Schrijver Jante Wortel: 'Ik wilde ziekelijk dun zijn, niet zomaar dun'

Jante Wortel’s eating disorder stemmed from a lack of control in her life. “I needed a project where I could decide for myself whether it would succeed or not.” That became eating. “I could clearly see that at a certain point things weren’t right anymore, and I didn’t think it looked good either. But I was absolutely terrified of changing anything in my regime.” When her GP said: “You have anorexia,” Wortel thought: “That can’t be.” She didn’t recognize herself in the stereotypical image and felt “not sick enough.” According to her, an eating disorder is much more complex than just eating: “It is about a desire to be morbidly thin, not just thin.” Behind that lies the need to be exceptional in some way. That is why she believes the perception needs to change, especially since eating disorders are occurring at increasingly younger ages and the numbers continue to rise. 0:00- Introduction and the creation of the book 7:56- How Jante Wortel's eating disorder manifested for her 19:53- The layer beneath an eating disorder: trusting yourself and others 26:10 - The holiday to Norway as a turning point in the illness 32:58 - After the illness: can a disturbed relationship with food truly fully recover? 46:07 - Unification of mind and body as a reference point and recognizing signals that things are not going well Every Friday, presenter Pieter van der Wielen welcomes a leading guest from a field that is important for our time. How do they view life? What do they see as the key challenges of our time? And what can we learn from them? Presentation: Pieter van der Wielen Editors: Merel van Waalwijk van Doorn Video: Cato Visser Photo: Stijn Kuiper NRC Instagram:   / nrcnl   NRC TikTok:   / nrc_nl   NRC LinkedIn:   / nrc-nl   NRC Facebook:   / nrc   You can find all NRC stories on the website: https://www.nrc.nl/