Here's the Skinny

Bettina* is an eighteen year old girl who is 5'4" in height with long, brown, wavy hair. She has a cheery disposition and a natural maternal instinct over her loved ones. Her friends say that she is "one of those people who won't let you go to the bathroom alone just so she knows you aren't going to get kidnapped". She was an honor student in high school and is doing well in college. She likes to engage in physical activities and other hobbies such as playing the piano and writing and if one were to observe her from afar, one would say her body is that of a normal, teenage, Filipino girl. She is intelligent, kind, and funny. Her friends would say that she is almost perfect. From this description you would probably think Bettina has very little struggle in life. You would not expect someone like her would be suffering from an eating disorder.

Eating disorders are conditions characterized by abnormal eating behaviors. There are several types of eating disorders such as Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia Nervosa, Binge Eating Disorder, and Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (EDNOS). Anorexia and Bulimia are the most common among all of these disorders. Dr. Ananya Mandal MD says, "eating disorders are mental illnesses that cause serious disturbances in a person's everyday diet". There are physical aspects to these disorders in order to be diagnosed however these are first and foremost a psychiatric illness. In other words, you do not need to be extremely underweight to be diagnosed with these disorders.

Bettina was about fifteen when a few of her family members started making comments about her weight, calling her "tabachoy" and "little miss piggy". Growing up, she was of normal body size. Medium, not too small and not too big and she was happy with that. She actually could not have cared less. However, when she hit puberty she started gaining weight. This is a normal thing that most girls go through due to the different hormone changes in their body, which was why she somehow resented her family for penalizing her for something she had not control over. She did not appreciate the fact that the people around her, especially her family could be so brutal when it came to pointing out her flaws. She took it upon herself to show them how much words like those can change someone. She wanted to show how much damage unnecessary comments such as tabachoy and piggy can really do to a person. Especially an impressionable thirteen year old. She went on a diet and started exercising with a goal to be "super duper skinny – like skeletal" so that she could prove a point. However, over time, she got stuck in the "must lose weight" mindset and started believing that she was actually fat and that getting thinner would make her life better and make her perfect. "I equated how much weight I lost to how happy I would be."

There were routines Bettina followed