Show and Tell

http://www.prettythin.com/

In Monday's class we talked a lot about anorexia and bulimia and what those eating disorders entailed in further detail. One of the things Liz Fletcher-Brown talked about also was the existance of "pro-ana" websites. I had neve in my life heard of anything like this at all, and to be honest was shocked that they even existed. With that being said, I became curious to see what these "pro-ana" sites were all about. I expected them to be a bunch of anorexic/bulimic people talking irrationally about how great their "situation" is and how they didn't find it to be disorderly at all, in all honesty. Instead I stumbled upon the Pretty Thin site linked above.

Right off the back it was nothing like I expected. The holder of the site isn't even anorexic/bulimic. Just an average person. His/her friend was the original creator of the site and was actually anorexic herself. She/he decided to take the site over when his/her friend no longer wanted to keep it up. Originally the site was more of a journal for the original owner, but once it was taken over by the current holder it became sort of a live stream for any and everyone that wanted to join. Many of the post consist of everyday struggles and peoples different ways of dealing with them. It's kind of sad to read some of the posts because it seems that some of the people posting take little incidents and do sort of extreme things to help cope with them. Not all or like that, but I definitely saw a few.

I feel like overall this website is a very good way of helping people with eating disorders feel not so alone. The author mentioned in the introductory text that the site was in no way meant to "cure" anyone, but only to help them with what they're going through. Although there are people out there who truly believe that having an eating disorder is totally normal and that there is nothing wrong with their behavior, I also believe that there are people out there that sincerely feel trapped and don't know what else to do. I've never personally had any issues like eating disorders or anything, but I do know what it feels like to feel trapped and just desperately want to be in control of something. My ways of copeing with that feeling were a little less extreme however. I liked eating so that wasn't something I would give up, but I'd do reckless things (not necessarily bad) just things I knew I wasn't supposed to do. I'd purposefulyy defy my parents and I liked it.

I feel like in order for someone to change it needs to be done on their own terms, even if that means never changing at all. It's sad to see people we care about go through not only eating disorders, but anything equally as bad/upsetting. If they're not willing to change than they should at least have outlets such as Pretty Thin to help them with whatever their going through and deal with it in what they feel is the best way possible.

Liz Fletcher-Brown's visit

One of the topics discussed in class on Monday was the high mortality rate of people with anorexia. Before this class I was always slightly confused with the differences between anorexia and bulemia, and I also never knew just how dangerous and even fatal they can both be. They both sounded much like any other type of addiction, only instead of using something they have irrational eating habits.

Like many drug users, people with anorexia and bulemia do not want to be treated because they feel that what they're doing is making their self better. I found this to be particularly shocking. I mean I get the whole thinking you're fat and wanting your body skinnier thing, but all the anorexic people I've seen need to gain weight if anything. I truly do feel bad for people like that. Most all girls, and guys, have some sort of complex or issue with their body but for anorexic and bulemic people their complexs control their entire life. I couldn't even imagine going through something like that.

I also like the thing Liz Fletcher-Brown said about the whole accepting what we can't change thing. I actually think about that allllll the time. I mean don't get me wrong, I'm far from being a porker but my body is definitely not what it was back in high school. But I'm beginning to accept the fact that I don't have 3 hours a day to workout like I did back then, and even if I did I wouldn't even have access to the proper training like I did back then. I do what I can to stay in shape and keep myself healthy, but I can't turn back time, and I will probably never have the body I did back then. While that sincerely bothers me I'm beginning to accept that I need to be satisfied with being just skinny instead of skinny and rock solid with 0% body fat because that isn't happening any time soon. And I'm ok with that!

Question

Is there any difference psychologically between anorexic and bulimic people?

I've always been sort of curious about what the huge difference between anorexic and bulimic people was. From what I understand, bulimic people throw up their food but aren't always necessarily deathly skinny like anorexic people. I'm just sort of confused on the major differences between the two because they seem to both be very similar disorders.

Share the first time you remember encountering--in your own, real life--someone who was gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender.

Growing up in a small country town in Texas, there definitely were very few LGBT people. Or at least I thought. As a child like elementary and middle school times, there really weren't any LGBT people that I honestly knew. Or at least I knew them, but they weren't "out of the closet" or however you'd like to put it.

I had friends that I believed were homosexual, but of course that's not something I'd ever confront anyone about. I felt if they wanted me to know that they would tell me. I'll admit at the first few signs of my friends possibly being gay I was like oh my gosh this is so weird. Not that I thought gay people were weird, but just the fact that these were my friends I grew up with all my life, and they were never gay before, and had boyfriends and everything so I was more like what the hell like how does that just change. It was all quite confusing so I always just left it alone because I figured they had their reasons for not telling me or any of my other friends. It wasn't until my senior year of high school that they finally came out and were like yes I'm gay. Which of course by then I was like duhh. After that things were just the same as they had always been.

A time in your life where you did something that could be considered "activist."

It all started in my sophomore Algebra II class. I had the displeasure of having the absolute worst teacher known to mankind; or at least to the mankind of my high school. I will not mention any names, but believe me when I say this lady was the worst. It was rare that she actually taught something of value in class, she didn't properly check the homework (unless you call a glance at a sheet of paper with virtually anything written on it deserving of a solid A+), when you would go in for tutoring she wasn't even there half the time, she gave you answers on the test, etc. Well words eventually got around about how ridiculous and easy the class was, and I'm assuming parents and school officials began to read further in to the situation. The fact that the lady was a complete lunatic was no secret, even other faculty members could agree, of course they'd never actually tell you that. Anyway, when things started to hit the fan and people started questioning her teaching abilities she decided she was going to make the class 10 times harder and her first act would be to give us a sort of pop test, per say. The class started out normal, her teaching us a "lesson". The lady waqs clueless so hardly anything she ever said was correct, and when we began to question the information she was giving us (which was wrong) she decided she'd just stop the lesson and give us the test which we weren't supposed to take for I don't know probably a few days I really don't remember exactly how long but bottom line that day was not test day. So naturally myself along with every other individual in the class grew infuriated. I'm pretty positive that isn't allowed, nor was it right. If you ask me the woman was bringing a little too much of her personal issues in life in to the classroom and laying them upon her students. As she began to pass out the test we were all looking around in shock. Then my friends and I decided that since the test was not supposed to be that day that we were not going to take it that day. So we stood up, gathered our things, and headed for the door. When the teacher threatened to call the office and get the principle down there I responded by saying "Do it.". I was more than willing to explain why I wasn't going to take that test and how delusional my teacher was coming to be. Basically everyone in the class agreed (minus those two kids who never do anything they're "not supposed to") and when she saw just how serious we were she took back her previous idea and went on with teaching the class. After the incident she went back to the same way she was before, pretty much just going through the motions to get herself through the day. She's still teaches at my high school, and she's still as clueless as ever. Sometimes I look bad for giving her a hard time, because although that was the most drastic measure I had ever taken with her it was not the only time I spoke out, but on the other hand I feel like I was just standing up for what I felt at the time was not fair. I ended up getting a B in the class overall so I must have done something right.