Oh, good lord, they tortured her and assumed she was just stubbornly "behaving badly" because "crazy."<p>I'm appalled but a lot of the elements of her story are all too familiar. "You are just crazy" is a common accusation for anyone doctors can't readily diagnose and it's a horrible, horrible experience.
As a former/retired chef, who mainly got into food for the sheer glutinous delight that only slightly justifies enduring the backbreaking Industry, this is truly a cruel fate but may have been for the best if she had to deal with eating disorders and mental health issues.<p>Untreated mental illness is the norm in that Industry, as is substance abuse and suicide.<p>So given the abuse (physical and mental) in addition to her eating disorder and mental health problems chances are she probably wouldn't have made her first year working line without severe consequences. Culinary school often depicts a false-reality of the Industry, and rarely do most of its graduates fare better than a seasoned cook who made his way up from the dish pit/prep cook in my experience, because doing that at least vets people who actually can still show up after what is a romanticized view of an abusive, low paying, high stress work environment.<p>I'm glad she was able to identify her illness and despite this affliction she was able to persevere and live her Life as best she can but their are likely no words to adequately describe the ordeal this would do to a cook despite this journalist's best attempts.<p>I normally dismiss Social Media as a viable means for non-vanity based, shallow, vapid forms of communication and will often refer to it as the cesspool that it is, but I'm glad this was there to help her recover. Especially since COVID killed most people's social life.
On top of the tragic circumstances outside of anyone's control, it's mind-boggling how much unnecessary pain and suffering was caused by the medical system.<p>Given that the UK is one of the better countries in medical care quality, why are things still so bad? I understand the disease is rare, but even if it's not diagnosed, surely there's a way to realize that they are just torturing the patient?<p>Also:<p>> On average it takes 10 to 14 years for people to be diagnosed<p>Why so long? The global databases of medical information should contain the relevant symptoms, right?
I wonder what her gut now does that it no longer receives any sort of stimuli in the form of digestion - hunger is partly driven by how empty your stomach and gut is ???.