HIGH TIDE
Redondo Union High School Redondo Beach, CA May 19, 2017 Vol. XCVII Edition 15
Food for thought Anonymous students fight to recover from eating disorders by Martha Farah For confidentiality, the sources are referred to as Jane Doe and Marie Major. After seeing an advertisement with a phone number listed for people who need help, she felt as if she should tell someone what was going on. Embarrassment filled up inside her at the thought of confessing that she skips the majority of her meals, but she decided to seek help anyway. Through therapy, student Marie Major discovered that there are other ways to cope with having an eating disorder, changing her life. However, unlike Major, who has recovered, Jane Doe is currently still struggling with an eating disorder. At the end of eighth grade, Doe was diagnosed with EDNOS, or ‘Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified.’ “It basically means that you have different [aspects] from different eating disorders. For me personally, I have the binging aspect of bulimia. I’ll eat a lot, but instead of puking, I’ll just not eat for days, so that’s a part of anorexia,” Doe said. According to Doe, she has a negative view of her body, which gives her a false perception of herself. “I know that I’m not a huge girl, but I see myself as this huge girl,” Doe said. “[EDNOS] messes up the image of yourself a lot. You see these bodies that you want to have, but you realize that you don’t have it. You compare extremes and it’s not good.” As of now, Doe believes that her confidence is the best it has ever been, but it used to be very poor. “I used to not want to go outside without full clothes on,” Doe said. “I used to wear baggy clothes because I was afraid of showing my body. I used to cover everything I could because I didn’t want to be seen.” Having EDNOS can affect Doe’s behavior when doing activities. “It sucks. I think for me, it always revolves around what I’m going to eat next or how many calories I’m burning. It’s ridiculous because [EDNOS] goes in everything I do,” Doe said. Eating can be difficult at times for Doe, so when she eats, changing her perspective of eating food can help her at times. “What helps me is that I think of [the food] as fuel to my body instead of calories,” Doe said. “I would say, ‘I need
food for this test today, or I need this food so I could go to practice today and not pass out.’” Doe takes medicine and goes to therapy to help her with EDNOS, but her close friends are also an important source of help. “They’re very supportive, helpful and kind. They didn’t force me to do anything I didn’t want to do,” Doe said. “If someone has an eating disorder and they have friends that aren’t super close, then don’t tell them. They don’t need to know because if they’re not your real friends, they’ll judge you.” At times, Doe finds it hard to talk about the hardships that come with her eating disorder to other people. “You can’t talk about it because people would think that you’re asking for attention if you tell them, but I don’t want attention for it,” Doe said. “I just want to be better.” Through her experience with EDNOS, Doe believes she has become a better person. “I think I’m better to other people because I realized that they might be going through similar things, so I’m kinder to them,” Doe said. For Major, she had anorexia from the end of sixth grade to the beginning of eighth grade. Because of this, she suffered from undernutrition, which means she ate a little bit of food but not enough to get the daily calories she needed to be healthy. “I would always feel tired. I got lazy and I felt like I TO PROTECT THE IDENTITY OF THE ANONYMOUS SOURCES, THE INDIVIUAL PICTURED IS NOT A SOURCE IN THE STORY. PHOTO BY EDEN MILLAN couldn’t move because I wasn’t eat-
[Story continued on pg. 24]