As
we get ready to start yet another National Eating Disorder Awareness Week (February
22nd- February 28th, 2021), let’s take a look at some
famous individuals who have struggled with disordered eating and body image.
Often,
many of us can believe and focus on how our struggles are only ours, and not
shared with other people.
Famous
people can appear to have it all.
Not
so.
The
same issues that plague us, plague them.
So,
let’s look at a number of “stars” who are not immune from the disordered food,
weight, and body image issues “the rest of us” battle on a daily basis.
Karen
Carpenter
This incredible singer from the 1970s put Anorexia on the map.
Before Carpenter’s descent into emaciation which, unfortunately, claimed her life in the early 1980s, no one really knew or discussed eating disorders like Anorexia, Bulimia, and Binge Eating.
According
to sources like Wikipedia, Karen began her disorder like many of us out there:
with body dissatisfaction and a “harmless” diet.
Starting
in high school, after the young singer viewed an unflattering concert photo of
herself, which, to her, looked heavy, she changed her diet…
“Her eating habits also changed around this time; she
would try to remove food from her plate by offering tastes to others with whom
she was dining.”
From
that point on, Carpenter was fixated on losing weight, avoiding food, and
exercising. There was deep rooted insecurity in her own talent as a
singer/musician. Add to that, public scrutiny and the newly added pressure from
the fame she and her brother, Richard encountered, and an enmeshed,
unhealthy mother-daughter relationship Karen had with her mother also
exacerbated her condition.
As
time progressed, things worsened.
“By late 1981, Carpenter was using thyroid replacement medication to increase her
metabolism. She used the medication in conjunction with increased consumption
of the laxatives (up to 80–90 tablets per night). She lost more weight, felt
dizzy and that her heart was beating irregularly.”
Sadly,
Karen died on February 4, 1983. She collapsed in
her bedroom at her parents' home. When the paramedics arrived, they found her
heart was beating only once every 10 seconds.
Autopsy results stated her death
was caused from "emetine cardiotoxicity due to or as a consequence of anorexia
nervosa". Furthermore,
Carpenter's heart failure was caused by repeated use of ipecac syrup, an over-the-counter emetic
often used to induce vomiting in cases of overdosing or poisoning.
Karen’s death got the world’s attention. Even though
eating disorders have existed for centuries, Carpenter was the most famous face
to experience the affliction at the time. Talent, success, and money could not
spare her from the demons which drove her condition.
Her legacy is not only one of a beautiful, haunting
voice, but also for spotlighting an all-too-common mental illness impacting
people in painful ways.
May she truly rest in peace.
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