Eating disorders in adolescents are rapidly increasing. Both girls and boys constantly feel the pressure to be thin whether its from their families and friends, or pressures in the media. This picture represents bulimia and the people in your life that may be adding to the pressures. Because you make yourself sick to lose weight I wrote the names on each finger. The arm is not taking up the whole frame because of the "thinness" people with this disease are trying to achieve. Your hands are also what you use to do 99% of things, so it represents the control bulimia entails.
My roommate and her younger sister both suffer from bulimia. We'll call them Jane and Julie. After talking to both of them separately I realized that they both started making themselves sick for similar reasons, but they both still suffer for different reasons. My roommate Jane had always been fascinated by eating disorders and after doing a project on bulimia she realized that it was a perfect way to lose weight. She said that she liked being able to control how she felt. She never felt pressure from her friends to be thinner, yet they never tried to stop her, and her family was unknowingly approving of it through witty comments.
Julie also started for weight loss, but didn't realize she was starving herself. She said she was somewhat feeling pressures from people she knew because they were insulting her, calling her "ugly" and "fat" so she convinced herself she was and wanted to change. Julie said she never felt pressures from the media, but used pictures of thin models to force herself to keep it up. Like Jane, Julie thinks that some of it might be her family and that her family probably doesn't realize it.
What's scary is that most teens are able to hide the fact that they have an eating disorder so it can go on for months without anyone knowing. After doing it once, it starts a habit. With Julie and Jane it started for weight loss. They may have not felt the pressures from the media, but there is that constant thought that girls must be thin, and in order for someone to like you, you have to be thin. The Barbies we play with, the girls in almost every movie, and especially disney princesses with their unrealistic bodies all pressure us without us even realizing.
Both Julie and Jane still suffer. Its a constant battle. I've noticed with my roommate that whenever she is feeling full she wants to make herself sick, and it takes a lot for her to not run into the bathroom and get sick. She has come a long way, but it will always be in the back of her mind.
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