A woman suffering from obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) weighs only 77 pounds after believing that everything she ate was poison, according to the Daily Mail.
Samantha Brown, 27, lost half of her original weight and may have also suffered from organ failure after believing that everything she ate, apart from Coco Pops, pizza and crisps, was poison. Her chronic anxiety, a result of her obsessive compulsion to control her food intake caused her abrupt weight loss.
Brown was working as a freelance stylist when her OCD began to manifest. "I was incredibly stressed, doing a job that I hated. The recession had hit and the work was drying up. I was working so hard to make something of my freelance career which involved a lot of rejection. I felt as if I had no control. I began dictating to myself what I could and couldn't eat. As my behavior developed, it became an OCD, where I thought practically everything was poison. It was all rooted in my desire to control." she said.
Although treatable, people suffering from eating disorders are more likely to develop OCD. Brown clarified: "I didn't want to be thin. I wasn't trying to be skinny. Instead, I was convinced that unless I restricted myself into foods that I had decided were OK, I would poison myself. I drew up an 'allowed' list and a 'forbidden' list. Before lone, the 'allowed' list had three things - Coco Pops, salt and vinegar crisps and thin crust pizza. Eventually, all I could manage was Coco Pops. My mom became really concerned. She would try to tempt me with new foods like macaroni and cheese, but all I could do was sob into the plate, pleading with her and warning her that it would kill me," Brown explained.
