Diabetes isn't real. It is just a bunch of people who band together and pretend like their bodies aren't producing enough insulin or, if they are, producing it incorrectly. They "have" to inject themselves with proper doses of the hormone and buy sugar-free candy, cookies and diet pop.
If you ask me, it is just a bunch of complainers who are trying to get attention with their fancy finger prickers or insulin pumps.
Don't you agree?
Of course not.
You are enraged. Mad. Disgusted. And you probably want to find me and beat me up for the lies I am spreading about a very serious disease that affects 17.9 million people in the United States alone, and that only accounts those who are diagnosed, according to the American Diabetes Association.
I know exactly how you feel -- all those emotions are just what I feel when I hear a person say eating disorders are fake.
Eating disorders, some people say, are a selfish person's disease. Anorexics just want attention and to be skinny. And bulimics? What a joke. Anyone would throw up after binging on huge amounts of food.
But the people who say or even think that couldn't be further from the truth. As many as 10 million females and one million males are fighting a life and death battle with anorexia or bulimia, and millions more face overeating, over-exercising or partaking in a combination of illnesses based on the National Eating Disorder Association statistics.
And the battle really can be life and death. Whatever a person's eating disorder, it messes with his or her body. The biggest concern is heart health -- there have been cases of men and women (or should I say girls and boys?) under 18 having heart attacks. Others are acquiring osteoporosis. Some women can't have children because of what they are "doing to their bodies," and others die from various medical complications.
But as it turns out, eating disorders are real diseases that people don't choose.
They are not a fad. They are not something people just "catch" -- much the same as people don't just "catch" diabetes. Similarly, people can't just snap out of anorexia or bulimia, nor can they snap out of diabetes.
Eating disorders are serious mental illnesses -- the No. 1 cause of death in the category, to be precise. Like other "real" diseases, there are different components that contribute to one developing, including physical, emotional and social issues. There is no single cause, and there is no single cure.
I have been in recovery (notice I didn't say "cured") for two years now. I don't know what caused my anorexia, but I do know that each day I engage in daily battles with food. I sometimes force-feed myself so I don't end up back in the hospital, where I was force-fed in a locked-down psychiatric unit for two months. I dread reading the number on the scale when I am at the doctor, who tells me I need to up my calorie intake because I am at an unsafe weight. I fear the look on my parents' and fiancé's faces when I get home from a break because my clothes are baggy and hugging me is like embracing a scarecrow.
And that, especially that, I am not doing on purpose. Neither are most of the other millions of people with eating disorders.
Those of us with eating disorders, like diabetics, must take care of ourselves every day.
We have to eat certain foods and sit next to people with "real" diseases in the doctor's office.
So you tell me: What makes our disease any less valid?
