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Paper ThinAccording to statistics, an estimated 30 million people in the U.S will suffer from an eating disorder at some point during their lives1,2. At the age of 16, Justine became one of these people. She was diagnosed with anorexia nervosa, a type of eating disorder with a mortality rate higher than any other mental health diagnosis3. As the illness slowly saturated every aspect of her life, she began to express her fears and frustrations by journaling. At the height of her illness, these entries were all that she felt she had left of herself. Though she didn’t know it at the time, her parents were reading her entries. As dark as things looked, what she wrote gave them hope and the tools that they needed to stay one step ahead of the illness in the fight for her life. Now, years later, she shares these entries with the hope that they will give insight both to those currently suffering from an eating disorder and to the friends and family members that love them.
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1. Hudson, James I., et al. “The Prevalence and Correlates of Eating Disorders in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication.” Biological Psychiatry, vol. 61, no. 3, 2007, pp. 348–358.
2. Grange, Daniel Le, et al. “Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified Presentation in the US Population.” International Journal of Eating Disorders, vol. 45, no. 5, 2012, pp. 711–718.
3. Smink, Frédérique R. E., et al. “Epidemiology of Eating Disorders: Incidence, Prevalence and Mortality Rates.” Current Psychiatry Reports, vol. 14, no. 4, 2012, pp. 406–414.
2. Grange, Daniel Le, et al. “Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified Presentation in the US Population.” International Journal of Eating Disorders, vol. 45, no. 5, 2012, pp. 711–718.
3. Smink, Frédérique R. E., et al. “Epidemiology of Eating Disorders: Incidence, Prevalence and Mortality Rates.” Current Psychiatry Reports, vol. 14, no. 4, 2012, pp. 406–414.