December 30, 2010

Anorexia awareness...

... taken to a new level.

62 comments:

Freeman Hunt said...

One can look at her picture and realize how silly it is when magazines call regular models and actresses anorexic.

Carol said...

Her face resembled a premature skull.

The Dude said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
AllenS said...

How terrible. How tragic.

coketown said...

Reading stories like this makes me want to puke.

Anonymous said...

Very sad. But this is one of those things that I absolutely don't, and probably can't, understand.

She knew that she had a problem- clearly, posing for the poster would have made it clear. The fix was pretty simple. Why didn't that knowledge lead her to force herself to eat whatever number of calories her doctor suggested?

You can tell me all day long that it was a psychological issue, and that she "just couldn't" or it was really hard for her. Still doesn't make sense to me. I just don't understand why people don't fix problems.

- Lyssa

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Food fight!!!

wv snessi - anorexic sneeze

Ann Althouse said...

"She knew that she had a problem- clearly, posing for the poster would have made it clear."

But we don't know how she thought about that poster. In her disordered mind, she may have reveled in the glory of the giant display: All the world knew that she was the ultimate in thinness! She won! Yay! She embraced it to the death! What dedication! Could the other girls say that?

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Why is a hunger strike not call an eating strike?

That photo looks photoshopped..

TMink said...

Lyssa, she was fracked in the head. Literally. Her brain did not work right. Anorexics have body dysmorphia that makes it practically impossible to see themselves as they are in the mirror or in photos.

The level of delusions that they deal with is quite similar to the hallucinations and delusions of schizophrenics. Thankfully, it is much more compartmentalized.

Trey

CrankyProfessor said...

What's more, it takes YEARS to recover. I have a colleague whose daughter went through a serious battle with anorexia in college (eventually, she spent 2 or 3 months in residential treatment). That was 6 year ago. I saw her last week at a Christmas party, and it's the first time her hair has looked perfectly normal. Her mother tells me that she might have long term heart damage that won't show up for years.

So even if the model was recovering, eating, etc., she wasn't out of the woods.

It's a very sad condition.

Quaestor said...

The words of Isabelle Caro regarding the poster:

I've hidden myself and covered myself for too long. Now I want to show myself fearlessly, even though I know my body arouses repugnance. I want to recover because I love life and the riches of the universe. I want to show young people how dangerous this illness is.

I think we know what she thought about the poster, unless we assume she was lying.

Anorexia is a psychosis and a particularly deadly one at that. In the past society had tools to save persons afflicted by disordered perception. However in our "more enlightened" age people are free to destroy themselves, even if they can't help themselves.

Titus said...

Althouse, I went to Chaukara on State Street last night.

If you haven't gone, go, it is good.

Although, their Roti was bland and not good. I want my Roti huge and hot (like my hog) just from the pan. Their roti came from a bag and was cold, boo.

Did you see me in the window?

It's right next to Jazzman, isn't that fab? Their ties are hideous BTW and so are the rest of their clothes, how sad. It reminds me of Chess King stores from the 80's.

Huggies.

Titus said...

I love Roti and Naany Waany.

I am going to see Eagles Soar in Sauk City today with my niece.

Leland said...

Awareness? She died Nov. 17th.

I want to know what people found her look attractive for modeling? The pictures I've seen remind me of tortured souls found still alive in the Nazi camps. Sure, they are beautiful people, but they needed food and caring, not a dress and a runway.

Anonymous said...

So, she posed for a poster intended to show the dangers of anorexia, but she thought that she was showing off? That still doesn't make sense to me- As Quasator pointed out, she said that she wanted to show the dangers- if she wanted to show the danger, why didn't she recognize, and fix, the danger?

Even if she saw a fat women when she looked in the mirror, how does she reconcile that with what had to be an enormous number of doctors telling her how unhealthy she was? Did she really think that they were all wrong?

I understand that it is a psychosis. But I still don't understand the thought process that allows a person to continue to be victim to that psychosis.

(I realize that I sound hostile towards her- I'm not trying to. I wasn't familiar with her before this, but I'm certainly sorry that she had these problems and met such an untimely end. It just astounds me how the human mind can not fix these things, and I don't understand how people rationalize these issues.)

- Lyssa

Clyde said...

In the nude pic, she looks like Gollum with better hair. I can't understand the particular mental illness that makes someone like that think that they are too fat.

Titus said...

Althouse, do you think you could pick me out in a lineup of gays?

Like they do with criminals?

DADvocate said...

OMG!! She went far beyound what any fashion stylist would want. A woman in our church about the same age died of anexoria about 12 years ago. I thought she was in her 50s or 60s first time I saw her.

I worked with her cousin who described to me many of the behaviors of the anexoric woman. She knew she was on death's door.


Lyssa - that's why it's pathological. It's self-destructive, irrational and chronic. Are any psychological maladies really understandable?

Titus said...

By the way she looks 48 not 28.

Very sad.

kjbe said...

In the past society had tools to save persons afflicted by disordered perception

I'm seriously curious, what was done in instances like this?

Titus said...

I didn't know they still have Happy Hour in Madison. Wicked. I had one drink last night and drove and was paranoid. I haven't had a drink and drove in over 20 years. I miss cabs. And some of the hot foreign cab drivers who I did.

Milwaukee was named #1 drinking city. Fargo was 2 and I think Austin and San Francisco and Reno rounded out the top 5.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

All this talk about food is making me hungry ;)

AllenS said...

I commented a couple of months ago, how a young, beautiful woman up the street committed suicide because she suffered from post-partum depression. There are some things that I just don't understand.

Titus said...

The friend I went with had Chicken Tandoori.

The other friend had Chicken Vandaloo.

The salad we had had lemon poppy seed dressing on it.

The place said it was Nepalese but after sending the menu to my Indian UK husband he said it is basically Indian.

I love Indian food.

I don't think I have seen a fag in Wisconsin yet.

OHHHH, I just take that back. I went to the Kwik Trip in Waunakee and the 80 year old clerk was a big Mary. He was like an old gay Marge Gunderson. "Hi, how are you honey"-he said to everyone. How weird. I think he may of been one of those fags that are really faggy but don't even know they are gay.

Mary Beth said...

Reading stories like this makes me want to puke.

No, that's bulimia.

Unknown said...

I've seen pictures of the guys rescued from Cabanatuan who looked better.

I met an absolutely beautiful girl who had been bulemic at one point; I mean pretty and very well-built, buxom. She knew she was lucky to be alive and I couldn't get over why she wanted to be that kind of thin when she was so naturally gorgeous. She said what TMink did, it's psychological - and it's Hell to kick.

coketown said...

The knee-jerk reaction to stories like this is for the fashion industry to swing the pendulum to the opposite extreme and hire a herd of cows as models. So you can either be morbidly skinny or morbidly fat to look tres fabuleux! Why can't they pick normal weight women to strut the catwalk? JC Penny does it year in, year out.

JC Penny should head the International Commission on Happy, Healthy Models.

I <3 Penny's. And the Bon.

Virgil Hilts said...

I think George Carlin hit the nail on this one. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9_v-o_eFps

Titus said...

I love to floss.

I am getting over $10,000 of dental work done in two weeks.

I will be sedated.

How exciting.

I have to get my Eagle Soaring Sighting outfit put together.

Toodles.

Titus said...

I will actually use any type of appliance to dig in my teeth.

A piece of paper, the pointy end of a wheat thin, the liner of my socks. You name it I will use it to dislodge food from teeth.

Thank you.

Gotta run.

Quaestor said...

K*thy:

It was called involuntary commitment. It's nearly impossible today, though the statutes are still in place in most states.

Anorexia nervosa responds well to some anti-psychotics, especially olanzaprine. The problem is psychotic patients often resist treatment. Unless they're in hospital and forced to take their meds they won't. Our streets are full of sad, ragged people with manageable disorders but they must voluntarily submit to treatment... a classic catch-22 situation.

Anonymous said...

DADvocate said: Lyssa - that's why it's pathological. It's self-destructive, irrational and chronic. Are any psychological maladies really understandable?

It bothers me immensely that they are not. I want organization to my chaos.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Does anybody know if she had Tastykakes when she was little?

coketown said...

Lem, you're treading dangerously close to saying something insensitive.

I'll let you know when you get there.

Ann Althouse said...

"It's right next to Jazzman, isn't that fab? Their ties are hideous BTW and so are the rest of their clothes, how sad. It reminds me of Chess King stores from the 80's."

Eh. I don't think you understand Jazzman. It's a great store. We've loved it *since* the 80s. Not to say it's still the same stuff. You have to pick things out properly and wear them with the right attitude. I shouldn't have to tell you that.

As for that restaurant, yeah, we go there in the summer when we're already on State Street. It's good but not great. The atmosphere is a little sad, like most restaurants.

vnjagvet said...

I have encountered this insidious disease with one of my daughters and one of my nephews.

My daughter got out of it somehow by becoming addicted to prescription drugs. After submitting to treatment, she has now been sober for nine months. She suffered from obsessive/compulsive disorder as a teenager. According to her treating doctors, anorexria is a variant of that disorder as are most addictive behaviors. She suffered with these maladies since she was 19. She will be 31 in January.

My nephew became anorexic when he was 13. He was successfully treated in an in-patient program, graduated with high honors from an Ivy League university, a top tier medical school, and is now 40 and a pediatric critical care anesthesiologist in one of the nation's finest childrens hospitals.

Our family was very fortunate.

Shanna said...

It was called involuntary commitment. It's nearly impossible today, though the statutes are still in place in most states.

You can hold someone for 72 hours relatively easily, but yeah, longer than that is pretty difficult.

My bf in high school's mother went to the hospital for a month for anorexia. She was a serious gymnist in her youth, and there are just certain sports/professions that screw people up in the head about their bodies. Gymnastics, Ballet, and Modeling being three of the major ones. Very sad.

For regular folks, the emphasis is always on skinny and some people just have trouble with balance. I have a family member or two who occasionally get put on "skinny watch" because they have started doing a bit too much working out/dieting. It's just hard to find that balance.

kimsch said...

Compare and contrast to this beautiful healthy woman.

wv: menes

Phil 314 said...

Speaking of drama queen, once again Titus hijacks a thread to talk about me

and:

Eh. I don't think you understand Jazzman. It's a great store. We've loved it *since* the 80s...

sadly Professor goes for the bait.

Titus, I can only hope you're more generous and compassionate person in "real life"

Phil 314 said...

And I've had several interactions with anorexics because of a family member with an eating disorder. It is a sad, perverse way of looking at one's body. It is horrible for the family "Why can't you just eat" as they watch a daughter starve herself to death.

This model may have been in active treatment, aware of her problems and still not able to stop herself and start eating.

KCFleming said...

Sometimes you can't even help someone that wants your help.

Life can be very cruel that way. She tried, and she failed. But she tried.

The brain remains obstinately mysterious.

Christy said...

Long ago, in a far away land, I was the only fat girl in an Overeaters Anonymous group. Well, me and a recovering Coke head who would come to OA when she missed her NA meeting and spend her time bemoaning how coke had kept her skinny.

Everyone else was either bulimic or anorexic. Ours was the meeting the local recovery center would send their graduates to. Over and over I would hear beautiful young women talk about their struggle with weight. Karen Carpenter's story was a revelation when they heard it! They learned they could lose weight the Karen Carpenter way. Somehow they never paid attention to the end of her story. Or they thought their story would end differently.

DADvocate said...

I want organization to my chaos.

Me, too.

Titus said...

I liked the food, not the bread though which was a big disappointment. As far as atmosphere it sucked.

My husband would like all the vege options.

I will walk into Jazzman with an open mind, but voted best men's store in Madison? That is just sad. They don't even have Kiehls or Dr. Hauschka.

MadisonMan said...

I can't go into Jazzman. It makes me feel old, plus my regular clothes are comfy, not fashionable, so all the clerks are probably thinking No way will that cheapskate buy anything and they're right.

I did like Vitruvius back in the day. They had clothes I would wear and I spent money there. Too bad the owner put all the profits up his nose.

We have a dear friend (friend of the daughter) battling anorexia at the moment, and it's pretty scary. I haven't seen her since the disease took control. What do you say when you run into someone with anorexia? I'll probably say It's so nice to see you.

William said...

This is a companion piece with the young lady yesterday who is committed to becoming the world's fattest woman. What is it about women and eating? This shouldn't be some kind of high wire act, involving a delicate sense of balance.....Perhaps men have the same thing with drinking. I've been a teetotaler for all the years since I was a binge drinker.

The Crack Emcee said...

Wait a minute - I thought everyone was too fat! That bitch looked great! We should all shoot for that!

And dying because of not eating is good for the planet! We should all die from not eating. You love the planet, don't you?

What's wrong with you people? This isn't sad. This woman is the most committed, most green environmentalist in the world.

Michelle Obama should use her as an example of what we should all be shooting for.

The Crack Emcee said...

lyssalovelyredhead,

Very sad. But this is one of those things that I absolutely don't, and probably can't, understand.

She knew that she had a problem- clearly, posing for the poster would have made it clear. The fix was pretty simple. Why didn't that knowledge lead her to force herself to eat whatever number of calories her doctor suggested?


You miss the important lesson here, and it's one I've been trying to make for some time:

In a world where EVERYONE is supposedly "nicer" and more "compassionate" than I am, where were her "friends"? Seriously, why is this woman dead? She was famous - surrounded by a billion people who claimed to care about her - did they really? Is there anyone in this culture - other than my supposedly over-the-top ass who's willing to truly extend themselves for others, or isn't it all the lie I say it is? How many people, on this blog and my own, have told me to "calm down" when I say I'm talking about life-and-death issues? What are they trying to achieve by getting me to calm down? To be come more like them - the kind of people who will let a young woman starve herself to death and then, afterwards, all stand around saying how sad it all is because, after all, there was nothing they could do, right?

I say you're all full of shit. Anorexia, cultism - it doesn't matter to any of you. You look for irony, shits and giggles, and nothing more in this life - and, culturally, you demand the same of others.

I will NEVER- NEVER - join you in this madness.

This culture killed this woman as surely as her own hand assisted.

wv: "nowin" - Oh, yes I will.

The Crack Emcee said...

TMink,

She was fracked in the head. Literally. Her brain did not work right. Anorexics have body dysmorphia that makes it practically impossible to see themselves as they are in the mirror or in photos.

And the people demanding we all follow their eating guidelines aren't? What is it about looking like a Holocaust survivor that people today equate with being healthy? It's a fact you live longer with meat on your bones - when was the last time anybody pushed that message?

And why don't you EVER see a fat cultist?

The Crack Emcee said...

So, she posed for a poster intended to show the dangers of anorexia, but she thought that she was showing off? That still doesn't make sense to me- As Quasator pointed out, she said that she wanted to show the dangers- if she wanted to show the danger, why didn't she recognize, and fix, the danger?

Even if she saw a fat women when she looked in the mirror, how does she reconcile that with what had to be an enormous number of doctors telling her how unhealthy she was? Did she really think that they were all wrong?


She, she, she. I ask you again:

Where was the rest of the world?

The Crack Emcee said...

AllenS,

I commented a couple of months ago, how a young, beautiful woman up the street committed suicide because she suffered from post-partum depression. There are some things that I just don't understand.

Yes, you do. You live where people talk of "community" without building one. Where people talk about helping "the blacks" but when I say "help! help! help!" there's no help coming because you'd rather think I'm not likable (or you're being exploited or whatever) than I'm black and I'm asking. You live in a culture where your every impulse NOT to do the right thing is considered "sophisticated" and everything you know is right is "corny" or (as Ann says) "sentimental" and, goodness knows, we can't have that! It just doesn't look modern or something. Like that art critic that hates Norman Rockwell, we must be too cool to be our open American selves again.

It's Western culture starving itself to death.

The Crack Emcee said...

Shanna,

For regular folks, the emphasis is always on skinny and some people just have trouble with balance. I have a family member or two who occasionally get put on "skinny watch" because they have started doing a bit too much working out/dieting. It's just hard to find that balance.

We've got an entire society with head problems and nobody's catching it. It manifests itself by focusing on smokers and anyone with a belt size bigger than yours - and it's obsessive/compulsive: they won't shut up and no one will stop them. We're a nation of nannies for things that aren't important and a nation of libertarians regarding things that are. And it's sick.

I say lock 'em all up - for their own good, of course.

The Crack Emcee said...

c3,

Titus, I can only hope you're more generous and compassionate person in "real life"

Fuck that. Titus, on this thread, is a perfect example of what I see every day regarding a billion issues.

Tom Cruise and John Travolta are in a known "dangerous cult" that has killed people. is anyone coming to their rescue? Why not? Don't you care about Tom and John? Tom's marriage - the first, real one - was destroyed because of the cult. His wife, Nicole Kidman, said so. Where were you?

John Travolta's kid probably died because the cult refused to acknowledge his problems - where were you? or any of John's millions (billions?) of fans?

No, c3, Titus is just fine:

He's all of you, daily, writ large.

The Crack Emcee said...

This is a companion piece with the young lady yesterday who is committed to becoming the world's fattest woman. What is it about women and eating?

Now, now - we mustn't point out their obsessions with food, that they get depressed and kill their kids, that they become "dissatisfied" and destroy their relationships, or that they join cults at a much, much higher rate than men. We must worship them and tell them that, whatever they want, they deserve it. This is what passes for sanity today.

Being a man who notices all this is treason and will be dealt with.

Phil 314 said...

I liked the food, not the bread though which was a big disappointment. As far as atmosphere it sucked.

My husband would like all the vege options.

I will walk into Jazzman with an open mind,


And Titus prattles on. How deliciously cute.

(and prattles about food no less)

CatherineM said...

You are all missing the number one component of Anorexia. Control. I had a bulimia/anorexia (bouts of binge/purge and bouts of starvation) from 11-15 (but really didn't "recover" until my mid 20s).

I was in the hospital for a month due to it and the common denominator was alcoholic parents. What was also common was how hard we tried to be good for those parents (some of whom blamed us for their drinking). Anorexia was about having perfect control in a world/family of chaos. It's all consuming.

It's really not about being thin even if that's how it started out.

CatherineM said...

You are all missing the number one component of Anorexia. Control. I had a bulimia/anorexia (bouts of binge/purge and bouts of starvation) from 11-15 (but really didn't "recover" until my mid 20s).

I was in the hospital for a month due to it and the common denominator was alcoholic parents. What was also common was how hard we tried to be good for those parents (some of whom blamed us for their drinking). Anorexia was about having perfect control in a world/family of chaos. It's all consuming.

It's really not about being thin even if that's how it started out.

The Musket said...

The Crack Emcee said "Yes, you do. You live where people talk of "community" without building one. Where people talk about helping "the blacks" but when I say "help! help! help!" there's no help coming because you'd rather think I'm not likable (or you're being exploited or whatever) than I'm black and I'm asking. You live in a culture where your every impulse NOT to do the right thing is considered "sophisticated" and everything you know is right is "corny" or (as Ann says) "sentimental" and, goodness knows, we can't have that! It just doesn't look modern or something. Like that art critic that hates Norman Rockwell, we must be too cool to be our open American selves again.

It's Western culture starving itself to death. "

So True!! I'll happily offer my explanation on why we don't build community anymore - it's because everything is the government's job - the government will take care of everyone. Government welfare has destroyed the one-to-one, family-to-family bonds and the responsibility that went with it.

Ralph L said...

On the flip side, one of the morbidly obese guys at my Y had bariatric surgery before Christmas, went home alone and died. Body discovered several days later.

Did people have anorexia a hundred years ago? Is it new, or was it just covered up before?

AllenS said...

The Crack Emcee said...
AllenS,

I commented a couple of months ago, how a young, beautiful woman up the street committed suicide because she suffered from post-partum depression. There are some things that I just don't understand.


Yes, you do. You live where people talk of "community" without building one.

You don't have a fucking clue about the people in my community, motherfucker. When people around here need help, almost all of us show up to help. We always have, we always will. You live in a twisted culture. A culture without morals. A culture without men willing to help the women they impregnate. Your life is full of bitterness. The problems that you see in life are caused by you, and you alone. You're just not man enough to admit it, so you keep trying to blame other people. Now put the crack pipe down.

Bruce said...

Crack said:

In a world where EVERYONE is supposedly "nicer" and more "compassionate" than I am, where were her "friends"? Seriously, why is this woman dead?

Because you can't force help on unwilling recipients, even when they are your friends.

She would no more allow that external help, than she would help herself. It still takes her consent - and if her psychosis allowed her to accept that help, it would also have allowed her to pick up a fork.

It's sad, and it's frustrating to be around someone who is destroying themselves. But they are still people with rights, and you can't force help on them that they refuse.