I saw this title on a workshop ad and wondered how American women’s body images have changed since the obesity epidemic burst forth a few years ago. Last night, as Amazon Sage, I visited the secret shame of a few people you would never suspect have this problem. One is a once famous actor whose body now resembles that of an Auschwitz death camp survivor. You might wonder how her distorted body image could possibly be related to an increased emphasis on obesity. That is the nature of anorexia nervosa; an eating disorder that has taken the lives of thousands of girls and young women.
In contrast to bulimia nervosa, an eating disorder in which a person sees their body fairly accurately, yet engages in periodic binges and purges to try to keep down their weight; anorexia literally changes the ability of the person to see their body as others do. She thinks she is fat even as she is dying from starvation. Worse, if you try to confront her on her dangerous delusion, she will deny it. And when headlines shout out how obese Americans have become, anorectics personalize the message, starving themselves even more, in their quest to rid themselves of nonexistent fat. For this reason, anorexia nervosa is a mental as well as a physical disorder and needs immediate treatment.
I will talk more about the opposite problem later; that is, the delusion some people exhibit, when they think they are healthy... but in reality have sentenced themselves to a slow, painful death from the diseases associated with true obesity.
As for now, I will leave you with this thought: If each one of us could see that we are already perfectly who we are and that no one else can possibly be more perfectly us then ourselves, we might be able to let go of others’ expectations (even if it means getting help to do that), and live healthy, fun, and loving lives. Time to wake up, sleepy heads...
