Anorexia Nervosa

Anorexia Nervosa by Nancie Brosseau is a compelling short story about a young gymnast and dancer who strives to be thinner. She believes if she is just a little smaller she will be perfect. Unfortunately she can never reach the perfect point and continues to lose weight by starving herself. At first her parents and doctors believe it is just a temporary stage in her life. As she continues to wither into practically nothing, those around her realize she has a problem. Namcie is diagnosed with anorexia nervosa.
Along with the physically suffering, she suffers emotionally. She gets to the point where she can not help herself. She eats nothing but excises excessively. She gets to the point where she licked a stamp that had 1/4 of a calorie in it and did an extra 100 sit ups a night to punish herself. She became very unhappy. She was eventually diagnosed with depression. Her condition led her to act less like herself and lie more frequently. He parents would try to force her to eat and she would throw it up. She would sell her lunch at school to buy diet pills. She became so obsessed with losing weight that she began to lose the things she really loved; dance and gymnastics.
Her body becomes so frail that she could not continue doing her activities. She had damaged her body so much her body was eating away at herself. She would break bones off a simple tumble pass. Her hair would fall out from all the deficiencies she was suffering. Her body became very sickly looking. Her teeth's enamel ate away because of the acid in her regurgitation. Her hips were rubbed raw from having to wear her belt so tight just to keep her pants fitting right. Nancie became really sick and eventually had to stop. After many sessions with a psychologist, she understood why she was so emotionally distraut and eventually conquered her anorexia. Though she still struggled with her almost life long problem, she finally was relieved from her disease.
People may look at her and wnder how this kind of thing happens. However, today's media pushes everyone to look, act, and be a certain way. Teenage girls are pressured into being the ideal tall, skinny model like girls. There are many forms of media that talk about weigthloss. Often times anorexic celebraties are romanticized by the media. People develop into wanting to be the skinny, attractive girl that catches everyones attention. There are many shows that talk about different medical procedures that can be taken to alter how one looks. Many teenage girlsget the impression that they must have a certain length of hair, shade of skin, or facial features to make them pretty.
If the public didn't stress the idea of outrageous body types there would be less cases of child anorexia or obesity. Many times adolescents often harm themselves trying to fit into the media's ideal picture of perfection. It is impossible to fit into everyones idea of perfect for the simple fact that no one has the exact definition of perfect or beauty. How do you think the world would be if no one was pressured into being anything but who they are?
I believe if everyone embraced their flaws the world would be a much more beautiful place. I think diversity is a very enriching thing to have in someones life. We, as people can not expect to grow as a group, city, state, region, nation, or world if we start to reject those who do not fit into our "ideal look". Expecting everyone to conform to one idea is not only imposible but immoral. Why try to change the natural beauty of the strange when in fact we are all a little different?