Florence Snyder
“I was four years old when I looked in the mirror and saw an obese, deformed body looking back at me,” recalled a college girl who is, thankfully, doing fine now.
She won’t be at Tallahassee’s Cascades Park tomorrow for the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) Walk because she’s running a half-marathon someplace else. But she’ll be there in spirit. She knows how lucky she is to be among the survivors of a ruthless, complex mix of heredity and environment that causes many boys and many, many more girls to weaponize food and wage war on their minds, bodies and spirits.
Eating disorders are not a lifestyle choice. They are not a fashion accessory that rich white girls like Karen Carpenter and Princess Diana order up from the Nieman’s catalogue. They are among the most serious and difficult conditions to treat. They are the mental illnesses most likely to kill.
Anorexia, bulimia and binge eating disorders do not discriminate by race, gender, ethnicity or family income. Good professional advice is hard to find, and much of what insurance covers will actually make matters worse.
Former congressman and recovering alcoholic Patrick Kennedy has seen all manner of mental illness in his immediate and extended family, so it’s well worth noting that he ” … has always felt that eating disorders suffer the most persistent discrimination within the mental health community in both insurance coverage and research funding. I commend NEDA for raising awareness to this issue and for setting the stage for progress.”
The pink ribbon crowd commands a disproportionate share of the high-priced PR people in the Awareness Industry, so props to the Tallahassee Democrat for bringing the Tallahassee walk to local attention. The second of two NEDA walks scheduled for Florida takes place Saturday, March 11 in Orlando.
These illnesses are so cruel, so cunning, that they can snatch our children from under our noses while they are still small enough to be sitting in our laps. We could use a whole lot more awareness.
