the Young Ones

In trying to reach out to struggling recoverers, it is so much easier to make crossroads with adult women. The adolescents and young adults are so difficult, I can't imagine how therapists can wrap their heads around those cases. The difference seems to be the absolute buy in they have in the "Cult of Thinness". They are so willing to invest it all, lose it all, and totally believe that ED is the way. Older women are weary, and are open to the possibility that there is another way to live. The young ones have idols too, that are so thin, and the media is so saturated with images of perfection, sexuality and over the top fashionistas. Their cries for help seem to be these brief pleas-- thrown out to the black internet void-- they have moments where they just don't want to live that way, it hurts, it is scary, they want another way. Their survival instincts do kick in and they do want out. They want someone to pull them up and release them from their pain. But they want another way to STILL be thin, to STILL be perfect, to STILL please everyone. They don't understand that the "other way" means walking away from those ideas altogether and standing your own ground in this world of shallow iconography. They don't understand that they may be standing in the midst of negative messages from "helpful" loved ones. They don't understand that they themselves are still children inside and need to choose mentors who are strong and stand for strength, instead of self-destruction.

It's so hard for me to try to talk to them. I want so much for them not to waste as many years of their life as I did to this disease. I want them instead to throw it off and grasp their potential. But seeing them over and over hit the same brick wall I did, just breaks my heart for them.