Douglaston teen gets special honor

Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder characterized by refusal to maintain a healthy body weight and an obsessive fear of gaining weight. It is often coupled with a distorted self image.

A recovered anorexic, Saffran and fellow patient Liana Rosenman met each other during treatment at LIJ Hospital, and were both honored for starting Project HEAL: Help to Eat, Accept and Live. The nonprofit organization was founded in 2008 and raises money for others with eating disorders who are unable to afford treatment.

The support group also serves as mentors and consultants for people suffering from the eating disorder and their families. In just three years, Project HEAL has expanded to 17 active chapters across the country, raised more than $130,000, helped five applicants cover the cost of treatment and spoken to over 50 organizations.

“So not only have these two young women had a direct hand at saving a number of lives, but they have also positively changed many others through public and personal outreach efforts,” Glamour Magazine said in its press announcement.

Most of the chapters are at college campuses, although Saffran said The Mary Louis Academy in Jamaica Estates is talking about starting one.

In a telephone interview last Friday, Kristina relayed her path to recovery and why she finds it important to help others.

“I developed anorexia in 2002 at the age of 10,” she said. “That’s young, but unfortunately not that rare.”

She received treatment and said she thrived in middle school, only to relapse at the age of 13. She was hospitalized four times.

Kristina acknowledges that she knows she was never fat. “My eating disorder was never an attempt to fix any horrible flaw,” she said. “It began, rather innocuously, as a way to make myself ‘perfect.’”

During the worst part of the illness, Kristina was 5 feet 6 inches tall and weighed 80 pounds.

Saffran noted that most people suffering from anorexia are perfectionists, and it’s their way of controlling their environment.

Recovery required her to create a new comfort zone where eating pizza was not a crime. “No more measuring cups, fat intake limits or ‘I don’t eat after 8 p.m.,’” Kristina said. “I wanted to be a normal teenager and got rid of my scale.”

She believes recovery is 100 percent possible. “It does take a long time,” she said. “After my physical recovery, it took three to four years.”

Kristina says the warning signs of anorexia are there “if it becomes a pre-occupation about what they are going to eat the next day and if they exercise too much,” she said, adding, to recover, a patient needs a good therapist, a doctor and a nutritionist.

“Today, I eat whatever I want,” she added. “Now, I have a good relationship with food and will never slip back.”

Kristina credits her parents for getting her the proper treatment and providing tough love when it was needed. Her mother, Jane Saffran, said discovering her daughter was anorexic and trying to get her help was a nightmare.

“There are not enough professionals who know enough about the disease,” Jane Saffran said. “It’s appalling there is so little treatment in New York. It must be even worse in other states.”

But she and her husband were not going to give up. “We didn’t want the disease to get the better of her. She was too smart,” Saffran said.

She advises parents to seek help from people who have been through it. “You have to be involved and ask a lot of questions,” the mother said.

Now there is help through Project HEAL, which has raised enough money to hire a director. Kristina says it’s a very small stipend, but a start. The group’s recent luncheon raised $23,000 plus $10,000 for a treatment scholarship from a doctor.

“I’m passionate about the cause and I will continue with my role but I’m not sure what my career will be,” said the sociology major.

Her mother said she is extremely proud of Kristina for overcoming the illness and starting something so positive.

For information on Project HEAL, go to theprojectheal.org or call (334) 804-2437.