Eating disorders are no joke

WHEN I WAS a kid, my mother would take me out for ice cream about once a week. As an 8-year-old, "fat," "skinny" and "calories" didn't mean anything to me.

But those words apparently meant something to my mother, who, after eating ice cream, or any full meal, would tell me about how fat she was and how much she hated herself for eating too much.

As I got older, my mother's poor self-image began to rub off on me, and I began feeling "ugly" and "fat" every time I ate. It was only a matter of time before I became quite sick.

Five years ago, I entered rehab to get treated for anorexia and bulimia. While there, a nurse baby-sat me for an hour after I ate. I wasn't allowed to use a razor or any other sharp object without being supervised, and there were no mirrors anywhere.

The residents never changed out of their pajamas and, without mirrors, nobody even bothered to do their hair or makeup. It was definitely not glamorous or a fun place to be. I was one of the lucky ones who eventually recovered, but according to the National Association of Anorexia and Associated Disorders, there is only a 50 percent recovery rate for eating disorders.

Nicole Richie, Lindsay Lohan and many other celebrities are constantly being mocked in the media for their super-skinny physiques. These ultra-thin starlets become a punchline for Jay Leno or a skit on "Saturday Night Live," and it seems that most young female celebrities are vulnerable to being accused of having an eating disorder.

Despite that, since these famous and wealthy party girls are beautiful and glamorous, their anorexia and bulimia are sometimes passed off as being "glamorous" diseases of the rich and famous. In other words, not taken seriously and made into a big joke by the media. But celebrities are only a very small percentage of the people who actually have these life-threatening illnesses.

According to the National Eating Disorder Association, in the United States alone, nearly 10 million people are suffering from anorexia or bulimia and approximately 25 million more have binge-eating disorder. NEDA also says that a third of female athletes reportedly have attitudes and symptoms that place them at risk for anorexia.

As someone who had an eating disorder and lived through the horrors of feeling fat at 79 pounds, any trivialization of eating disorders upsets me. People must be made to understand that there's more to having an eating disorder than just being skinny. Depression aside, fainting, hair loss and never being able to keep warm are just some of the many serious side-effects.

As eating-disorder activist Lisa Arndt says, "The media claims to both be concerned about eating disorders and to cherish them."

MARY-KATE Olsen may be glamorous but the eating disorder she has isn't. There is nothing even faintly attractive, glamorous or funny about having eroding teeth and gums, or a ruptured stomach or esophagus.

Remember that when you're tempted to make joke about the celebrity or the high-school gymnast with an eating disorder. *

Alison McNelis is a Temple journalism student. E-mail: tua33686@temple.edu.