When I was younger I never understood the fascination and obsession some girls had with being thin. I was nowhere close to a size zero and had no intentions of becoming that size in my near future. My reasoning came from the stick figure models on covers of magazines and the rumors of how they became so thin as well as firsthand experience.
My family and I moved to Jasper, Indiana when I was in middle school. At my previous school I was involved in Strings, which is an organization that introduces string instruments to students. I started playing the violin when I was in the fifth grade. When we moved to Indiana there was an organization through the school which taught basically the same thing as the Strings organization. I was introduced to my new teacher and began taking lessons immediately. Throughout the lessons and getting to know each other we quickly bonded becoming very close, and she is like the sister I never had today.
Throughout the years I noticed her lack of eating as well as substantial weight loss every time she would come back and visit my family and me. I encouraged her to get help but she always denied the possibility of her having an eating disorder. In fear of pushing too hard, I just told her how concerned I was because of her rapid weight loss. She assured me she was eating and that she wasn’t starving herself. A few weeks later my mother told me she withdrew from college (University of Evansville) for a medical leave. She had finally taken my advice and gone to the doctor who confirmed her eating disorder. After the confirmation she then attended the doctor’s office many more times for check-ups to make sure she was eating like she should.
The doctor confirmed her with both Anorexia and Bulimia Eating Disorders. She currently weighed eighty-eight pounds and she was a sophomore in college. She had had both these disorders for almost two years. The process of getting back to eating normally wasn’t an easy process, but with the help of a nutritionist and her family she knew she wasn’t alone.
The slow process involved a lot of patience and encouragement from her friends and family. She started off slowly going to see a nutritionist weekly to ensure she was eating meals fit for her lifestyle. The nutritionist warned her to start slowly because her body was not use to eating meals as a normal person’s body would be. She started off eating small portions throughout the day of vegetables and fruits. These provided her body with the essentials she needed to help her body get back to being normal. Many severe cases of anorexia involve the patient being strapped down and force-fed food. This circumstance never occurred with her since she realized her position was serious and she needed to turn her life around. After attending, and working with the nutritionist for over a year monitoring her eating habits, she was finally on her way back to a normal life.
I remember, after she got over her anorexia, her intense love of vegetables and fruit. When my mother knew she would be coming to our house, at any given point during the weeks, there would always be a vegetable tray waiting her arrival. She loved coming to our house and has told me without my persistence of encouraging her to get help she would not have gone to the doctor. Once she attended the doctor he told her if she had waited at most a few weeks to come in she would not have survived. She constantly thanks me for my persistence and saving her from making a bad decision.
Today, she is happily married with a 10 month daughter of her own. We are even closer now than before and refer to each other as long lost sisters. She means the world to me and has definitely been someone I have looked up to since the moment I met her. It’s meaningful to think how a few simple encouraging words to a close friend can help them turn their life around and realize they need to fix their mistakes before it’s too late.
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