Definition:
A compulsion where a person’s eating habits damage their health. The eating may be too excessive, too limited or cycles of binging and purging.
Statistics:
- up to 70 million people worldwide struggle with eating disorders; 90-95% are women
- 95% of those people who have eating disorders are between the ages of 12 and 25
- eating disorders have been diagnosed in girls as young as seven; 81% of 10-year olds in the USA are afraid of being fat
- the average American woman is 5′4″ tall and weighs 140 lbs. The average American fashion model is 5′11” tall and weighs 117 lbs
Personal Impact Story
It is her secret life and soon they will know it, when her mom finds her body, stretched out and lifeless on the floor. She stands in front of the mirror like this everyday doing an inventory of her imperfect body, unable to look herself in the eye, disgusted with herself.
She thinks the problem is with her body, but really it is in her mind. She cannot see how thin she has become with the hate of herself, how her breasts have retreated into her chest, how the skin of her face pulls tightly over cheekbones and eye sockets, how her hips have all but disappeared. She is miserable at the sight of herself, always unsatisfied, and she has brought herself to a point of weightlessness. She cannot hear her body’s groaning; she has made it hungry but will no longer feed it.
She remembers the first time she put her fingers in the back of her throat, heart beating anxiously. Remembers how, index and middle finger together, thumb pulled back, she touched the wall of tissue at the back of her mouth until she gagged. She remembers thinking how the fingers were like a gun, and she hesitantly pushed the weapon further down her throat. Then suddenly her stomach was empty. She had been afraid at first, but it was simple and painless, really. The next day it was easier, she knew what to expect, knew that her stomach would cramp and tighten as she bent over the toilet, that if she ran water at the sink people in the house could not hear. It was her little secret. She told herself she would only do it a few times a week, would continue exercising and only purge occasionally, just as a way to help her body rid itself of calories, to get control of the fat before the fat took control of her.
She stands in front of the mirror, staring at herself, fingers ready at her side. She is only one girl among millions who have skimmed through fashion magazines, overheard fat jokes, who have been treated poorly by boyfriends, failed at dieting, who have suffered sexual abuse from uncles, fathers, or complete strangers. One of many millions of hungry, beautiful girls who stare at their bodies, unable to look themselves in the eye.
And tomorrow she will die.
*the above story is based on facts but is fictional, for actual statistics order 30 Days of Prayer for the Voiceless today
