| Written by Diana, on 09-06-2007 00:30 |
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AMAZON REVIEW OF THE HBO DOCUMENTARY: THIN
Title: Glimpse into Eating Disorder Thinking & Treatment
Review: I definitely agree that this documentary is limited in it's portrayal of the "reality" of eating disorders and treatment. For several reasons, this still isn't the ULTIMATE look into the lives of eating disordered patients, though it's the best to date. Patients do die as a result of eating disorders, 7%-10%, a fact that is not made out as a very serious in this film, any one of the women portrayed were on the brink when they arrived. You lose the fact that most eating disorder patients, patients with symptoms as serious as those of Shelly and even those with less serious symptoms, spend their ENTIRE LIVES fighting. Spending years in many different types of treatment, being treated, inside & outside residential treatment centers, as if they should "just eat" because family members and friends don't understand. As frustrated as those around us can get, understanding the thinking seems to be harder than most any other "mental" illness, because why can't we "just eat?" I think this film does a good job of portraying how nurses and other personnel act towards patients, and how patients, both inside and outside of treatment, feel that they are not only misunderstood, but basically treated as though our illnesses are just a burden, so "get over it" so to speak, when in fact it is MUCH more complicated.
The only other thing left out of this movie is the fact that men can also have eating disorders and that there are treatment centers out there that are for males AND females, though many are just for females. From my viewpoint, the film also shows the importance of small 6-8 patient residential treatment centers since at least three of the four patients left too abruptly and returned to their disordered behavior immediately after leaving treatment. Such a large group as The Renfrew Center allows “cliques” to form, rivalries, and lack of trust which is a major source treatment failure because patients won’t open up to one another. In regards to the facility in this film, the life of a patient is also limited, whereas other treatment centers with fewer patients find help not just through talking & eating together, but through learning how to be comfortable with everyday tasks like grocery shopping, eating at restaurants, finding hobbies that bring them joy, and many other “outings” to treat the whole person and prepare them for a completely new (and hopefully improved) life without an eating disorder.
The description above "Thin offers hope, but no happily-ever-after ending for these women" is truely the lesson of the disorder and of this film. Like alcoholism, you never truely "recover," but if you are one of the lucky ones, you can reach a state of constantly being "in recovery," always with starvation and purging in the back of your mind.
Insurance companies today have somehow moved up in rank over our doctors, telling us when we’re well, what medications we can take, and what treatments will work, despite the fact that they don’t know us, don’t have medical degrees, and don’t know anything about anything. The statement made “People treat it like a cold, but it’s more like cancer” is not only how PEOPLE treat eating disorders, but how INSURANCE treats them. This film should stand as a testament to all eating disorders who are still struggling due to insurance companies who WON’T LET US GET HELP.
Tags: anorexia, eating disorders, HBO documentaries, Shelly Guillory, Brittany Robinson, Thin
Last update: 25-06-2007 22:46
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