such as Giga, who would otherwise travel to Hamilton for treatment.
“Geography is not the issue it once was,” Dr. Laliberte says. “You can turn on your monitor more easily than getting in the car, and out the door.”
While some patients prefer in-person visits, the program’s attendance has generally been better during the pandemic, Dr. Laliberte adds.
“Others have trouble with technology, but for those who are able to attend, the outcomes appear to be pretty similar to in-person treatment,” she says.
A new version of herself
Today, Giga is at a healthier weight, and has limited exercise to three times weekly.
“The program got me to the point, psychologically, where three times is enough, and I don’t have to feel anxious about the other four days,” she says.
Giga now looks forward to the possibilities a more balanced life has to offer.
“It’s opened my eyes to the world outside of food and exercising, and to creating a new version of myself where maybe I find a relationship, settle down, and start a family,” she says.
She shares her story to encourage others to seek support during the pandemic.
“Virtual care works. All you need is a willingness to make changes because, virtually or not, no one can force you to put food in your mouth – only you can do that,” she says.