My entire life I've become accustomed to individuals-from those close to me to utter strangers-reprimanding my figure. You have no idea how many times I've heard the expression "you should eat more" and grown weary of it. Though the constant concern about my weight was prevalent throughout my childhood and still is to this day, it never prepared me for my own mother to antagonize over it. I distinctly recall the first time I had been placed under scrutiny by her concerning the possibility of an eating disorder. We'd been at a restaurant and I'd just finished my meager meal-I liked to keep portions small and simple to avoid a large calorie intake-when I excused myself from the table so I could use the restroom. Upon my return she abruptly asked in an icy tone, "Are you throwing up?". I reeled back in sheer surprise and earnestly denied her accusation. However, since then she's been more cautious on observing my diet and my bathroom breaks, sometimes to the point where she times them or stands outside the door. A few times she's threatened to take me to the hospital if I didn't stop "whatever it was I was doing with my body".

        That's why the article "The Truth About Eating Disorders" by "Lisa" resonated deeply within me. Her article addressed exactly what the titled claimed it would, and dug deeper into the motivation for adopting an eating disorder others consider lethal to one's health. She starts off by recalling her time of recovery at the Torrance Memorial Hospital, including her feeling immense resent at the program to come with her stay. She meets Eva, a girl suffering from anorexia, and describes that even then "I compared every part of her to me...". She goes on to explain the stress on outer appearances in today's society, and the ultimate desire to achieve the ideal body-no matter the method of gaining it. She also writes of the fear that comes with such an "all-consuming" ailment, and how, when it comes down to it, you feel sincerely that weight loss takes priority over your well-being. 

       Although I'm not bulimic and I've never been treated as an anorexic, I can relate to the struggle of being so fixated on my appearance that everything else might as well have been discarded. Every calorie arose an internal war, and a journal documented my strict, low-calorie diet. Some days I'd skip food all together, while others I might have eaten a clementine or two to ward of suspicion from others concerned for me. As "Lisa" wisely words, "The bottom line is that eating disorders are deadly. They befriend you then stab you in the back. They become a shoulder to lean on until they turn and watch you fall". Starving yourself seems like an efficient method of losing weight until the moment it takes you too far and you wake up staring blankly at the white ceiling of a hospital, tucked under the sheets of an unfamiliar bed and plugged into various machines that surround and tower above you, their multifarious dials and buttons forming the disapproving face you've grown used to over the months.

     "The Truth About Eating Disorders" by "Lisa" is a well-written piece that effectively targets the mentality behind eating disorders from experience and warns of the consequences of partaking in them. It shook me emotionally and encouraged me to begin to embrace myself for who I was rather than chasing an ideal that was impossible to achieve without endangering and maybe even ending my life. It is this element in her writing, along with her elaborately woven words and sturdy sentence structure, that make for a phenomenal piece concerning a vital issue in today's society.