Skinny.
Most would take the word “skinny” as a compliment, but after spending my 8th and 9th grade year in two different hospitals due to anorexia, I do not consider “skinny” to be a compliment. I can firmly say that while, yes, I was what people would call skinny for a majority of my life, the times where I was the skinniest, I was the least happy. But that’s where society deceived me as well as many more girls, boys, women, and men alike.
The “compliment” they strive for and “work so hard” for is depriving their body of nutrients and sucking the life out their brains and dulling their sparkle. You see people throw around “skinny” on social media like it is the nicest thing they could say to someone on their post. While you don’t really see it as much on a guy’s post, it’s not uncommon to go through a middle school, high school, and even college age or older women’s posts and see it commented on their pictures. It is something that society has told girls is a compliment.
When people say they wish that they were “skinny,” a person like me — one who has been through and has seen the true damage both physical and mental that being underweight causes — is appalled that it is considered a nice thing to say or a good thing to be.
During neither of my stays in treatment did anyone ever say — truthfully at least — that they were the happiest when they were their lowest weight. In fact, it was quite the opposite and as my friends in treatment and I gained weight, I could see the sparkle in our eyes brighten and the color in our cheeks come back.
SEE ALSO: 37 Things Only People Who've Been To Eating Disorder Rehab Will Understand
From my own experience, I can tell you what “skinny” actually looks like.
Skinny is your hair falling out every time you run your fingers through it (forget about the shower).
Your nails break from just tapping a table.
Your hands, feet and ankles are purple from lack of blood flow and even covered in three layers and a blanket you are freezing to death.
It damages your heart, kidneys and liver, cracks your skin.
And, above all, it kills your spirit.
When your friend posts that picture at the beach or at the tailgate sporting her freshly cut school shirt, we should comment “You are beautiful” or “Your smile is so bright.” Striving for someone to call us skinny and telling it to other people is only reinforcing the pain and suffering that it takes to deplete our body and truly be “skinny.”
