Jr. High and High School

Abandonment issues combined with a destructive self-image prove to be a lethal combination for anyone and even more so for a young girl navigating puberty, teenage years, high school social pressures and the uncertainty of life as high school graduation approaches. Combine all of that with eating disorders and you get a picture of me throughout Jr. High and High School. A real mess mentally and emotionally - perfectly put together from the outside.

After the bus I was determined to stay skinny at all costs. What are those costs? At the time I didn't even consider any "cost", I was only interested in the immediate result - skinny. The consequence at the time was being hungry, very hungry but to me the pay off was better than being hungry. Staying skinny was worth more to me than eating. The long term costs were something I knew nothing about. These long term costs didn't materialize until many years later, after it was too late to prevent the damage that was done (more about this later in my journey).

To put it in perspective I am 5'3" tall and have been this height since 7th grade (remember the Bus Ride) this was my height then and it is now. As I began drastically dropping weight my lowest weight was in the 90's; 95-97 pounds never going above 105 pounds in high school. This was all well and "good" I felt "good" about the way I looked. This was very skinny but still a weight that to others looked "ok" and didn't cause alarm. No one had any concern about how extremely thin I was becoming. After all I was just being a teenage girl, every teenage girl is "thin" or wants to be right? 

According to an Anorexic BMI calculator a 17 year old, 5'3" girl weighing 102 pounds is at an "anorexic weight". So as I continued with my weight loss and dropped to the mid 90 pound weight range I was becoming dangerously thin. 

More problems began when being skinny all of a sudden didn't seem to be enough to keep people around. Dealing with my abandonment issues I ventured into destructive, unhealthy behavior and relationships as a way of connecting with people and keeping their "love" and attention. This is when the drinking and sexual activity started in high school.

A November 2015 article on Very Well states:

"Teens who are struggling with their own sense of self-worth are the most prone to unwise decisions about sex."

This is very true, it’s alarming and based on the date of this article this issue is still a concern today, not just something we dealt with in the 80's.  

Keeping the focus on eating disorders I will only briefly discuss underage drinking and promiscuity. Some will think "all high school kids experiment with drinking and sexual activity". While this may be the case for many teenagers in America it is my belief that when someone is dealing with serious psychological issues such as abandonment and eating disorders this "experimentation" becomes increasingly damaging. You end up with a young person incapable of saying no, someone who continues to retreat into a hole of self loathing and self destructive behavior. Someone ripe for abuse physically, mentally and emotionally. This is something to seriously consider as adults raising teens today. We need to pay attention.

Back to my journey...

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Photo Credit: tlparadis, pixabay

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Thank you to EverythingMom for promoting this post June 5, 2016 on their EverythingMom Facebook page and Twitter account!

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