It’s a Gift! (Imelda Victoria)

Losing weight, well known as diet, is a common thing. Both women and men, they are doing it at least once in a life time. Various methods of diet is chosen, from healthy to  unhealthy one. The famous eating disorder, Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa, are the unhealthy method which is well-known as the fastest method. It has become most of women’s dream now to be having a slender body. Why skinny means ‘good’ for them? In my adolescent class, it was mentioned that media plays a big role in this one. In most of media, women who wear a beautiful dress in a beautiful place with great scenery are them who is skinny. When a women saw it and fell in love with the dress, they want to become as skinny as the model so the dress will be a good fit to her. When they realize that their body isn’t same with the model, they will begin to diet. When they realize that almost of their diet method unable to make them skinny, they will begin to choose a dangerous method which is avoiding food. Of course the method of avoiding food is the fastest method for diet. But the continuity of this method will develop the fear of being fat again and lead the person to Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa. Anorexia Nervosa is a form of eating disorder which characterized by immoderate food restriction and irrational fear of gaining weight, as well as a distorted body self-perception. While Bulimia Nervosa is characterized by binge eating and purging it later on, by vomiting or consuming laxative or doing an excessive exercise. That food rejection is actually a total wrong way. Vegetable, meat, fruit, and anything that could be eaten was in their place in order to support our life. Everything in this world which is moving and have life, needs energy to be able to do so. Energy comes from something that can be accepted in our stomach, which we call as food. A person who reject food is also reject their own life. They reject their own life supply and imagine it as a thing which is poisonous, they will become fat if they eat it. They prioritize their outer than their inner. They devalue their own life. I think it is same with a rejection of their own existence. They can’t accept their body appearance, which is actually part of themselves.

Another thing that seems not related with eating disorder but somehow related is baby blues. Baby blues involve mood lability, tearfulness, and some mild anxiety and depressive symptoms which experienced by some mother shortly after childbirth. The same thing that we could see is the depression that come along with eating disorder and baby blues. But depression that come from anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa is caused by the fear of being fat. While depression in baby blues is come from their own child. They are confused with every new things happened in their life after childbirth. They are unprepared and don’t know how to dissolve it, so they undergo depression.

In my opinion, the relation between anorexia and bulimia with baby blues is inability to accept their own condition. The ‘want’ of being skinny that turned into ‘need’ caused by women’s inability to accept their current body appearance. First they want to lose weight but after they’ve lost some of it, they began to raise a fear of being fat again. They can’t accept their own condition, which is “already being skinny”. And then for baby blues, unprepared mother who lead a live with no burden before childbirth will be burdened after their child born. The child who come into their life is of course changing their live. Mother who unprepared with knowledge of how to raising their child will undergo many stressful event after the childbirth. They will think that the baby is the cause of those stressful event, and then some of them will begun to blame their child. Actually it is same with anorexia and bulimia, the mother couldn’t accept their current condition which is caused by their lack of preparation before childbirth so they put a blame to their child.

Both food and child is nature’s gift to us, human. It’s not a hindrance to our live. It’s a lesson. A lesson to learn how to appreciate our live that will always changing every second. A lesson to learn how to be thankful with our condition. A lesson that will make us treasure our life.

With just eating a bread everyday, we still alive.

With women’s ability to give born, human race will not extinct.

By living, we could see more wonderful things in life which is hidden to us for now.

So… It’s a gift! Because no one know it’s own future, but we can create our future ourselves.

5 November 2012