Friday, May 16, 2008

HEIDI, DEE & PATTI: HOW COULD YOU BE SO HEARTLESS? [UPDATED]

Dee/DEEDLYNN/DEEDLYNN22

PATTI

UPDATE (May 16/08):
For those who believed that the 17-year-old girl is a Kimkins sock puppet, I received written evidence today which proves, without a shadow of a doubt, that she is, in fact, real and NOT a sock puppet.
~~~~~~~~~~
Yesterday (May 14/08), I received information from a member of Kimkins about a 17-year-old girl who, in her first post, admitted she had an eating disorder.

In an effort to reach out to this young girl, I attempted to enlist the assistance of Kimkins members, Dee/DEEDLYNN/DEEDLYNN22, who has recently been posting on Low Carb Friends, and Patti, one of the current KK cover girls, to intervene.

Below is a copy of my e-mail to Patti:

"Medusa to patti
show details May 14 (1 day ago)

Patti, I have grave concerns regarding a member of KK and would like to pass on some info to you in the hopes that you may be willing to intervene.
Thanks.
Medusa

www.2medusa.com"


Not having Dee/DEEDLYNN/DEEDLYNN22's e-mail address, I left a comment on her blog and asked her to contact me. Here is the screen shot of my comment to her:



Dee quickly replied to my post with this:

"DeAnna XXX to me
show details May 14 (1 day ago)

Here is my email address. I'd be happy to help you if I can.

Thanks,
Dee"

I then forwarded the following e-mail to Dee:

"...There is a new member of Kimkins, XXX, who has a serious eating disorder. A
member of Kimkins copied XXX's post and sent it to me. Her KK username is XXX.
The text of her post is at the bottom of this e-mail.

I've been advised that no one at KK has responded to her posts, and I was wondering if you could perhaps contact her and suggest that she contact one of the following eating-disorder helplines:

Bulimia/Anorexia Self Help Hotline: 800-
227-4785
Eating Disorders Hotline: 800- 448-4663
Anorexia Nervosa and
Associate Disorders 847-831-3438
Youth Crisis Line: 800- HIT-HOME
Thursday's Child National Call Center for at Risk Youth: 800-USA-KIDS
Boys and girls Town National Hotline: 800- 448-3000
Kids Help Phone
(Canada): 800-668-6868
The Eating Distress Helpline (Ireland):011-44-2600366
Referrals to Eating Disorder specialists (US and Canada) 800-736-3739
The National Mental Health Association Information Center: 800-969-NMHA

The phone numbers above are from the blog Weighing the Facts, which is a wonderful resource blog for those who are suffering from bulimia, anorexia, and other eating disorders.

My blog, as well, has information on eating disorders (www.2medusa.com).

I'm hoping that, with encouragement, she will seek help.

Many thanks, Dee. I really appreciate any assistance you're able to give this girl. She is in serious trouble.

All the best,
Medusa

XXX's post on Kimkins:

"Alrighty then, I'm a mess-up.

I suppose it depends on how you look at it. I'm 17 years old, I am a Jr. at
Pepperdine University and I go there on a scholarship, I'm pre-medicine, I
love to read and write... and I have this tricky little thing called an eating disorder.

It's bothered me for a long, long time. I have screamed at God, I have screamed at my parents, I have screamed at myself. I have cut myself. I have contemplated suicide.

One day, I asked myself why it is better to commit suicide than to change my life. Even if changing my life was the most difficult thing imaginable, I do believe that I would be happier once I'd done it - so clearly, taking a difficult step towards happiness is far wiser than taking a selfish step towards oblivion. And so, here I am. For the millionth time, in one way or another.

But I love to write, so I thought - maybe a blog ill help. Where yes, I talk about how much I weigh today and how the elliptical felt on my gracilis muscle, but also about Ayn Rand's purpose behind discussing selfishness in The Fountainhead, and where we can discuss the implications behind bio-engineering, and where we can consider the incredible theories behind Newtonian physics and Nietzschean philosophy.

So that's what I'm asking - because, for my entire life, I have been overwhelmed by the realization that very few people that I'm friends with are really interested in
all the things I listed above. I'll be honest - I don't care about Jamie Lynn Spears. I don't. I don't care about 24 or CSI, but I deeply care about the starving people of North Korea and the importance of love in marriage.

So that's my first topic: love. My last boyfriend was completely in love with me. I don't say this in a vain way, but I know it was true. I broke up with him because I was not in love with him - and it broke his heart. And so now I have come to the realization that I don't want to even consider dating someone until I feel the possibility that he could become someone I could never live without. For me, this seems so unlikely that I don't think I'll ever get married - and here is why. When you read a great piece of literature, you fall in love with a multi-faceted thing which is greater than you are. Words on a page, in my opinion, truly can overcome reality. And so it is that I love this - this depth, this power, this beauty which not even the author could fully grasp - so much that I don't believe it is possible to love something which is tangible quite as much. The tangible cannot be as beautiful. The thing I love about literature is it wields a power greater than any one human being.

The only way I can see of falling in love with someone is if he joined me in that same love. But I have not met anyone who is like that yet. That is partly why I'm here - to assure myself that such people do exist. But here is my question - I am young and people here have more life experience: have you honestly met someone that you love so much that you cannot imagine life without them? Because that is what I want. I love my dad so much that I cannot begin to consider life without him - but I was born loving him that much. Have you actually MET someone who took this place of importance in your life?
-
XXX

P.S. I weigh 184 pounds. I'm 5'8''. I work out every day. haha I forgot that's why I'm here.

Okay, so....
I've definitely got some issues. I'm 17 years old and I'm a Jr. at Pepperdine University. When I was 12 I had anorexia and since then I have developed a pretty clean case of Binge Eating Disorder. (it does exist... it's not just made up). So, I\'m here to change that and change myself. I'll be honest - there is a boy I like and I think he could like me too. But we're off school for the summer and I want to become a different person.

However, I want this blog to be about more than that - I love philosophy, literature, science - really anything that makes you think. My favorite books would be The Catcher in the Rye, Atlas Shrugged or The Plague. My favorite movies - Scanner Darkly or Shawshank Re "


I then received this response from Patti:

"Patti Larsen to me May 14 (1 day ago)

Screw off. I'm a healthy woman making the right choices for myself who happens to eat three times a day, thank you very much. You should be ashamed.Thoughts are things. Make every thought count."

I immediately followed with this response to Patti:

"Medusa to Patti
show details 10:01 AM (33 minutes ago)
Patti, I was contacted by a member of Kimkins who is asking for help in assisting a very young girl who has admitted in her posts on Kimkins to having a very serious eating disorder.
My only purpose in writing you was to ask if you might reply to this young girl's post on Kimkins and direct her to some eating disorder helplines."


Then 30 minutes later, this arrived from Patti:

Patti Larsen to me
show details 10:31 AM (4 minutes ago)

I am not interested in your games. Not sure how you got my personal email, nor do I care, except that you must have a fake profile on Kimkins, which makes you dispicable. Just so you know, I've reported you to the Kimkins organizers. People like you blame the world for your problems when the only one who can really make a change is you.
I hope this ficticious girl finds her own path.
DO NOT email me again or I will report you as a spammer.
Thoughts are things. Make every thought count."

~~~~~~~~~~
How sad.

Late yesterday, the 17-year-old girl posted this on Kimkins:

"hey! I want to join this group.. I am kind of disappointed because so far, no one has responded to any of my posts on this site.
I currently weight 182.5 pounds... I want to be about 135-140.
I have had 3 cheat free days so far."

Having not heard back from Dee/DEEDLYNN/DEEDLYNN22, I sent her another e-mail this morning:

"Medusa to DeAnna show details 8:28 AM (7 hours ago)

Good morning, Dee :^) Were you able to get in touch with XXX ? "

As of 3:37 today, I have heard nothing back from Dee/DEEDLYNN/DEEDLYNN22. I guess she is too busy reading Dr. Atkins New Diet Revolution, posting on LCF, and PMing Heidi.

Shame on you Heidi, Dee, and Patti. Your lack of concern for this young girl is despicable.

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36 comments:

theTRUTH said...

Word.

You went to every length possible get some attention short of blogging. You are a caring soul and I hope this finally gets this member the attention she needs.

Medusa said...

Thank you, truth.

I, too, hope someone inside Kimkins will step up to the plate and help this young girl.

MrsMenopausal said...

I hope someone reaches out to this girl and helps her. Not being responded to after such an honest exposure of herself to members there must certainly hurt. It's scary to think that she's at KK with what she's already dealing with, let alone being ignored by members and staff.
Thanks for trying to get her help, Medusa.

Anonymous said...

I love that every thought counts part of her email siggy guess yours don't Medusa

wow! so Patti thinks the girl is a fake poster inside Kimkins? even if you think that on the chance she might be real you try to help.

Anonymous said...

I hope a reply from Dee is either awaiting moderation or in your e-mail box.
This is too serious to ignore!

Unknown said...

I hope someone can link the girl to weighing the facts.

It helped me tremendously!

Medusa said...

LJ, thanks for mentioning posting a link to MrsMenopausal's blog, Weighing the Facts. You're right. It's an excellent resource. Here is the URL:

http://weighingthefacts.blogspot.com/

I hope the young girl at Kimkins checks it out.

Medusa said...

MrsM, thanks for your comment. I hope she checks out your blog, Weighing the Facts (http://weighingthefacts.blogspot.com/) as I know it would help her so much.

Medusa said...

2Big, it's hard to believe, isn't it?

It's beyond me why no one has responded to this poor girl who is struggling with so many issues.

How anyone could turn a blind eye to someone who is so obviously in distress is inconceivable to me.

Medusa said...

Cognomen, there are no comments awaiting moderation or e-mails from Dee as of 6:00 p.m. this evening (May 15, 2008).

Anonymous said...

Ummm...Pepperdine does not have a pre-med program, nor do they have any juniors who are just 17-years old.

Anonymous said...

"Anonymous said...
Ummm...Pepperdine does not have a pre-med program, nor do they have any juniors who are just 17-years old."

The girl's username apparently sounds a bit like "sock." Could this be one of Heidi/CrispyBread's tricks to sniff out the moles at Kimkins?

Anonymous said...

Why would you take this childs personal & private post from within a private forum where search engines can not find her words & post them out here on the WWW very public internet for the world to see & risk being picked up by every search engine known to mankind for years to come?

Your so called help is possibly causing more harm than good!

What adult would exploit a child like you have done, how selfish of you!

Medusa said...

To anonymous @ 6:30 p.m:

"What adult would exploit a child like you have done, how selfish of you!"

Your question would be more appropriately asked of Heidi Diaz/Kimmer.

MrsMenopausal said...

Thank you, LJ and Medusa.

Anonymous 1, I don't know how you know if they have a 17 year old or not but I did find this: http://seaver.pepperdine.edu/naturalscience/academics/pre-health/medschoolreqs.htm
so it appears they do have pre-med courses.

Anonymous said...

annonymous
better recheck your facts

http://www.pepperdine.edu/academics/programs/
scroll down to the Ps pre med is there

Pepperdine is now giving out info on the age of its students? in a public record? care to link us?

Medusa said...

Thank you MrsM and 2Big for confirming that Pepperdine does, in fact, have pre-med courses.

Anonymous said...

Hi,
That post was from over 11 months ago, & is in her personal journal.

What strikes you as her having a serious eating disorder?

She has only made 5 post ever, 4 this past month & her ticker only shows a loss of 3 lbs. So I do not understand where your concern comes from?

BamaGal said...

This is outrageous.

A 17 year old has no business even being allowed on the site. Also posting about having an ED and no one reaching out to her. Sounds like the remaining members at KK are very much like Heidi...birds of a feather I guess you could say.

Medusa Dee has responded---just not to you...have you checked out her post on LCF.

Low Carb Friends - View Single Post - Deedlynn


Well, I guess I have been compared to Heidi before....Yes, the girl sounds to be in trouble. Yes, I could have done something sooner. Yes, I was trying to figure some things out for myself, so yes, I guess I'm self-absorbed. So, possibly Medusa is right and she certainly has the right to post whatever she wants to about me on her blog.

As for me, I'm going to continue plugging away with trying to get some answers...Answers for Dee on Dee's journey....(maybe its selfish--but right now, I can't solve world peace along the way...).

Medusa said...

Anonymous at 7:42 p.m. said,
"...What strikes you as her having a serious eating disorder? She has only made 5 post ever, 4 this past month & her ticker only shows a loss of 3 lbs. So I do not understand where your concern comes from?"

HELLO??? Anyone home??? Did you not read the following?

"I have this tricky little thing called an eating disorder.

It's bothered me for a long, long time. I have screamed at God, I have screamed at my parents, I have screamed at myself. I have cut myself. I have contemplated suicide...When I was 12 I had anorexia and since then I have developed a pretty clean case of Binge Eating Disorder."

Medusa said...

Yes, Bama, I saw Dee's post. I'm speechless. Thanks for linking to it.

What I don't get is why Dee keeps referring to herself in the third person?

Here's just one example from a post of hers in the Fascination thread:

"Thanks for the responses. I can tell you, I know Dee well enough, that if I do get banned, there won't be an opportunity to say it was an error or that I can "conditionally" come back. That will be that. Not the type to go back and "beg", my friends know how to find me."

WTH??

And again in her post you linked to, she says, "Answers for Dee on Dee's journey."

Wassup with this third-person talk?

MrsMenopausal said...

anonymous, you mean she posted that long ago and no one over there bothered to comment? Wow.

As for her eating disorder, what makes you think that certain eating disorders don't merit concern and treatment? How do you determine which ones should be helped and which ones shouldn't? Is there a criteria you follow? This doesn't sound, IMO, like it should be ignored:
"...and I have this tricky little thing called an eating disorder. It's bothered me for a long, long time. I have screamed at God, I have screamed at my parents, I have screamed at myself. I have cut myself. I have contemplated suicide.."

Nor should this:
"When I was 12 I had anorexia and since then I have developed a pretty clean case of Binge Eating Disorder. (it does exist... it's not just made up)."

Singinglass said on one of the TV broadcasts(paraphrasing) that they're aware there are people there with eating disorders but they try and support them. What kind of support has this young woman received at Kimkins? Has Singinglass, Heidi, Gary, or any other admin offered support, guidance, help of any kind?

Anonymous said...

Trying to help. This young lady is a blogger? I've googled various phrases from what you posted and no results. What a sad mess. Patti can NOT be for real -- no one except Heidi is that cold blooded when it comes to the health of underage people at Kcom.

Anonymous said...

"Well, Bob Dole thinks that Bob Dole MIGHT have an ED".
(rolleyes)

Nancy Ellyn said...

Medusa! You are a warrior, my hero, and I adore you! xxoo

Medusa said...

Thank you MrsM, Yucky, and Nancy Ellyn for your wonderful comments and support.

Anonymous said...

Unbelievable! I can't get over how some could dismiss this cry for help. Even if a person is 99% sure that it's a fake post, is a precious human life not worth the effort just in case in their 1% of uncertainty is where she exists?

ITA with others Medusa, you're an awesome lady for having compassion and acting on that!

Medusa said...

Cognomen, thank you so much for your kind comments.

Anonymous said...

Hello,
I can understand your concern.

The reason why probably no one there has addressed that girls issue is that she made a statement in her personal journal, that's kind of like your personal diary, meaning she didn't address it to anybody in search of a response.

That is a BIG Forum over there, so I can see how easily it could be overlooked.

I do not think there is anyway possible for anyone to personally read everyone elses personal journals. That would have to be something you would just stumble across, or were searching for for a reason.

I guess what I do not understand is this:

Why put the pressure on this Dee or Patti Person to address this issue with this girl when you obviously already have SPY's (or Moles)or whatever you call the people within your group that has access to the site in there copying peoples post?

So why hasn't one of these people that are so concerned not already talked to this girl?

I see everyday over on LCF inside information from the Kimkins site, so I KNOW that the ducks have access, so why haven't the ducks already talked to this girl?

Also, why have you not just signed up for a membership & gone & talked to her yourself?

I am not trying to be snarky, I am really just curious about this, so I will thank-you in advance for understanding that this is a legitimate question.

Thanks

Medusa said...

To Anonymous at 3:53 p.m.

Many thanks for your comment.

I understand the point you make regarding the girl's initial post, which she made in her personal journal, being overlooked.

It's a shame, though, that no one has responded to this, her most recent comment:

"I am kind of disappointed because so far, no one has responded to any of my posts on this site."

I was informed this morning that no one at Kimkins, as yet, has responded to this young girl, who, as I noted in an update today on my blog post, is not a sock puppet at Kimkins. She is everything she described herself as being in her journal entry.

With respect to a mole contacting this girl, it would only result in that person being "flagged" by one of the KK admins, especially after the publication of my blog post. Both PMs and e-mails are tracked on Kimkins and the mole would be exposed and banned very quickly. Heidi tracks IPs and has banned many for no legitimate reason whatsoever.

The reason I approached both Dee and Patti is that they are currently both Kimkins "cover girls," for lack of a better descriptive term, and Heidi/Kimmer would be less likely to ban them than a "regular" member of Kimkins for engaging with this young girl.

Regarding my joining Kimkins to reach this girl: I could not, in all good conscience, do so. To line Heidi's pockets with one red cent by joining her website would fly in the face of my views about the fraud she continues to perpetrate and the dangers of her starvation diet.

If you have any further questions, Anonymous, I'd be pleased to address them.

Anonymous said...

FYI: (I am not that other anonymous person)I'm a different one, but wanted to tell you that in responce to this

{"I am kind of disappointed because so far, no one has responded to any of my posts on this site."}

that was one of her first post when she returned, she has since been welcomed and has made a few more post.

More than likely as she makes friends and gets settled into a group, someone will read her journal and possibly address the issue.

I know when I first got there I was pretty much overlooked too, I don't believe people get intentionally ignored, more than likely it is simply overlooked, lost or buried in all the post, and threads.
:)

Medusa said...

Anonymous @ 6:46 PM...

Thank you SO much for letting me know that the young girl has received a response to her post.

I hope that someone will read her journal and suggest that she contact one of the ED help-line numbers in the main body of my blog post. She desperately needs help.

Again, many thanks, Anonymous.

Anonymous said...

Just wondering. Any further news of this young person?

Anonymous said...

I know that this happened awhile ago, but this whole post leaves me very confused. I believe that you are trying to help people, but the original posting that you site is very questionable. How can a 17 year old be a junior at Pepperdine University? Is she a genius? A prodigy? If not, then at 17 she would likely be a junior or senior in HIGH SCHOOL. Why was this issue not raised? From a very objective point of view, this seems very suspicious and at least deserves inquiry rather than blind acceptance. It indicates potential insincerity which calls the entire issue into question. Before blowing up and blaming anyone, the proper course would first be to ascertain the truth regarding such obvious questions as this. If this poster is completely unreliable about age and/or education, how can the poster be trusted about anything else? I just don't understand how anyone can be so self-righteous about helping this "person" without bothering to learn the truth about her. It seems like steps along the path to truth were seriously skipped. Again, I am totally objective and found this site by accident (although I do believe that it is a positive site trying to do good), but from an outside point of view, blind attacks on the KK diet such as this in the light of such questionable facts just deters from your credibility. I want to help you succeed, and in tough love, I must point out that this situation was not handled in a way that evokes clarity or confidence in your position. If you are truly correct about the detriments of the KK diet, then you can stand on actual facts. This girl's posting, however, requires further inquiry and your failure to do so before sending out attacks and accusations negatively impacts your pursuit of a positive cause. Please be more thorough in the future if you want to make a strong impact. Thank you and best wishes!

Medusa said...

Anonymous,

I can assure you that confirmation was received from Pepperdine University that this girl was, in fact, a student there. And she was suffering from an eating disorder. As a result, your opinions on this matter are moot.

Heidi Diaz is still running Kimkins, though her membership has dwindled to a trickle due to a class-action lawsuit launched against her by former members. For more information, check out Mariasol's blog:

http://mariasol-mariasol.blogspot.com/

Anonymous said...

Patty said: "... People like you blame the world for your problems when the only one who can really make a change is you. ..."

I say: "Protection."