I get the part about never being too rich, but you can be too thin

Now that the weather is warm, and no one is wearing bulky coats, I have noticed an alarming number of FOFs who look as if they’re anorexic. Their painfully thin arms and legs expose their knee and shoulder joints. Their chests are sunken. Their faces are drawn.


Most of these women are well dressed, so I don’t think they are simply malnourished. Is this a phenomenon? Do FOFs think they’re more desirable if they look like scarecrows? Do they think thinness will compensate for advancing age? Is FOF anorexia different than teenage anorexia?

Have these women suffered from anorexia for years?

I have a FOF friend who has been thin as long as I’ve known her, but she has definitely developed a severe eating disorder in the last few years. She pushes the food around her plate and eats three tiny bites, at most. She looks sickly. I don’t say anything to her because I know my words will fall on deaf ears. I hope she recognizes her problem before it’s too late.

0 Responses to “I get the part about never being too rich, but you can be too thin”

  1. valentine says:

    Some of these women have smoked all their lives…others don’t eat well because they are single, and others are depressed. All reasons for lack of appetite. Not a good sign.

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  2. Geri says:

    Hi Deborah,

    Me, too. Me, too. But I am far away from anorexic 🙂 I think it has something to do with control. We can’t control our age, but we can control our weight. It’s all so complicated. But it’s wonderful that we can share how we feel through our comments. I so appreciate your’s.

    Geri

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  3. Deborah Peterson Milne says:

    Such a timely piece Geri. I watched a segment on NBC’s the Today Show last week that spoke of the high # of ‘over their 40’s women’ that are developing eating disorders. No longer just a young persons disease. How terribly sad for us as women to get so far and still have severe, crippling body issues. I have to admit I think about my weight every darn day. I know better too…

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  4. Marsha Calhoun says:

    Too rich? No, hard to achieve. But too thin – definitely! And it is not at all true that looking thinner equals looking younger, although many women seem to think so. The woman who looked after my father in his last years once told my mother that she didn’t want to lose weight because it would make her skin sag and make her look old (this is the same woman who persuaded my mother to purchase a girdle with a fake bottom in it, to make up for the toll of the years on my mother’s otherwise admirable figure). I believe she was right.

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