What Has Food Got to Do with It, Anyway?: (A Battle Between Miss Positive and Miss Timid)

By Ebsen William Amarteifio

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.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse UK
• Release date: Nov 15, 2011
• ISBN: 9781456783969

Ebsen William Amarteifio

Ebsen William Amarteifio was brought up in a home strongly influenced by the Christian religion. Both paternal (Amarteifios) and the maternal (Nunoos) households are devout Methodists. His maternal grandmother, Beatrice Nunoo, was a well-known and respected church leader of her day. His paternal grandfather, Thomas Amarteifio, a pharmacist by profession, espoused fairness and humanity and was influential in his community. George A. Amarteifio, the author’s father, also a pharmacist and a leading chorister at the main Accra Methodist Church, was a humanitarian. He always urged others, rich or poor, strong or weak, Christian or Muslim, to be kind to others. He was always immensely thrilled to learn that somebody, he or someone else, had helped, had also been kind to another human being. Ebsen has dedicated his book to his father and all humanitarians everywhere. He is currently setting up the George A. Amarteifio Foundation. For the past sixteen years Ebsen has unofficially, in the name of the foundation, been sending medical products to Korle-Bu University Teaching Hospital in Accra, Ghana, the third largest hospital in Africa. His father qualified there as a pharmacist. Elizabeth A. Nunoo, the author’s mother, frequently quotes the Bible to support a moral point. On the eve of Ebsen’s departure to England over forty years ago, she stated, “I know you will not depart from your Christian upbringing. If you get into trouble, it is because you always think of other people.” In forty-four years of working, the author has found it immensely gratifying to be a team member in the fields of education and medicine, dedicated to making the difference in the lives of other human beings.

Book preview

What Has Food Got to

Do with It, Anyway?

(A Battle between Miss Positive

and Miss Timid)

By E. W. Amarteifio

Illustrations by Sean Harper

Cover designs by Jason W. Amarteifio

BSc (Hons) Digital Media Development

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AuthorHouse™

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© 2011 by Ebsen William Amarteifio. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 02/20/2013

ISBN: 978-1-4567-8394-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4567-8395-2 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4567-8396-9 (e)

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

Preface And Acknowledgements

Introduction

Scene One

Scene Two

Scene Three

Poetry Group

1. Experience Is The Best Teacher

2. I Will Overcome

3. No More Curves

4. Sniff, Swallow, And Be Sick

5. Anorexia Nervosa

6. Olivia Asks For Less

7. I Want To Be Like You

8. Waiting For Happiness (The Proverbial No.12 Bus)

Soliloquy

Control

Steadfast

Weekend Leave At Home

Mary Jo

The Yoke, Fetters, And The Complexities Of Anorexia Nervosa

Pauline And Baby Jewell

Justina And Baby Bassie

Competition And

Rivalry In An Eating Disorder Unit

Close Observation

Boys? Not Boys! Yes Boys!!

Girl Power

Anorexia Nervosa And Boys

Polite And Cooperative

Understanding Is Crucial

Body Image Problems

Narratives And Reflections

Broken Heart

First Year At University

Seclusion And Weight Loss

Copycat

Loss Of Weight

Low-Grade Jobs

False Allegation Ends Over Twenty Years Of Dedicated Work

False Accusation

Other Thoughts And Observations

Family Ties

Our Mary

Lynchpin

Hospital Admission

Key Participant

Rivalry

Solidarity

Exercise

Who Is Fat?

Who Is Watching Whom?

Fathers

A Plan For Recovery

In Hospital

At Home

At Home—No Professional Support.

Who Wants To Be In Hospital?

Lost And Found

The Play

Scene One

Scene Two

Scene Three

Second Visit: Week-End.

Scene Four

Scene Five

Soliloquy By Mrs Smith. My Secret And Guilt.

Soliloquy By Mr Smith. My Secret And Fear.

I Was Lost But I Can Find Me

Some Facts And Figures

Amarteifio (our Generation 1999) a former teacher and mental-

health nurse, presents an informative montage of drama, poetry and prose that portrays the intricacies of Eating Disorders. The book is replete with case studies and provides readers with a textured, layered approach to understanding anorexia. With Eating Disorders rampant in America, this work is a profound and sensitive look at what lies behind this complex sickness, offering hope, optimism and practical advice. An erudite, well-researched look at anorexia told with sensitivity and creativity.

—KIRKUS REVIEW

For those with loved ones suffering from the disease, the book illuminates the tactics employed by an anorexic to remain painfully thin, if not skeletal, and the author addresses everything from denial and deceit to manipulation, paranoia and obsession.

—BLUE INK REVIEW

Even though the accounts presented by Amarteifio are fictionalized, they demonstrate that there are ways to survive Eating Disorders.

—CLARION REVIEW

PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

My heart-felt thanks to a professor who is internationally known on the subject of eating disorders. After reading the play, he suggested that I could make a couple of points more interesting. I duly obliged.

Sincere thanks to an eminent female consultant, also internationally renowned in the field of eating disorders. She had confidence in me and therefore kept me in her unit for thirteen years. About three years ago, in a family therapy setting, before the session started, she introduced me to the parents of the anorexic patient by saying, This is Ebsen who has been in our unit for about ten years. It was an endorsement worthy of a thousand praises or an array of laurels.

Catherine Maxworthy? Yes, it was Catherine all right. She is an English girl with whom I worked for years at a general psychiatric ward. She became a team leader at the eating disorders ward and invited, Come and work with me Ebsen. It was about thirteen years ago. I never looked back. Thank you, Catherine, wherever you are now.

Thank you also to all moral supporters, known and unknown.

There have been countless fond and interesting memories in the Eating Disorder Unit. It was a pleasure being part of a dedicated, multidisciplinary team caring for anorexics. A great number of girls and of course only a handful of boys were treated. However, I will mention only one girl whose name I have changed to Mari.

Having been on the ward only two days, she told me on the third night during medication that she would like to meet my children and make friends with them.

But they are a bit older than you, I stated.

Never mind. I will be their baby sister, she retorted with a cheeky smile, which later became familiar to everybody.

Stunned by this unexpected approval, I could only agree,

All right, then.

It is a shame she did not enjoy the luck of a chance meeting with them in either the Croydon or the Bluewater shopping centre. I could not arrange a meeting in the hospital for obvious reasons.

So what did all these people mentioned above see in me? Probably it is my Christian (Methodist) upbringing. If that is so, then I have Grandma Beatrice Nunoo of blessed memory to thank. She was a leading Methodist class leader of her day. My late father, George Agoe Amarteifio, was a pharmacist and a soloist of the main Methodist Church in Accra. My mother, Elizabeth Nunoo, is a staunch Methodist who still reads the Bible and quotes from it.

I am indebted to my wife, Susie,