After everything I have gone through with my sister, I have decided that I want to do anything I can to help to make sure that no one else has to go through this. The media portrays women in a terrible way. The only women you find in the media are tall, skinny girls. To the media, this is "beautiful." What the media does not realize is that they are causing other girls to hate the way they look because they cannot look like these models. This is unacceptable and needs to be changed. No woman should ever hate herself because she doesn't look the way the media thinks she should. I did some research and I found two petitions that are there to let the media producers know what the images they are putting out there are doing to these women. These petitions are there to make sure that all new media images that are put out are not photoshop or airbrushed in anyway. All the models in any media source should be as natural as possible. I signed both petitions and if you want to find a great way to help out or if you just want to learn more about this issue, both of these sites are very helpful.
4 Every Girl: http://www.4everygirl.com/the-petition.aspx
The National Eating Disorder Information Centre (NEDIC): http://nedic.ca/petition-cast-responsibly-and-retouch-minimally
Monday, April 14, 2014
Life Now
It has been three years since the day my sister was in the hospital and life has gotten a lot better. She went through some therapy and she had a lot of support from her loved ones. She is now healthy and happy. She says she does have moments where she doesn't like the way she looks because she notices a skinner girl on TV or in a magazine but she quickly goes to someone she loves and talks to them. This helps her to stay out of that dark place that she does not want to go back to. She has stopped herself from buying magazines and she now only watches TV in her downtime and she stays away from any channel that shows fashion shows or uses models in any way. This has helped her out a lot. My sister graduated from high school last year and is now studying at a university to become a psychologist so that she can help anyone that is going through the same thing she went through. She is better than she was before. We decided to start a few support groups for any girls that are in the same position that my sister was. We want to make sure that no one else has to suffer like my family did.
You Should Care
This image shows how most women view themselves. A beautiful women looks in the mirror and sees nothing but something she considers disgusting. No women should ever feel this way. This is why all us men must stick together and do something about it. You may not know it but a woman you love could look in a mirror and see exactly what this woman sees. You should never want someone who means the most to you to have to suffer. I wish I had known about all of this stuff before my sister harmed herself. I feel like if I had been better informed then I would have been able to notice the changes in her sooner and she wouldn't have gotten as bad as she did. You should start caring now so that you do not have regrets later like I did. This is something that is better and easier to stop before it becomes a big problem than it is after it becomes a problem.
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.radicalparenting.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2012%2F01%2FBody-Image.jpeg&imgrefurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.radicalparenting.com%2F2012%2F01%2F26%2Fbody-image-awareness-for-girls%2F&h=640&w=480&tbnid=1xLkMwU1vFKLRM%3A&zoom=1&docid=HawWK-teFFP1iM&ei=Yj5MU7T6BcTB0QHCloGoAQ&tbm=isch&ved=0CGQQhBwwBQ&iact=rc&dur=135&page=1&start=0&ndsp=20
Her Reasoning
After the doctor told us what was wrong with my sister, we were all worried about what would happen to her. The doctor explained that she was going to be okay but they needed to keep her in the hospital for a couple of days to monitor her health and to make sure she hadn't caused any long term damage. We were so happy she was okay but the first question that popped into our heads was "Why?" Why would she do this to herself? She is beautiful and always has been so it never made any sense to us why she would do this. The doctor told us we were allowed to go in and see her and we didn't know if we should run and hug her and be happy that she is alright or if we should yell at her for doing something crazy like that. We all had so many emotions at that point. When we walked in, we were all crying. My sister looked so weak and vulnerable. I never thought I would see her like that. She didn't even let us say anything; she just started to explain herself. She told us that she was upset because someone in school had made a comment about how they thought she was "getting fat." After that comment was made, she began to notice all the other skinny girls that she saw in school that she believed were so much prettier than her. Then, she began to notice how every magazine cover had a skinny, gorgeous girl on the cover and every television commercial that used skinny, attractive models to show off their products. I couldn't believe what my sister was saying. She was never one to let anyone control the way she feels about herself. So, I was surprised at what she was saying. She told us that what she was doing just started as her skipping one meal a day so she could lose a little bit of weight but once she saw the results, she liked how she was starting to look. This caused her problem to escalate. She soon began working out more and then at some point she just stopped eating all together. She was doing this to herself for a little over a month and none of us had noticed. I was so mad that I couldn't see what was happening to my baby sister right under my nose. I never thought that the way the media portrays women would cause my sister to harm herself.
Bulimia and Anorexia Nervosa
Some common warning signs of Bulimia Nervosa:
Some common warning signs of Anorexia Nervosa:
Some common warning signs of Anorexia Nervosa:
My Sister's Problem
After 911 was called and my sister was rushed to the hospital, it was like everything was happening in slow motion. I sent all our friends home with the promise of keeping them updated and I quickly rushed to the hospital. On the way there I called my brothers and my parents to let them know what was going on since none of them were home when she collapsed. I got to the hospital and waited for the rest of my family to arrive. Once they got there, we rushed to the desk to find out anything we could. The lady that was working told us that she did not have any new information and that we would have to wait for the doctor to finish the testing on my sister before we were able to see her or know what was going on. We were stuck waiting in the waiting room praying that my sister would be alright. I kept replaying everything over in my head trying to figure out what could've happened that would have caused her to just randomly collapse like that. That is when I remembered how skinny she had gotten. I turned to my family and told them everything I had noticed. They were shocked that I did not say anything sooner but they understood that I wanted to talk to her about it first to find out what was going on. My mom was upset that she had never noticed a difference. My sister would wear baggy clothes around us to try and hide how skinny she was getting and it had worked. After realizing this, we all sat there more worried than before. She never skipped a meal; we all ate dinner together so we know she ate. What we didn't notice is that she was skipping every other meal of the day and she would only eat a small portion of her dinner claiming she felt "sick" or she just "wasn't hungry." It took the doctor 30 minutes to finally come out to us and explain what was going on. Those were the most nerve-wrecking 30 minutes of my life. The doctor had explained to us that the reason my sister collapsed was because she wasn't eating and if she did, she threw up whatever she was forced to eat so her body wasn't getting any food or nutrients. We were shocked. My sister never went straight to the bathroom after eating dinner so we never noticed. She would always go straight to her room saying that she needed to start homework. She has her own bathroom attached to her room. That is how she managed to do it without us knowing. Her doctor explained to us that she had a condition called Anorexia Nervosa. Anorexia is a dangerous eating disorder that consists of a woman starving herself and/or exercising aggressively in order to get skinnier. I couldn't believe my sister would do this. We were all surprised.
Eating Disorders
Self-body image issues can cause a woman to resort to many different ways of changing herself so that she can finally be happy with the way she looks. One of the most common way is with an eating disorder. Women will starve themselves or force themselves to throw up in order to match the standards of society. One eating disorder that women can have is Bulimia Nervosa (aka bulimia). Bulimia is when a person "secretly binges — eating large amounts of food — and then purges, trying to get rid of the extra calories in an unhealthy way" (Mayo Clinic). A person that has bulimia will gladly eat food until they are beyond the point of being full then they will go into the bathroom and force themselves to throw up. This disorder can cause a lot of medical problems. For example, a person can become extremely dehydrated, develop heart problems, suffer severe tooth decay, have digestive problems, anxiety and depression (Mayo Clinic). Another eating disorder is Anorexia Nervosa (aka anorexia). Anorexia is when a person begins to "obsess about their weight and the food they eat" causing them to want to "attempt to maintain a weight that's far below normal for their age and height" (Mayo Clinic). A person that is anorexic either starves themselves or exercises aggressively in order to lose weight. Anorexia is not something to take lightly. A person can die from this disorder because their body is not receiving any food or nutrients that it needs to function properly. Other complications due to anorexia are anemia, heart problems, bone loss, gastrointestinal problems, electrolyte abnormalities and kidney problems (Mayo Clinic). These disorders affect a lot of people. People break under the pressure of society and resort to something like this in order to fit in. You may not care about self-image problems but if someone you loved was going through this, you would care. So, why not care before something bad happens?
For more information on Bulimia Nervosa you can visit the Mayo Clinic's website at http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/bulimia/basics/definition/con-20033050.
For more information on Anorexia Nervosa you can also find it on the Mayo Clinic's website at http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/anorexia/basics/definition/con-20033002.
For more information on Bulimia Nervosa you can visit the Mayo Clinic's website at http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/bulimia/basics/definition/con-20033050.
For more information on Anorexia Nervosa you can also find it on the Mayo Clinic's website at http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/anorexia/basics/definition/con-20033002.
My Story
Growing up, I never really cared about how huge of an issue self-body image is. It never really affected me. I grew up with 3 brothers so when my mom told us she was having a girl, we were all overly-excited about finally having a little sister. I was always the closest to her as she grew up. I protected her and made sure she never got hurt. She has always been a beautiful girl from the inside out. She has the biggest heart and cares about everyone and everything. The day we found out she was having self-body image issues was a very hard day. My sister was 16 at the time that we found out. None of us had ever realized anything different about her. To us, she was always the same bubbly person she always was. She was always able to cover everything up; that is how we never noticed. I was the first to notice a change in her. One day, over the summer, I was getting ready to go swim with a couple of friends and I invited my sister and her friends to join. They gladly accepted and came down in their bathing suites ready to swim. When my sister walked outside I noticed how skinny she had gotten. My sister is very athletic so she has always had muscles and curves and she was beautiful that way. So, when I saw how skinny she had gotten I was surprised. I knew that she worked out all the time because she was in so many sports, so of course she was skinny. However, the skinny I saw was the unhealthy kind. It looked like she hadn't eaten in days. I was really concerned but decided not to mention anything because we were in front of all our friends. I told myself that I would ask her about it later. I was so caught up in everything going on that I completely forget to ask her and a couple of nights later we were out on the back porch with all our friends just talking and hanging out. One of our friends had challenged her to a race and she happily accepted. They began to run across the yard when all of a sudden my sister collapsed. No one knew what was happening. I quickly ran to her and realized how pale and fragile she looked. Her breathing was so shallow that I could barely tell if she was actually breathing or not. I was so scared that something bad had happened to her. One of my friends quickly called 911 and she was taken off to the hospital. This is when I learned about my sister's problem.
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