Local woman weighing 75 pounds and “starving herself to death” to appear on Dr. Phil Monday
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Deanne Coffin, KPVI
POCATELLO — A local woman dealing with an eating disorder will appear on a national television talk show Monday.
Pocatello business owner Robert Allen and his family will be featured on ‘Dr. Phil’ in the episode titled ‘Our Daughter is Starving Herself to Death and It’s Killing Our Family.”
Allen’s stepdaughter, Jordan, has been suffering from anorexia since she was 16 years old. She is now 23 and has been in four different treatment centers with no significant results.
The Allen family was invited to go on Dr. Phil to talk about their struggles with the eating disorder. At the taping, Jordan weighed in at 75 pounds.
According to the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders, eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of any mental illness.
Twenty percent of people suffering from anorexia will prematurely die from complications related to their eating disorder, including suicide and heart problems.
Treatment can cost some $30 thousand a month and many patients need repeated hospitalizations.
“Hopefully Dr. Phil’s agreed to keeping her in a treatment center for as long as it takes to get her healthy – whether it’s a year or two years,” Allen says. “Something that’s been going on for six years – you can’t fix in three or four months. And that’s our frustration.”
A description of the show states:
At 5’6, 23-year-old Jordan weighs a shocking 75 pounds, because she admits she is literally starving herself to death. Jordan says she eats only one cup of cereal and scoop of yogurt in a day, and rarely even uses body lotion to soothe her severely dehydrated skin because she believes it may contain calories.
Jordan says doctors have warned her that she is near death, but she says she actually loves the attention she gets from her eating disorder, even claiming to feel a “high” from doctors telling her just how physically ill her body is. Jordan says her eating disorder is not only her best friend, but also serves as a daily adviser on how to continue her deadly disorder. Jordan claims another reason she is starving herself is for revenge against her mother, Angela, who she claims is a trigger for her anorexia. Jordan’s stepfather, Bob, says he’s spent over $100,000 trying to save Jordan’s life but now is done, because he claims Jordan is a manipulative attention seeker who simply refuses to be saved. Jordan comes face-to-face with her mother and stepfather.
Dr. Phil airs on KIDK Channel 3 at 4 p.m.