It might not seem like it fits. It’s too long, it’s too short; it doesn’t quite look right.
I’m talking about the articles this month. But also about the way we judge things—our bodies, our appearance, our value measured by our fat percentage.
We are obsessed, and sadly to say, particularly in the South Asian culture, about looking a certain way. Fair, tall, thin. We treasure our beauties so much that we kick to the road all those that don’t fit in. Even our children.
“Why aren’t you slim and trim like your older sister? Look at your clothes! Start dressing like a girl; be feminine! Who will marry a skinny pair of bones?
It’s never ending.
This month we talk about eating disorders, a topic so grave it’s either silenced or humiliated.
“Oh, she has an eating disorder? So what? Tell her to just eat without fussing. What nonsense!”
But eating disorders are not about food—the single most important message I’d like you to take away from this issue, if nothing else.
I say again, eating disorders are NOT about food.
People with eating disorders are crying out for our help. Because we don’t hear their voices, they are shrinking away their bodies so that at some point in time, someone will stop and ask, “Are you OK?”
No. They are not OK.
Something is making them suffer. They are angry, sad, frustrated, bubbling with pressure, or dying from disappointment. Food is the one thing they’ve found in their life they can control, and so they choose to conquer it.
Without oversimplifying the matter, I want to point out the severity of eating disorders so you can understand our articles in the right light.
This is no laughing matter.
Eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of all mental disorders. Start paying attention.
