Aimee Moore
Aimee Moore
[NOTE: To read the latest update on Aimee's condition, please click here:
ANOREXIA & BULIMIA: THE TRAGIC LIFE OF AIMEE MOORE...LATEST UPDATE ]
Following the news yesterday that Aimee Moore had been admitted to Credit Valley Hospital in Mississauga, Ontario, for tube feeding, the following article appeared in the Globe and Mail.
"ANOREXIC IN PUBLIC
Glorifying illness - or helping out?
HAYLEY MICK
July 9, 2008
It is a private moment played out in bedrooms each day: a young woman standing in the mirror, checking herself out.
Except in this case, the reflection was of a skeletal 60-pound woman named Aimee Moore, poking the spots on her concave stomach where she wanted to lose weight. And instead of being private, those images were broadcast to the world.
This week, less than five months after appearing on the Dr. Phil show, the 28-year-old Stratford, Ont., woman who suffers from anorexia and bulimia was admitted to a Mississauga hospital where she will be fed through a tube and treated to heal her damaged digestive system - an update that has already been published in several Ontario newspapers.
Like others who have suffered from an eating disorder, Ms. Moore has sought media exposure in a bid to find the help she desperately needs and steer others away from the illness that has consumed her life for 16 years. "She and her mother are working to try and help other people," her father, Dave Moore, said yesterday from his home in Stratford.
But some experts say that that exposure, in some cases, can be a catalyst for the disease - and holding a mirror up to the horror may do more to perpetuate the illness than prevent it.
"I don't see the advantage for the patient," says Hany Bissada, director of Ottawa's Regional Centre for the Treatment of Eating Disorders. "Television [thrives on] shock effect. That's good for Dr. Phil. But it doesn't do anything for the patient. In some twisted way, it glorifies her illness."
Ms. Moore was 14 the first time she was hospitalized for her eating disorder. By 18, her story became public after her mother, Pat Moore, who had founded an eating disorder support group, shared their struggle at a public forum. Ms. Moore later told a Kitchener-Waterloo Record reporter: "I feel a lot more free now."
But on Feb. 25, Ms. Moore appeared on Dr. Phil weighing 60 pounds. She described herself as fat, evil and hopeless. Cameras filmed her vomiting into a garbage can, then gulping down food in the middle of the night. She described how she would eat vomit to induce gagging.
Ms. Moore had reached out to the show, not the other way around.
"If I don't get help soon I don't think I'm going to survive," Ms. Moore wrote in an e-mail to a producer. She had tried several other treatment clinics in Ontario and the United States without success.
Since the show aired, Ms. Moore's progress has been chronicled in several front-page stories in the Kitchener-Waterloo Record. Some outlined the intimate details of her life: the diagnoses of mental illness, the hasty marriage that failed, the childhood abuse by a stranger, which her mother said led to her daughter's eating disorder.
Mr. Moore said he didn't find the show sensational. "It's what goes on," he said. "I have to live with it all the time."
Anne Elliott, program director of Sheena's Place, a Toronto eating disorder clinic, says in some cases, media exposure can raise awareness and encourage people who are struggling to seek help.
But after viewing a clip from the Dr. Phil show, she said people may take the wrong message because Ms. Moore's case is so extreme. "I'd be worried that people would see that and say, 'Well, I don't look like that so I don't have a disorder,' " she said.
Without the root causes of eating disorders being shown, she added, people may adopt a "blame the victim" attitude. "She's suffering from a serious illness... ," Ms. Elliott said. "I would worry that people would see her and say, 'Well, she just needs to eat.' It is about eating, but it's not that simple," Ms. Elliott said.
Dr. Bissada, a psychiatrist, said that those with eating disorders may be afraid that if they get better, they'll be forgotten by relatives and friends. In some cases, Dr. Bissada said, media exposure can fuel that desperate need for attention. In others, they are seeking treatment, which can be a positive outcome.
In April, Ms. Moore returned to Ontario after seven weeks at Magnolia Creek, an Alabama treatment centre where she'd been treated free of charge since appearing on the Dr. Phil show. She needed medical help because she now has a stomach condition that makes it extremely painful to take in food.
Ms. Moore will likely be at Credit Valley Hospital in Mississauga for at least a month, Mr. Moore said. His wife has rented a place nearby and plans to visit every day.
Once Ms. Moore's stomach improves, she has been invited to return to the Alabama clinic for free treatment. "She wants to go back there," Mr. Moore said. "But she has to get herself stabilized and functioning again."
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What do you think?
Does media attention raise awareness and help prevent eating disorders or glorify and perpetuate them?
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10 comments:
I think in lots of cases the media attention on eating disorders glrofies them. It's always about the shock factor - it's always emaciated anorexics in the stories, never normal/overweight bulimics or compulsive overeaters. As a person with an eating disorder seeing Aimee doesn't make me more likely to get help - i look at her and see that my life is so much better, and therefore in some ways i'm not deserving of treatment - i'm not that sick and i'm not gonna die of my illness.
The main thing about cases like Aimee is now people all over the world know her as "the anorexic", and as soon as she recovers even a little bit she's going to be losing her identity and the attention and interest in her life. That's a big problem for all people recovering from EDs - trying to find something to replace them with - a new identity, new interests, new ways of spending their time. But for Aimee it's gonna be a hell of a lot worse.
Josie, thanks so much for taking the time to comment.
Your comments are superb and I concur with them...which leaves me feeling that I'm between a rock and a hard place...
By blogging about EDs am I glorifying them? I have wrestled with this for a long time.
The one thing, though, that has kept me going are comments I do receive from people, this being one:
"Anonymous said...
Thank you so much for posting this blog. I was searching for pro ana websites, because I was considering that lifestyle, when I came across your site. It made me realize how dangerous anorexia and bulimia really can be. You are truly making a positive difference in the world, and you have probably saved many, many lives through this blog.
THANK YOU
May 23, 2008 2:35 AM"
Link: http://www.2medusa.com/2008/02/are-you-anorexic-bulimic-pro-ana-pro.html
I agree that Aimee has a very difficult road ahead of her...once the media attention dies down, what then?
Again, many thanks, Josie, for your comments.
I read this article this morning. I'm not sure what the right answer is to this, I only have my opinion. I think information is crucial,that being educated about something is extremely important. Not only for those with EDs but for everyone.
I agree that the media sometimes glorifies eating disorders. In my opinion educating is different than sensationalizing. You're educating with your blogging and you've helped, Medusa. The comments you've received prove that.
I see what you're saying, Josie. It's sad that an ED becomes an identity when there's so much more to who we are. I wish it were different.
Hopefully, Aimee will learn in recovery that who she is, is not defined by her ED and the lack of attention brought on by her battle will not be an issue.
My blog: Weighing The Facts
MrsM, thank you so much for your very astute comments and kind words.
And for those who have not read MrsMenopausal's blog, Weighing the Facts, please click on the link in her comment. Her well-respected blog is full of excellent resource information on eating disorders, body image, etc.
medusa - as MrsM says, your blog is more educational than sensational - your aim is to educate and discuss as opposed to being a freakshow on paper which people are buying into (as is the case of magazines!).
That anonymous comment highlights the importance of the effect the media has in the portrayal of eating disorders - if they weren't glamorised and sensationalised, the 'pro-ana lifestyle' wouldn't be such a big deal. Pro-ana will always exist online for as long as there's anorexics online (because pro-ana is a reflection of how it feels to have the illness in the early stages - how the mind skews itself to make it seem like the behaviour is justified and okay), but i can see pro-ana as being something that 'normal' healthy people should stay well away from, before it's too late!
{{{Josie}}}
It's that fine line between education and sensationalism that has always concerned me and I try to be ever conscious of stepping over that line.
Again, many thanks for your comments. I truly appreciate hearing your perspective on eating disorders and pro-ana.
I know my granddaughter's condition deteriorated drastically before we had an inkling of the problem. She had well-developed digestive problems, as well as racing heart and other grim indicators, before we started getting answers. Some, we didn't like. (It's all in her head - that makes her stomach hurt that much? Noooo.) To the best of our knowledge, she never visited or read pro-ana sites. Now that it's out in the open, she doesn't feel so isolated and is recovering slowly, very slowly. Medusa, your site has alternately horrified me and given me hope. KUTGW.
{{{Anonymous}}}
With the love and support of your family, I am confident your granddaughter will recover. She has made such amazing progress to date, and I'm sure that now that her illness is out in the open, she will continue to make slow but steady progress in regaining her health.
And thank you so much for your kind words.
Yes, coming from someone with an eating disorder.
As do your posts about glamourous models and beautiful women killing themselves. You don't realise that you're doing it but by making those posts, with things like "how many more models have to die", you're perpetrating the myth that the life of someone visually beautiful means more than that of someone not.
{{{Seaneen}}}
"As do your posts about glamourous models and beautiful women killing themselves. You don't realise that you're doing it but by making those posts, with things like "how many more models have to die", you're perpetrating the myth that the life of someone visually beautiful means more than that of someone not."
Seaneen, thank you for your comment.
It is certainly not my intention to convey that "the life of someone visually beautiful means more than that of someone not."
From my perspective, those blog posts show that even those who are "visually beautiful," who seemingly have a much easier time making their way through life because of their looks, can also be wracked with self-doubt, eating disorders, depression, suicidal thoughts, etc.
I, in no way, mean to diminish the lives of those who are not thought of as being "visually beautiful." My blog posts focus not only on the beautiful.
Eating disorders are not selective...they strike both the beautiful and those who may be considered by others to not be beautiful.
Again, thanks, Seaneen, for taking the time to comment. I really appreciate hearing your perspective and opinions.
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