This story is about my former university classmate and friend, Riana. She had a serious medical condition that had made her 250 pounds at a height of five feet. After (a, the) surgery and multiple rounds of hormone therapy, she has been gaining weight every year. I believed that we could help another person to overcome their problem, no matter how difficult or personal it is. I set out to help Riana to surmount her physical and social issue.
Riana was born and raised as a regular child in the countryside of Ukraine. She is from a poor family of farmers. She had lived a regular life until one day. When she was six years old, she fell into a cellar and injured her head. Riana was transported to a hospital in the nearest big city, since there was no hospital in her native town. She had a couple of surgeries on her head and multiple sessions of hormone therapy. She spent almost two months in the hospital. Her life was saved, but her soul was completely injured for the rest of her life. When the child came back home, her grandmother broke into tears. The seventy-two-year old woman could not believe her eyes. Even more, she could not believe that it was her granddaughter. It seemed like her little girl returned from a land of hot air balloons. Ever since that time, Riana had been gaining weight every year.
Riana was very shy, but ambitious. When it was time to make plans about her future career, she made a decision to go to Kiev and get her secondary education there. Even though, nobody from her family had more than a high school diploma. Despite of all her fear and lack of confidence, her excellence in school and hard work made her a student of one of the national universities in Kiev.
It was September 1, 2007. My best friend and I...
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...!” Now it was her turn to give me a concrete answer. Everything squeezed inside me in expectation of her reaction, but I was ready to face her views on my philosophy. She found just several words to respond to my, at least forty minutes, speech. These words were: “I know all these things. You are completely right, but I am not ready.” The last phrase was like a knife stuck into my heart that made me speechless for a couple of minutes.
Now, I still believe that we can help another person (people) to overcome their problem(s), no matter how difficult or personal it is. However, now I understand that this (the) person must have a strong own desire to fight for themselves. I am always ready to give a hand to Riana, but at this time, I have a position not to propose my help first. I am waiting for her to ask me for it, when she is ready to move on with her life.
Described within the vignette is a nineteen year old teenager named Brandy. Similar to girls her age, Brandy has difficulties dealing with her body image and self-esteem. For instance, she experiences hopelessness, isolation, sadness, and anxiety that all contribute to Brandy’s acknowledgement of her physical appearance. She completely overestimates her body size to the point of taking dieting pills then defaulting to purging. During the typical day, the meals are scarce but healthy compared to a bad day full of unhealthy snacking. Lastly, her family predicament is not a supportive one at that. Her mother was obese so she constantly dieted while Brandy’s father illustrated signs of sexual interest although he never physically touched her.
Six months ago, she stood in front of her mirror, examining her body closely. Her stomach was flat and smooth, her waistline was to die for, and her friends and even complete strangers wished they had her shape in her size five jeans. She never had to work out, never played any sports, and she did not know what a squat was. She was happy and confident as her scale read 120 pounds. She smiled at the reflection of herself. She proudly wore her Seton Hall tank top and loved the feel of it. Six months later, she examines herself again. Her stomach has a little bulge and her hips spread slightly. Her skin hangs over her jeans, enticing her friends and family to laugh and pinch at it. The button on those size five jeans always comes undone when she sits down, consequently causing an open fly to embarrass her whenever she leaves class. She had to buy six new pairs of jeans, all of which were size sevens and nines. The Seton Hall tank top that she proudly wore before now has a tear on one of the straps and a hole in the back stitching. Her scale reads an unthinkable 130 pounds; she walks around shell shocked, for the rest of the day.
In the last 50 years, eating disorders have become more and more prevalent in the United States. Society is starting to realize that they do not just affect teenage women, but men and children as well (Caralat, Camargo & Herzog, 1997; Lask, 2000). Solitaire is a novel originally published by Aimee Liu was she 25 years old. It was considered America's first memoir of anorexia, with Liu describing her battle with anorexia as a teenager in the sixties. Gaining is the sequel to this groundbreaking novel, following Liu as she talks with her fellow (former) eating disorder sufferers. In Gaining, Liu talks with one specific person who is my main focus; Hannah Winters. This essay can be considered a case study of Hannah, looking specifically at her life, symptoms, diagnoses, and comparing them to the research that has been done on similar topics. From her story, Hannah could be considered a poster child of eating disorders; following very closely to the diagnosis of anorexia given in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (APA, 2000) and dealing with many of the typical issues that those who have eating disorders deal with.
In “The Fat Girl” Louise struggled with her weight for all her life even after she became slender. Even when she was a girl her mother
Riva’s artistic side helped her go through the Holocaust with at least some entertainment. Riva’s specialty was poetry; poetry even saved her life when she was sent to a hospital because she needed to be kept alive for her poetry. Riva’s poetry helped the girl’s morale that made them want to work hard, so they can get out of the labor camp. This artistic trait made Riva unique and made her stand out from the rest of the girls in her camps.
Because of the life that Christine leads, the role of mother and daughter are switched and Rayona often finds herself watching out for her mom. When Ray comes home from school, she would often learn that her mother had gone out to party. Times like this meant that Rayona had to care for herself. It is not uncommon for one to stay out late; but when it is the parent who is doing so, one must question the responsibility of the person. When Christine leaves the hospital, Rayona shows up and helps prevent a potential disaster. She realizes what her mother plans to do, and that her mom will not crash the car with her on board. While Christine is not very reliable, she has no wish to hurt Rayona either; Ray's prediction was correct. As a child, Rayona must fulfill more obligations than a normal teen. Over the time that leads to her abandonment, Rayona begins to feel displaced from her mother. Christine's increasing self concern causes Rayona to feel her mom is ignoring her, when that is not true at all.
Ardell, Maureen and Corry-Ann Ardell. Portrait of an Anorexic; A Mother Daughter's Story. Vancouver, B.C., Canada: Flight Press, 1985.
Ardell, Maureen and Corry-Ann Ardell. Portrait of an Anorexic; A Mother Daughter’s Story. Vancouver, B.C., Canada: Flight Press, 1985.
There is this girl that I grew up and graduated with. I talked to her almost everyday at school, but we were never that close. I never saw much of her over the summer except when she was out running after a two to three hour softball practice. At my younger sister's volleyball game about a month or two ago, I saw this girl. She was so thin it was almost disgusting. Her skin was pale, her hair was thin, and I could see her ribs through her shirt. She went from looking healthy and physically fit to looking sick and fragile. This is why I chose this topic. People need to pay more attention to this disease. Anorexics are literally dying to be thin.
The story is about Mariam, who is a young girl growing up just outside of Herat, Afghanistan. Mariam lives with her mother, Nana, and only sees her father, Jalil, once a week because she was born as an illegitimate child. Because her parents were not married when she was born. Growing up, Marian resented her life and wished she could be a part of her father’s life more. On Mariam’s fifteenth birthday, she asks Jalil to take her to watch Pinocchio, a cartoon movie, for the first time. When he does not appear she goes and sleeps outside of his house. Mariam’s mother, believing Mariam had abandoned her, commits suicide. Jalil is forced to take Mariam in and she is happy at first, however she is then married off to a shoemaker named Rasheed, who lives in Kabul, forcing her to leave her hometown and move there with him. Mariam is unable to conceive a child because she would always lose the child due to her health complications. As the result of multiple miscarriages, the relationship grows into an abusive relationship.
Christmas eve ended with me crying on our living room floor because my mom wanted me to eat just one of her famous sugar cookies. Her cookies had always been one of my favorite Christmas traditions, but this year when I looked at the cookies, all I could see were calories and guilt. They smelled and looked delicious, but just the thought of taking one bite filled me with anxiety and fear. I consider this the moment I realized my eating disorder had completely taken over my life. I had become obsessed with calories and weight as a way to feel in control of my life and gain confidence. In reality, my eating disorder had slowly stripped me of my independence, health, and happiness. After that Christmas, I finally decided to seek help after months of struggling, and at the age of 17, I began an intensive outpatient treatment program.
Twenty percent of individuals that suffer from an eating disorder don’t seek help and die from their illness, which can be prevented by the use of treatment using things such as psychotherapy, rehabilitation centers, medications, and support from those around them. With these treatments and support systems, disordered eating can possibly be overcome and the patient can be safely restored to health. More than eight million people in the United States suffer from some type of eating disorder, ninety percent of them being women. (Divine Caroline, 1)
Nancy was only four years old when her grandmother died. Her grandmother had a big lump on the lower right hand side of her back. The doctors removed it, but it was too late. The tumor had already spread throughout her body. Instead of having a lump on her back, she had a long stitched up incision there. She couldn’t move around; Nancy’s parents had to help her go to the bathroom and do all the simple things that she use to do all by herself. Nancy would ask her grandmother to get up to take her younger sister, Linh, and herself outside so they could play. She never got up. A couple of months later, an ambulance came by their house and took their grandmother away. That was the last time Nancy ever saw her alive. She was in the hospital for about a week and a half. Nancy’s parents never took them to see her. One day, Nancy saw her parents crying and she have never seen them cry before. They dropped Linh and her off at one of their friend’s house. Nancy got mad because she thought they were going shopping and didn’t take her with them.
Daisy constantly compared her appearance and weight to those of TV actresses, women in the media and models, and found herself to be repulsive. Daisy constantly tried to hide her anorexia from friends, family, nurses and doctors. She soon saw herself developing a very severe case of major depression disorder because of the negative feelings she felt about herself, her life, and her relationships. Daisy’s eating disorder was much more apparent to others, that it masked her major depressive disorder that she was also currently struggling with. Throughout this paper I will discuss the following topics:
Purpose: The purpose of this speech is to inform my audience about the eating disorder anorexia nervosa.