What Has Food Got to Do with It, Anyway?

(A Battle Between Miss Positive and Miss Timid)

I am a sixty-three-year old Black British male. I am married with two adult children a girl and a boy. I came to England almost forty years ago from Accra, Ghana. I am therefore a British domiciled Ghanaian. I was a teacher in Accra before coming to England. In the last forty years, I have worked for the National Health Service as a Registered Mental Nurse (RMN), for Shell UK Oil as a branch manager, as a cash office manager for two London boroughs and as a RMN For a top private hospital. This book is about the illness anorexia, which affects mainly young girls and the daily struggle a girl goes through to behave positively and avoid being ensnared by this pernicious illness or behaving negatively (like an anorexic) and being overwhelmed by the illness. There is a difference in being treated at home among loved ones and being cared for by strangers in hospital where, under the guidance of seasoned consultants, structured programmes are properly implemented and followed. The advantages and disadvantages of the strong bond amongst fellow anorexics appear especially in a hospital setting. Notable successes have been achieved by modern consultants in anorexia, a disease that even internationally renowned professors in the field still describe as complex. I have included a short play, a number of poems, narratives, and reflections to highlight important factors to anorexics themselves, parents, siblings, fellow nurses oblivious of the illness, and the general public who may have a wrong understanding of this illness. I have drawn on my own observations, working with internationally renowned consultants (both male and female) and seasoned therapists and dieticians in the field for over thirteen years. Above all it is the humanity in me that compelled me to write this book. Helping and seeing these young people being cared for have been of paramount importance to me: And as far as I know all professionals (including housekeepers) I have worked with over the years.