Size Zero: The Current Obsession

We are all acquainted with terms like anorexia and bulimia. And that’s only natural. And know about the 21 year old Brazilian model Ana Carolina Reston who died last year of anorexia related medical complications. Some weeks ago, it was reported that renowned designer Donatella Versace’s daughter is at 70 pounds (28 kg) – an anorexic and undergoing treatment.

Celebrity or no celebrity , millions of people , specially teenage girls belonging to the higher socio economic class across the world suffer from eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia, even as several countries (like the USA, Britain and even India) face an obesity explosion.  

Studies show that in the USA alone, 170 of teenage girls develop anorexia, 10 percent of all anorexics eventually die, and 10 percent of college age women are affected by bulimia
while 10 percent of bulimics die from starvation, cardiac  arrest , medical complications or suicide.

And this is not a girl thing only, for 10 percent of all bulimics in the world are men and are as much in danger of becoming anorexic as the women.

So what are anorexia and bulimia? The Oxford English Dictionary defines anorexia (in full: anorexia nervosa) as an emotional disorder characterized by an obsessive desire to lose weight by refusing to eat. People suffering from anorexia have extreme weight loss , are extremely skinny but are still convinced that they are overweight and continue trying to lose more and more weight by starving themselves , abusing laxatives and indulging in excessive exercise. 

The Oxford Dictionary defines bulimia (in full: bulimia nervosa) “an emotional disorder characterized by bouts of overeating, typically alternating with fasting or self -induced vomiting or purging “. There is no definite cause of this disease, but it is believed that it starts due to depression, dissatisfaction with body shape and size, feeling of helplessness, fear of becoming fat, stress or self esteem issues. It involves loss of control while eating , followed by a shortlived calmness and then self loathing , which leads to the bulimic adopting desperate measures like vomiting , fasting after binge eating , excessive use of laxatives and diuretics, compulsive exercising to get of the calories) .The cycle of overeating and then purging gradually develops into an obsession.

What differentiates bulimics from anorexics is that they tend to overeat, while anorexics do not eat at all, or eat very little. Moreover while anorexics are extremely thin, bulimics can look perfectly normal, even tending to be overweight. What makes diagonising bulimia all the more difficult is the fact that bulimics indulge in bingeing and purging in private and often tend to deny their condition.

Both anorexia and bulimia are primarily psychological disorders. And both arise out of an obsession with body shape and size -the obsession with “size zero “(it indicates the waist of a seven year old) .

How did this obsession begin? Fields like modeling, dancing, gymnastics, long distance running, prefer thinner people, but the idea of “the thinner, the better “primarily originated on the ramp. The best designer clothes look even better on thin people. So everybody works hard to look thin, and if you are already thin, be proud of your figure There is nothing particularly wrong with trying to cut out the excess fat and shed the extra pounds–.but the line between being thin and being unhealthy is thin itself.

When a person is diagnosed with either anorexia or bulimia, or both, the first step would be to take them for psychological counseling. Hospital based medical care can accompany saving the life of an anorexic or a bulimic can be difficult because there is always the initial denial, resistance and anger , but it is absolutely necessary . But more than ever, society needs to change its mindset …otherwise this slow and soft killer diseases can never be controlled.