Below is an episode of Intervention on anorexia. Please view ALL parts below and post your analysis of her case here for EXTRA CREDIT! You have until Monday night for any comments to count as credit.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
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okay so i guess i am first? unless i am not soposed to post here. but anyways, so from the very beginning, she stated that she loves to feel empty. her family stated some things such as her teeth were rotting and she had birttle hair. some back ground thing i found interesting was her mom was a control person, which brings back the "control" factor. we can discuss that later. her father, was the guy that was only her father when she was winning an award or doing well. these atributes from her parents seem to reflect as some causes for her disorder, another huge factor or factors was the twin factor and rape factor. her twin seemed to be the more "outgoing" twin while she was the shy one. also in college, her sister seemed to be doing well while she wasnt. her parents divorced which seems to play another roll in her anerexia. then while at a party, she was slipped a date rape drug. this was catastropihic! emotionally and physically. not only did she not press charges, she kept it inside her and didnt tell anyone! this could result in an cognitive dysfunction if you ask me. uhm after the rape, she began to be more critical of herself and begain deiting. she would eat half an apple and use 75 laxitives!!! she went to treatment however she relapsed. a pleasable cause was because she liked the pain involved with anerexia. she embraced the disorder because it was her "own". seems like some shaky personality issues. another thing which caused her a great deal of anxiety would be family get togethers. is this seen as comobidity? she would isolate herself from the family. the sicker she gets, the more adamant she gets about her sickness or disorder. another factor i noticed was she recieves pressure and criticism from her mother. this could cause anxiety and further develop the disordeR? she said that today she had only a peach and some coffee!!! only 800 calaries in a day! she is contantly moving so to waste calories. she stated the only reason she eats is so she doesnt die. also another issue she has is she rarely eats around other people. another confidence issue it seems. also could be a self effacacy issue also. this is big. she said that when she eats at night, she feels like she won something. another control issue. she eats no protien, no dairy or carbs. SHE HAS MANY FOOD RITUALS!! such as rips with nubmers, eats dark ones first. eachs 5 onions then 18 letteces, uhm she stated she was scared of change and what it would do for your body. she also said she doesnt deserve this food and doesnt deserve pleasure. another obviose self effecacy conflict. uhm another thing that points to control issues was she said that she needs control so she does that by controling her calorie intake. uhm what else do i wright?
Her sisters overshadowed her in everything they did, at least thats what she believed. Living with three other girls would create an extremely competitive environment, and she needed to focus her energy on something she could be good at- for her it was controlling her food intake. She had also been surrounded by control because of her mom, so for emily this seemed like a necessary thing. her family only rewarded victories, which is something she believed she couldn't achieve. The fact that her parents critised her hurt her self esteem, and seeing how happy her sisters were only made it worse and she became depressed.
Then when she went to college her parents divorced, and she was brutally raped. This felt worthless and used. She didn't tell anyone, instead she kept her feelings to herself, and probably blamed it on the fact that she was useless. Blaming herself would only lead to feeling even more self conscious than she had before.
When this happened to her she probably felt like her life had been interrupted, while everyone else's life was just starting to bloom. Her sisters all started to get married and have kids, yet Emily had nothing. When she developed an eating disorder, she could claim it as hers and feel special about it. It made her stand out from her sisters. Also, since she was lacking control in her life, food intake she could always control. She could take care of her eating disorder, even when she couldn't care for anything else. And when she wasn't eating, she was working out to burn off the nonexistent calories she had consumed.
Her body image was completely distorted. She believed people could see her stomach, and would judge her by that. Emily would spend a lot of time preparing food for her family, so she could watch them eat it. She wouldn't eat the food when others did, and this made her feel like she was better than them. She would also only eat late, because this led her to believe that she had won some "competition". And when she would eat food, it was only fruits or veggies. Then she would eat in only a certain order one by one. If she consumed more than one piece at a time she would probably feel like she was stuffing herself. And she did not want to eat for pleasure, because she didn't think she deserved pleasure.
Whenever her family expressed concern about her eating disorder she dismissed it and thought they were being selfish. She also kept saying that she didn't have any answers to what they were looking for. She had no control over her life, so she couldn't have an answer.
At the intervention she seemed emotionless, but she probably did not have enough energy to show much emotion, but when her family showed her love and support she actually seemed happy. I think this is what she felt she was missing most.
Wow, I can't believe that she was that skinny.
She had many factors that may have caused her to become anorexic, from her dad being so critical, her mother being so controlling, her sister being better than her and the rape that occurred while she blanked out.
She was emotionally and physically broken. After the rape, she kept things to herself and did not seek any help.
She also seems to have a bit of OCD with the food she eats. She counts everything, and cuts them into specific sizes.
She believes that people can see her gut, when they really can. She exercises without any food in her stomach, and she still thinks she is fat. She sets herself apart from everyone, and kinda just hides. This disorder causes to have her own personality, and it she feels like it makes her different from her sister, since her sister was always "the better one".
So first off, that was a really powerful thing to watch. It was so strange because she didn't think she was as thin as she was.
So her twin sister Tiffany was the more "dominant" twin as they put it, and Emily (the anorexic girl) was less outgoing. She was always overshadowed by her sister. The mom liked to be in control of everything that went on in the girls lives--with regards to what they would do and how they would dress(since they were twins she probably wanted them to dress the same) The dad was into control also. He was only really a nice dad if the girls were receiving an award of some kind, or had a different kind of achievement. If the girls didn't do well they would get punished.
Emily and Tiffany went to the same college on a basketball scholarship. It might have been better if the girls had gone to separate schools so Emily would not have to compare herself to Tiffany all the time. Anyways..Tiffany excelled at everything and Emily was just kind of left in the shadows. When Emily got raped that was probably a BIG factor or a trigger that started her Anorexia. If she already felt that she was not in control it most likely made her feel even less in control. Then her other sisters were also succeeding, it must have been really really hard.
She has a lot of the signs of Anorexia that you talked to us about. Especially regarding food. At the family gathering they had Emily was in the kitchen, making food for people. She was doing all the prepping of it, and she said that she liked preparing food, and it made her feel good to see other people eating it as long as she didn't have to eat it. Even then though, her mom was STILL critical, her daughter is SO thin but the only thing she can do is complain about how she made the lasagna.
it is still really hard for me to imagine how a person could not just eat and become so thin
That was very interesting and deep.
Emily once used to be a cheerful person, but she always felt that her identical twin sister, Tiffany, was more dominant. She had many signs that her family started to notice like bruises, rotting teeth, and brittle hair. She would say how fragile her bones were as well. Her mother was very much in control--she controlled many aspects of Emily's life. This relates to the cognitive behavioral aspect (learned helplessness). Her dad would punish her if she didn't do well and would only be her "father" if she was sucessful in what she did. She felt that she had no power and no control.
When she started college her parents divorced and she was raped. She kept that to herself for a year and did not discuss it with anyone. She also did not like the way she looked and she started to diet so she could look better. She felt that she deserved the pain by not eating. She was also jealous of her sisters and the nice lives they had, especially Tiffany.
She would stay in the kitchen and prepare food for others and watch other people eat which made her feel good.
She would have extreme food rituals and would not like to eat in front of others. She seemed to be very OCD regarding the food rituals. For example she had to eat a certain amount of celery before anything else and cut up lettuce into very small pieces.
She had a very poor false body image of herself--she felt that she had a large stomach when in reality she did not.
She also felt that her sister was being selfish when she addressed her problem.
Her characteristics were very similar to the ones you mentioned on Friday--false body image, thinking about food constantly and spending time preparing meals for others, the control issue, results from trauma, and low self esteem.
~Rachel Buckely
Emily had many factors that contributed to the development of her eating disorder.
First off she felt that her twin sister was dominant and that her sister always got the better things.
Second, she felt that she didn't have any control. For an example her father would punish them if they didn't succeed but when they (the sisters) won an award or something like that they were praise by their father. That was the only time he was their "father" because most of the time he was very critical.
Third, she was raped when she blanked out at that party. When she woke up she found herself naked and in physical pain.
Fourth, she had a very distorted body image in her mind. She thought she was still fat when everyone else thought that she was sickly ill. For an example, the part when she was looking in the mirror she was, "I just want to loose this." And she was holding her stomach area, where she had nothing left.
Five, she is somewhat OCD. With her food she would always do rituals. For an example, she would ripe the cabbage into small piece because she was scared. She counts everything and eats the food a certain way.
Six, she kept everything to herself. She makes herself apart from everyone else. At family gatherings she would always be in the kitchen making the food and she likes it when people eat the food. This made her feel good.
Seven, she embraces that disorder because she sees her sisters having a family and children of their own while she has nothing. As she said in the videos, she thought that the eating disorder was her "own" kid.
Eight, she felt that her whole family was selfish for bugging her about her disorder and why she did things a certain way pertaining to her disorder.
Emily had many of the factors we talked about on Friday. Such as low self-esteem; distorted body image; constantly thinking about food and involving oneself to make the food but not eat it; control issues relating the situations; depressive results from traumatic events; taking her stress out on her, by not eating, which made her feel more powerful in doing so; and her body image was not an image to her it was a belief that she was fat.
Yvonne Pham
Okay, everyone pretty much summed up what I was going to say. That being said, I will try to avoid being repetitive (and giving summaries of the videos).
Freud may look to her rape as one of the main root causes of her anorexia (besides her feelings of "inferiority" and "lack of control" which I see have been hammered down and beaten to a pulp in the last 6 entries). In avoiding the
"dirtiness"/"sinfulness" of sex, her feelings toward sex after the rape manifests itself into an avoidance of OTHER necessities, in this case, FOOD. This psychoanalytic explanation can then, of course, be paired with other events in her life (stressors from college, family, sports, etc.) that contributed to her eating disorder.
Freud may also say that she has an Oral fixation - however, instead of eating a lot or drinking a lot (typical of many who are fixated at that stage), she tries to repress her desires for oral stimulation by avoiding food all-together.
Or maybe everything I just said was a bit of a stretch.
okay mine sucks compared to the rest of these posts
I actually had to stop watching it for a little while before resuming the video because of how disturbing I found the content to be. What immediately got my attention was that she was actually quite beautiful and healthy before the disease took over. They don't look like the same person whatsoever. Emily does not even look like a human anymore.
I believe that what began the downwards spiral was the overbearing amount of control placed upon her by her parents, which could partially make her anorexia a form of rebellion against that control. Once she reached high school/college, she formed this belief that she had to do better than her sister, which I feel mostly fabricated in her own mind and went out of control. Every aspect of her life became far too competitive, mainly centered around her twin. After her rape and parent's divorce, her anorexia became an outlet for her depression.
Her food rituals are disturbing. It feels as if the core of her existence is related to food and the consumption (or non consumption) of it. I was especially startled when she said "I don't deserve for food to be pleasure. I don't deserve pleasure", and when she compared her eating disorder to having a child. I am unable to even comprehend how someone could even go so low to the point where these thoughts become normal patterns of thinking.
It was difficult to watch the intervention. She clearly has an incredibly strong bond with her grandfather. It was hardest to watch Tiffany address her. Every single time it shows the two of them next to each other, it startles me to see the comparison between the once-identical twins. Although she agreed to go to recovery, it feels to me like she doesn't fully believe that it can be effective in saving her. It seems more like she's agreeing to it for her family's sake. My prediction before I saw the ending was that she would eventually relapse. It was disheartening to see that she was tube fed, but I feel encouraged by the fact that she completed recovery. I am so impressed by the amount of her support in her family and I hope that Emily makes it through this.
right off its easy to see that she feels all control of her life was taken away so she needed to control something that was definatly hers. she would always have control of the food she eats, and of her body.
her mother was a controling and their father expected perfection from them ever since both of the twins were children. she probably feels that she needs to be perfect for society(genralization). the control factors and the perfection factors are instilled in her childhood. she was probably looking forward to college where she would be able to control her life as if she was an adult. after she was rapped she learned that adulthood dosnt always mean contol over ones life. desprate to control anything she turned to her eating.
another factor is her sister. her father expected perfection from both of the girls, and her sister was able to deliver that perfection that their father wanted while she was left to feel guilty for not being perfect and this taught her that she would be incapable of perfection, so why try anything that you arent absolutly sure of?
Well most of the key points here have already been covered, but I will review some of the things I thought were very important.
For the causes of the disorder, most important is the lack of control she experienced. This was obviously crucial in the development of her disorder. Her mom was very controlling, her sister was the dominant sister, her parents went through a divorce (which was coupled with stress from starting her first year of college), and she was raped. All of these either removed her control or were terrible things that happened outside of her control. Her dieting and exercise have given her some measure of control that she seeks.
Another very important factor is that she feels apart from others and feels she deserves the pain. She almost likes having an eating disorder sometimes. Furthermore, it makes her feel like an individual to be skinny and to have the disorder. She may have felt this was something that set her apart from her sister.
Finally, I think that she received a lack of support from her family or additional anxiety caused by her family as that also helped cause her eating disorder. This was apparent for me in the scene where her mom is mocking her (as the other sisters listen) about not getting the layers of lasanga right. The mom also expressed her disagreement directly to Emily while Emily was in the kitchen. I would think that the mom would have enough sense not to nag such a troubled person on such a trivial issue. That just made her feel even more like her mom was against her and trying to control her. If things like this have been happening for some time, it may have caused Emily to feel some hostility to others, and this may be why she feels she has to stop the disorder on her own.
wow ok so first i wsa wondering if it was really anorexia or if it was bulimia. she would eat but she did the crazy exercise stuff and she used laxidives at one point too. Emily's parents are probably a major factor of her disorder. thier dad put a lot of pressure on them expecting all of the daughters to be successful in everything that they did so in trying to please him there was all of that stress and then the switch from highschool to college. the rape is another big one too. after that i bet she had troubles with her body image. Emily was also violated so there's that loss of control. watching all of the clips you saw a lot of ways that Emily could have felt a loss of control and just feeling inferior. Emily's mom is conrtoling in general, you could see that when she and Emily were talking about the lasagne. Emily didn't really like being in Ohio and i think that's because she sees all of her sisters who are married and have kids and she sees that as them being more successful than she is. the freaky thing about when Emily was talking about her sisters and their kids was how she referred to her disorder as kind of being her kid. Emily said that she didn't deserve to eat and how eating is a competition to her. this probably comes from the whole dad thing too at least the competition part. when Emily eats it has an ocd kind of component to it her excersizing too.
Two main factors for causing the eating disorder really stuck out for me. The first one was the issue of control. Throughout childhood, her mother wanted to control everything about the kids. For example, she decided what they would wear. According to Emily, she didn't have control over anything, but I thought that this may be an exaggeration or a negative thought, which could also have lead to the disorder. To Emily, anyways, there was nothing to control, so she found something that she could control: her eating. What she ate, when she ate, how much she ate, she felt powerful that she was in charge of something, even if it caused her pain. She also mentioned that her competitive spirit was involved, she treated eating as a competition and she tried to be the one to eat the least or eat the latest. When she was the one with the control, she felt good.
Another factor that I noticed was the fact that she didn't think she deserved to eat, or deserve to be loved. The cognitive approach would say that these negative thoughts could cause her to fall into the disorder. This may have been spurred on by how she felt overshadowed by her twin sister, or how her dad wasn't happy unless they were succeeding, which could make her feel worthless when she didn't succeed.
A lot of the other ideas have already been mentioned a lot, such as the divorce, the rape, going off to college, which I think definitely had an effect on the disorder, but I didn't want to hammer the ideas anymore. I just wanted to mention the two broad topics that I noticed in the videos.
Overall, I thought that the video was very interesting, but at the same time it was very hard to watch because you know that you're watching someone slowly die.
Thanks for the extra credit opportunity Caro!
It is clear that Emily felt overshadowed by her sister, which undoubtedly played a role in her anorexia. She appeared to become jealous of her sister, but she couldn't have any control over her feelings or her sister's actions, so the only way she could exert control was to not eat, showing control over her body. Other reasons are most likely her father who expected perfection out of all four daughters, so she perhaps felt the need to be perfectly thin. Even though she loved her sisters still, her jealous most likely and feelings of not being all that she could be made her want to be better than all of them somehow, and it just happened to be her not eating, which made her feel better than the rest of them.
I thought her food rituals were interesting, how she would eat a certain amount of onions and celery and rip her lettuce into tiny little pieces, which is also a way for her to get control, the way she eats her food even though it is purely for survival reasons. At least she realized that she needed nutrition and that if she wants to live she needs to eat, but the fact that there was no protein or dairy still made it a very unhealthy diet.
I have seen many documentaries and shows about anorexia but this one seemed so different and now that I know more about it it seems a lot more real and I feel more connected. It was also clear about her obvious lack of self-efficacy that made her view herself and her body image in such a negative light.
-Gillian Harger, 4AB
oh my! omar is only gonna get one point EC and yall gonna get 100!!!
(the first video did not work for me, but i watched the rest, so...)
Emily's case is very astonishing. She was so in need of help, yet declined it. Its unbelievable how little she ate each day and was still surving.
One element of the case that really stuck out in my mind was when she was eating. She counted each thing she ate, no matter how long it took her. She said that if she didnt count something or tear the lettuce enough she would be afraid. This shows an element that is usually involved in the disorder from what we learned in class, control. I analyze that she felt little lack of control and so controlling not only how much and when she ate, but the exact content and size of what she ate. She also said that she felt like her eating disorder was "like her kid". This shows that she felt obligated and wanted to "nourish" her eating disorder. This also displayed that she have some OCD tendencies with the disorder. Expecially since she feared what happened if she did not act on the compulsive thoughts.
She also talked about how she felt she could not make any desicions for her self. This adds to her feeling of being out of control. She made even small actions by her family (like the lasagna) seem like they were trying to take her control.Also the events that occured to her in the past added to her feeling of not having control.
With the food, it was interesting that she liked to see other people eat. As Candy Finnegan said, its not about the food, but the food was just what she took out her frustration on. This also make the Disorder seem more like an addiction, because of the simular elements.
We could also see that she felt some jealousy with her sisters. Expecially having a twin sister, whos life is what she wishes her own life was like. I think this caused her to believe she was not worthy of being like her sister. This added pressure to her situation.
It was good that she accepted the help, but she ended up losing more weight. Now she is being tube fed, which isnt a good sign about how much she wants to get better. I hope that she gets better, and healthier.
Wow, this show was so full of everything that we talked about in class on Friday. During the lecture I thought only a few of those things would add up to create an eating disorder, but almost all of them really were there in this case.
So first of all, I think the relationship she had with her twin sister had a lot to do with her disorder. She said that life felt like a competition and that her sister was always fore “gifted” than her. This lack of attention and emphasis on success created an environment that was perfect for a disorder. Emily quickly found the one thing she could control and that she could win at, and that was her weight. After Emily started dieting with a “competitive nature”, she felt like her weight loss was “hers alone” and her sister couldn’t take it from her. So now, she feels like this is “her life” instead of her sister’s.
The second thing that I think was a big contribution to her anorexia was her relationship with her parents. Her mom was always “in control”, which left Emily in the decisions of her mother. Even the lasagna Emily was making for her family was wrong because it had the wrong number of layers. This controlling relationship possible caused Emily to have over-control of her eating habits. Then, her relationship with her father was even worse. Her dad was only involved when one of the sisters did something well. So, Emily felt she had to be physically perfect for her father. This started with dieting, but quickly escalated to anorexia.
Although her relationship with her mom and dad was bad, the relationship they had with each other, might be another reason for her anorexia. The systems theory could be applied to this situation. Emily saw her parent’s divorce, and the other things that were going on in her life, and wanted to cover it all with her own disorder that she could control. Emily wanted the attention to be focused on her, and not the things she wanted to ignore.
Something that I thought that was really interesting was the OCD that came with her anorexia. When she started cooking, and serving her food, she became VERY particular about how she did things and how she ate them. These obsessions where very similar to OCD. In addition to this, Emily kept grapping her body and looking at herself in the mirror. These two things both are due to her eating disorder. Is this normal? Do other disorders usually tag along with anorexia, or is this just a special case?
Overall, there were a lot of things in this show that we could analyze and connect to her anorexia. But, I think overall it shows that anorexia is more than just an eating disorder, and a habit to stop eating. It’s a progression of a lot of different things that add up to an eating disorder.
It's kind of hard to come up with anything new after all of these epic posts. I definitely agree that the key to this disorder was her feeling powerless. After the divorce, rape, and stress this was the only thing she really felt that she had power over. Also having a twin who she felt was better or more assertive also played a role. Sibling rivalry is a part of growing up and if she felt that her sister was more dominant than she probably would have developed a powerless feeling from childhood which was also a huge part of her feeling powerless after all of the horrible things that happened
Holy crap! I feel so bad for this girl. I started watching this confident that I could handle it but honestly about ten min in I just opened another window and listened to it, I couldn't handle seeing all that. It made me feel so bad for her but also very disgusted at the same time which is one of the main causes of my guilt I mean shes trying so hard to be beautiful and have people see that in her but she is doing the exact opposite and she can't even see it! It's terrible, this type of illness goes hand and hand with an alcohol addiction or some other addiction like that. It's pretty sad and very hard to let go and just keep going when you know that there are a lot more people like this. What's even worse is the fact that she wouldn't have[probably] ever started this terrible habit had she not been both raped and neglected in her past. She had it hard enough with it being so impossible to please her father but then she has to be raped on top of it? It's just so unfair what most people have to go through and live with on a daily basis. Just like any other intervention story, you really feel for her family in this one. It's affecting them in the worst way, they have to watch her do this to her self with no control over it, it's terrible. UGH! I just can't get that disgusting shot of her in the shower out of my head! and the fact of how easy it is to brake bones and how her hair is falling out and teeth are rotting out, I don't get how she can't understand what she's doing. Her sister was right no one deserves this. I'm not really sure how long this is and if it even counts as extra credit but I'm not really sure what else to say except for that if someone is suffering from this and is reading this just know that I'm really really sorry and that you should honestly get some help before it's too late.
I think the root of Emily's eating disorder lies in her childhood, where she felt overshadowed by her sister a lot of the time, and controlled by her mom. I think she felt that she didn't have anything that made her stand out, or appreciated like her sister. When she was raped she didn't tell her family for a year because she thought they would think badly of her. I think her eating disorder reflects her very low opinion of herself. She felt that she didn't have any exceptional qualities like her twin sister did. The eating disorder became what defined her. She didn't see any of the other things that she used to be, anymore. She seems to have a little bit of a grudge against Tiffany. Her twin sister seems to have nothing but love for her, but Emily sees Tiffany as a “built- in competitor”. She also calls Tiffany “selfish” when they go on a walk I think this is her inferiority to Tiffany coming out. Emily has always seen Tiffany as a competitor, so she has negative feelings for her and sees her eating disorder as a way to give herself some significance and importance. Therefore, when Tiffany tries to convince Emily to do something to help herself, Emily sees it as “selfish” because she still has the image of the sister who overshadowed her and dominated her in their youth. Now Tiffany is married with a child, and Emily still sees her as a threat because she is the one with the happiness and good life. Emily may feel that Tiffany is trying to take away the only thing that she has control over, the only thing that she is known for- her eating disorder. She nurtures this disorder like a baby, admitting herself that it is like her “child”. I believe that she feels the disorder is what defines her-that it is the only facet of her life. She feels that by trying to take away the only thing that she has in life to nurture, her sister is being selfish.
Also, with the control issue, she feels that she has never been able to control anything in her life, because her mom is a control freak. When she was raped she never told anyone for a long time, so that would have given her a feeling of helplessness-she felt like she couldn't control it or do anything about it because she thought that she would be looked down on. After the rape, she most likely felt helpless and used, and obviously out of control of her life. This probably led her to turn to one thing that she could control for sure- her diet. She probably started the rituals with her food because she saw her sisters all in great control of their lives, happily married with little kids, and felt that she needed something in her life that would make her feel needed and powerful-she created these rituals to make herself feel like she was in control of something, but also needed. This feeling was fulfilled by nurturing all those rituals she created.
Emily's mom was a control freak while her dad was someone who would only get involved with his children when he felt that they had accomplished something in their life, like getting an award or winning a game. Within her first year of college, her parents got a divorce. I think that both parents had a huge influence to Emily's start of depression...which later then lead to anrorexia.
Tiffany also had a huge impact on Emily. Emily had always felt as though she was in her sister's shadow, and didn't get the same respect as her sister got. Having a twin sister who seemed to have the perfect life may have made it harder for Emily to live. Emily had probably felt as though she was not as important to others as her twin sister was to them.
Emily had also faced other problems throughout her life, including being raped.
I think that the video reported that she had relapsed two times after getting treatment, which probably means that she really needed help right away.
Relating to the videos from the powerpoints...Emily, like the other girls, wanted to feel like an individual and have/feel some sort of control or power.
Through Emily's eyes, it seems as though her family is not really there for her when she needs them, and she also feels like they always criticize her in everything that she does...ex:lasagna. But she doesn't realize how much they really care about her and what they're trying to do for her.
Emily barely eats anything, and rarely eats anything around other people. She feels as if she's in a competition, and that she's winning because she hardly eats anything.
I think that Emily really needed to hear from the people who really care about her. And she seemed truly happy once she heard them.
Sorry, this is probably going to be exactly what the other 27 people have said, but bear with me!
My diagnosis: Emily probably had anorexia. Not sure though.
Analysis: She has serious issues about living up to standards and accepting any self-worth. From what I heard, it sounds like her twin sister was her, but only better, more confident, and more successful--or so Emily thought. As they were competitive with each other, everytime Tiffany would be a little better at something than Emily, Emily would lose just a little bit of self esteem. All of these instances add up, and she begins to feel like she is not as good. Her father probably didn't help the situation, as he only "was a father" when the girls did something right. So her father probably wasn't "around" much to Emily in the way that he was for Tiffany. The rape did not help matters, either. After she was sexually assaulted, Emily developed beliefs of "I deserve all of these bad things that happen to me. I am not worth anything to anybody." This is why she didn't tell anybody about the rape or even ACCUSE THE MEN WHO RAPED HER! I found this the most astonishing. I would be in the courtroom at the soonest possible moment! She felt that she deserved the raping, so she didn't blame the men. This is once again seen in her eating habits. She doesn't eat because she feels that she doesn't deserve to eat! She DESERVES her eating disorder because she feels that she has no self worth.
While on the subject of her eating habits, she counts her portions. She counts as she slices her food and she organizes the food bits in order from larger to smaller, etc etc. She cannot stand CHANGE. She prefers things to be the way that she wants them and to have that sense of control in her life, something she lacked growing up. She prefers things to be consistent, i.e. her food portions. And a reason why she was initially reluctant to rehabilitation was because that meant change. That meant doing something out of her control, which is what she has been trying to avoid for so long. Emily does not want to fall back into that cycle of doing as others say and not having any control over her situations.
Gahh that was awful. My apologies!
good thing I visited the blog before going to bed... but it's not like I'm gonna be saying anything that hasn't already been pointed out. But for what it's worth here it is.
It seems like the family brought this upon emily. Her sister, in emily's eyes, was always the superior person, that she would always get all the attention and that she was always the better one. Her mother was a control freak and she even admits it. controlling how the family was run, what they wore, what they did, all of that. The only way to get daddys aproval was to do well in something. If she didnt do well she would be punished. Being in a family like that, I could imagine a lack of a sense of control of your life so maybe starving herself was her attempt to gain a sense of self control in her life.
Things eventually progressed down this slippery slope whenshe and her sister went to college (which essentially brought all of her problems with her because she is still in the presence of the person who is "better" than her). Her parents also divorced during her freshman year which is safe to say that it did not help the situation. Probably the most devistating thing that happened to her was that she was raped. She has no recollection of that night and has no idea how many men raped her. on top of that she hid this from her family for over a year fearing that if she told someone about it, it would make her look bad. she probably thought it was her fault which would further push her into a sence of self worthlessness.
Things eventually got out of hand when she started to lose weight. nobody thought it was a big deal. everyone thought that she was just trying to lose a couple pounds. She says that she doesn't remember how it got to this point but she was eventually eating half a apple and taking 75 laxatives. her family noticed that she was getting thinner and thinner and they took the initiative to send her to treatment two times and both times she relapsed. one theory would be that she relapsed because she thought that she deserved the pain that she was so worthless that she needed to be punished for it.
She also states that she is jealous of family, especialy tiffany so the whole problem is still there that tiffany is always so much better than her even after all these years have passed. when she is around tifany she says that she sees what she could have been or what she should be so she a lot of self guilt and she has no control over that so she instead turns to her food intake. looking at the big picture, her disorder is a big control issue. she has been deprived of control and it is her attempt to regain it.
Another reason why this disorder could continue is the way she sees herself. She looks like a walking skeleton but yet she still tells herself that she can get skinnier. seriously, any skinnier and she wouldn't even be there anymore. she also developed irrational food rituals like eating a certain amount of food in a certain order and she was afraid to change the routine because she was afraid of what the consiquesnses were. she also said that she doesn't deserve the pleasure from food so again we see the self worthlessness come into the equation.
Overall the movie really hit me, i mean just about an hour and a half ago I was sitting on the couch watching Man vs wild eating hot pockets while out there, someone intentionally starves themselves and still excercises to burn away what little calories they take in. Like most people, I had to take a break from it from time to time to digest all of the information. Viewing this intervention, it's obvious that control factors and self worth play huge roles in the disorder. feeling like she isn't good enough and that she has no control over the things that happen in her life she turns to the food intake and attempts to solve her problems there. I really hope she overcomes this and becomes healthier.
Lets start out by saying 5 foot 8 inches, 94 pounds. That is beyond crazy! Emily showed the classic symptoms that you had shared with us in class as well as potential causes. The first image that shocked me in this video is the one of her brushing her teeth. You can see every bone in her body, especially the spine and hip bones. When watching you expect to see some disturbing images and prepare yourself. I prepared but was still caught off gaurd. The image also showed her hair thinning.
The family mentioned that she is always moving and that her body is never at rest. She excercised three hours a day (which is not bad), it is the fact she only ate approximately 800 calories or less in a day. Her intake did not balance how much she burned. She ate a half an apple and took 75 laxatives per day. Over excercising is one sign of an eating disorder.
It family may have played a role in the cause of the disorder. Her dad was only a dad when the girls suceeded and when he punished them he made them feel unworthly. The girls mom stated she was controlling. In the twins first year in college their parents divorced, which may have caused trauma. Her disoder began after the event.
Emily stated that for most of her life she felt like the twin in the background, that her sister was always shadowing her. SHe stated she was extremely jealous of her sister. When they went off to college, she was unhappy while her sister adjusted fine. Emily was also raped which most likely lead to trauma. She started "dieting" in college. She feels she has control and it is the one thing that is all hers.
She is also withdrawn from social occassions including with her family. Emily also enjoys preparing the food and cleaning up the mess but does not eat it. When she does eat, typically late at night, she has food rituals that she must follow no matter how long it takes. All these are classic symptoms.
I found it interesting that she hardly changed her emotions. Even when she became enlighted she didn't show it. You could tell when she was especialy angry or frustrated but her expression stayed pretty consistent.
Some people believe eating disorders to be just for the attention, I truly believe there is a biology problem or something else I am too ignorant to understand or just don't know. For some strange reason I sympathize for those who suffer from an eating disorder, I don't entirely blame them for their problem like I unintentionally do with drug addicts and such...it's strange.
THANK YOU everyone for your incredibly thoughtful insights! I am really proud of your analysis here!
Cheers!
Caro
I think that being a twin was one of Emily’s major causes for becoming anorexic. I would imagine that being a twin could lead to some incredible pressures because the two people would always be compared to one another. On top of this the girls’ parents were not involved in a positive manner. Their acceptance of only perfection could lead the girls to be over-critical of themselves. The parents are of course not supportive of Emily’s current weigh, but it may have been difficult for her to decide exactly what weight her parents wanted her to be.
After she was raped it is obvious that she underwent some major problems that were probably not treated completely. I think that her and her family’s first real fault was not doing enough here. (Unless they did and the documentary just didn’t mention it.) Many times when we look at a person who suffers from a disorder of sometime we think that it should have been noticed earlier and I think that rings most true here. She obviously showed signs that she wasn’t eating healthily (only one apple a day at one point), but at that time her family and friends must not have thought it was a big deal. Hopefully learning about the disorder can help us identify people in the future.
The issue of control was brought up as well again here. Emily said that choosing not to eat makes her feel powerful because she is doing something differently than others. I wonder if she felt in control when she said ‘okay’ to the treatment, because it was her choice, but in a way it was somewhat forced on her. It was good that she was able to realize how miserable she felt herself in addition to how she made others feel. In the Intervention we watched about meth, it seemed that the man was just concerned about his family but didn’t have that piece of self health.
The ending certainly didn’t look particularly bright for her, but it was a good story nonetheless.
Oh whoops - wrong day. Tuesday =/= Monday, even the day a long weekend.
wow these are long..here goes.
Well during childhood Emily was sort of the over looked child.Her sister was the "happpier" more outgoing one and she seemed to be in the shadow of all of that. She felt controlled by her family(mother) and felt like she needed to impress her father. This ould of been why later she described her eating disorder as a form of control and competition. She wanted something that was unque to her and something only she could control. That made her feel powerful and thats what she wanted. I believe the rape contributed to the disorder and made it worse, but I also believe that with time the disorder would of gotten that bad with all the oitehr factors. The rape and college were the "straws that broke the camels back." I noticed she had a lot of syptoms such as thinned hair and a bad yellowish complection. She also prepared a lot of food and spend a lot of time in the kitchen, but wouldn't eat any food. Emily also refers to the disorder as her "child" and that she was caring for her child in a way when she preformed rituals while she ate,this is very similar to OCD.(OH HEY LOOK THE FINAL EXAM QUESTION!!!!) She kept talking about how she was unworthy of pleasure. food= pleasure, therefore she didn't want to eat. this ties in with MDD, (self-defeating) in a way.. In the end she decides to go to treatment but treatment can only help to an extent. I don't believe she wants to get better., She kept repeating that she did throughout the episode, but I never took her seriously. She relapsed the first time in treatment which is common for addiction ( ps. I think i'm amazing for bringing up eating disorders during our first secratic seminar about if addiction is a disease back in the begining of the school year) All in all this was very interesting. I enjoyed watching it!
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