Madeleine Billings, of Denver, Colorado, died in her sleep on December 30, 2021, after struggling for years with an eating disorder.
Parents of a 23-year-old who died of anorexia after starving “half her life” detailed the horrific realities of her illness and admitted that it was “brilliant” but “psychotic”.
Invoices Madeleineof Denver, Colorado, died in his sleep on December 30, 2021, after struggling for years with an eating disorder.
Now her parents, Nick and Lisa, have shared heartbreaking details from her final days, explaining to the Today program in a new interview that she felt Maddie wasn’t “there” anymore. “She was brilliant, but in the end she was psychotic. I mean, the conversations I had with her in the last week of her life, Maddie wasn’t there. She was all a disease, ”said Nick, 53.
Madeleine died in 2021 at the age of 23.
She explained that she was “obsessed” with accidentally taking a sip of regular juice instead of a diet drink. ‘That brain was obsessed with it and if she inadvertently she drank a sip of regular drink instead of the light. And what did that mean? I talked to her for hours on consecutive days about that topic, “she continued.
Lisa, 54, added that although her daughter knew the dangers of her condition, the “cruel and critical rumors” of the “eating disorder” always came back. Parents said they noticed something was wrong with Maddie when she was 13.
The picture with his brothers.
She had gone on a trip to France with her grandparents, where she had met another teenager with an eating disorder, which her parents said had impressed her. Then, the summer before eighth grade, she went to the soccer field and when she got home, Nick and Lisa said they saw a big difference in their daughter.
“When we picked her up, she had lost so much weight she didn’t quite look like herself,” said Lisa. Her parents explained that she put her in therapy and that she got better. But when she entered high school, the eating disorder returned.
Parents with young people. She fell ill at 13 and died at 23.
‘He just started coming back and we saw him coming back. There was no denial around this disease at any time. We threw away everything we had, “said her father. From the outside, her mother and father said that Maddie looked completely normal: she was an A student, she played field hockey and soccer and he seemed “apparently sane”.
But inside, it was a daily struggle. Nick remembered how stressful dinner time could be, when he and Lisa had to force Maddie to eat. In addition to the eating disorder, he also suffered from anxiety. At her lowest point, Maddie dropped to 75 pounds, as her parents went out of their way to help her. “The disease stole his personality and then his life,” he summed up.
The mother with Maddie, when she was 10 years old.
Nick said: ‘We had her hospitalized. We had it in external consultation. We had it in therapy. We made her take various drugs. And it got worse. I know conventional treatment, I guess, works for some, but it didn’t work for her. “When the pandemic struck in early 2020, her parents told Maddie, who was attending college at the University of Colorado after taking herself. graduated from secondary high school, it got worse because she often complained of feeling alone.
During the last year of her life, her mother said that Maddie “got very sick,” explaining that she often fainted when she got up because her heart rate was so low. She said her gastrointestinal system had “shut down” and she was rushed to the hospital on three separate occasions.
The parents staged a terrible battle, but could not save her.
“We really feel like our daughter is dying in front of us”, Nick recalled, with Lisa adding, “She’s been a superwoman for so long, and then it was like the wheels came loose and it all started to go wrong … “It was physically a complete disaster in the end.”
He was on a waiting list at an eating disorder treatment center in Denver at the time of his death. Now, Nick and Lisa talk about his condition. hoping to warn other parents about the dangers of anorexia.
The young woman weighed 34 pounds.
“If you have a kid who really performs and you find meth, ring the alarm bell and do something. But if you have the same baby and he’s not finishing his meals, or he’s just eating certain things, you walk past him and say, “Oh, no big deal,” concluded Nick.
“” This disease will kill you. It isolates you, starves you and kills you, “she concluded.
what is anorexia
Anorexia is an eating disorder and a mental health condition. People who are diagnosed try to keep their weight as low as possible by exercising too little or too much.
Men and women can develop the disease, however, it usually begins in mid-teens. People with anorexia may have a distorted body image, thinking they are fat when in fact they are very underweight.
The causes of the condition are unknown, but sufferers have low self-esteem, a family history of eating disorders, or feel pressured by society or the workplace. Long-term health complications can include muscle and bone problems, loss of sex drive, kidney or bowel problems, or a weakened immune system.
Treatment for anorexia can include cognitive behavioral therapy
Source: Clarin
