Eating disorders.
Its something that will hit close to home for many of us and certainly something we all should be thinking about. After being reduced to tears, not a hard feat i have to admit, by a program about young teenagers (11-16) with anorexia i was compelled to write something.

Its a sad state this world is in but what can we do about it? Speak out! March down the street naked! Ok don't do that you might get me into trouble, but seriously we may be individuals but together we have the potential to turn a drop in the ocean into a tsunami. Be comfortable with who you are and encourage others to be too, boycott these stupid shops that only seem to go up to a size 8. Stop squeezing into the jeans that are two sizes too small, (we can tell!) leave the faddy diets to the insane and eat healthily and exercise! yes sorry to have to say that but we've all got to do it, and don't panic you don't have to go for a grueling hour in the gym, its easier than that i promise.

Any way, i digress, (it happens often so bear with me) how have we got to our children suffering with this horrible illness? One of the young girls said it wasn't anything to do with the images they see in the media and i have to agree to some extent, our obsession with "the right size" is occupying more and more minds than it has the right to, but its not the main and sole contributer to illnesses such as anorexia, which seems to be the best known, even though there is unfortunately more.
What seems to dictate what poor souls suffer from an eating disorder is the attitudes of ourselves and those close to us, such as family and peers. Although i have to say this is not always the case and each individual is in fact that, an individual.
From a personal point of view (here my ugly big head rises again!) it was my own interpretation of what is "normal" that led to my difficulties with my bogy image. Sorry, that was meant to say body!

Sorry for that lovely mental image, again back to the point, its a difficult thing to describe not feeling "right" in you're own body and feeling the desire to change it so much that it occupies all you're thoughts and takes over any form of human being that you once were. It was may factors and events that led to me starving myself and then overeating in a nearly unbreakable cycle.
Low self esteem led to me not "fitting in " and therefore wanting to change. The constant talk of how "pretty" these malnourished sticks on the front of magazines were didn't help though.
As if, i bet if they sneezed we'd be picking up bits of their insides for weeks. Thin does not mean pretty in the same way that being overweight does not make you ugly or any less of a human than others.

So were does that leave us?
Well we've got sticks walking up and down the catwalk, bogy images, obsessions with sizes and shops that cant count in double figures so there you have it, be comfortable with with who you are and you wont have to put up with me writing things like this.

Learn more about this author, Sara Green.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.

---

Add your voice

Know something about How to prevent eating disorders?
We want to hear your view. Write now!