Alyssa D Martin

English 1020
23 March 2016

Outline
I.

Working Title: Skinny Cow

a. I wanted my title to be something that is catchy but also will catch
peoples attention. To be completely honest, I think this represents
Eating Disorders much better than you would think. Not all girls
that have Eating Disorders are stick skinny, but even the ones that
are still believe they are huge and covered in fat.

II.

Working Introduction

a. I want to explain briefly the definitions of what general Eating Disorders say to be, why I
believe this is not just a mental illness and may start as simple body image problems, and
the most common Eating disorders.
III.

Working Thesis

a. Eating Disorders are serious and life threatening but are they really a mental illness, in
other words, can this be triggered by a mix of self-image problems and severe
depression?
b. I want to work on this more, but this is the gist of what I would like to say.
IV.

Entry 1: Visual Display: picture

a. I think I want to start on a picture/photograph that my best friend Payton will be helping
me take. Im going to buy a scale and write something on it. Im not sure yet what Im

going to write but I think its going to say: never good enough. I want to start my first
entry with this because I think itll be good to open up to see how much this can truly
drag you in.
V.

Entry 2: Informational: Survey

a. Next, I want to have a survey but I have not conducted it yet. I think Ill interview 10
college aged-girls about if they think Eating Disorders are mental illness or body image
issues. Then, I will ask how they feel about themselves and if they have ever restricted
because of how they feel about themselves.
VI.

Entry 3: Visual Display: Graph

a. I think this flows perfectly and with the survey information I want to put the answers into
graph form. I think this will make the information easy to understand and really sink in.
Im not sure about the order of all of these but I would like to keep the survey and the
graph together. I will continue to play around with other orderings but it doesnt make
sense to me to put statistics at the end of the paper. I believe that statistics should prove
why this topic is important and thats kind of late if used at the end of the paper.
VII.

Entry 4: Creative Writing: Short Story

a. For this portion, I really would like to talk about bystanders that notice someones eating
habits are not healthy or are confided in and never tell anyone. I think I would like to put
the story setting inside a college sorority where the girl with the Eating Disorder ends up
being hospitalized and none of her sisters said anything because they thought she could
lose a couple pounds and look better anyways.
VIII. Entry 5: Creative Writing: Stream-of-Consciousness

a. Im kind of just placing this here because I have no idea where to put it but I want to freewrite. Sure, this may not look pretty but I think that fits pretty well with my topic. Im
stressing the importance of not focusing so much on how things look and more focusing
on how they work. For example, I hate my thighs. They look awful because I run but also
have a high caloric diet, so the front of my thighs is all muscle so I just have fat on the
back of my legs. Instead of focusing so much on how they look, focus on how they work.
They allow me to run, they store fat in case my body ever needs to use it. They bend in
the ways they should and no ways they shouldnt. Without them, I wouldnt be able to
move around.
IX.

Entry 6: Print Media: Advice Column

a. I have always seen at the end of Public Service Announcements that they put the helpline number up at the end of the showing. So this made great sense to me. I wanted to do
the Advice Column because if this truly is a self-image issue, how can we make sure to
protect people and teach them to love themselves? A huge part of Eating Disorders is
from the videos that I have seen, most of the girls know they could die from their
starvation or binging, but dont care because they hate themselves so much. Not just
externally but internally too. I think whether we ever suffer from something like this or
not, we could all learn to love ourselves and treat ourselves better. I would also like to
discuss what to do if you notice someone else might have an Eating Disorder and how to
then act and stop being a bystander.
X.

Entry 7: Visual with Words: Ad

a. I saved my darkest Entry for last to kind of keep this floating in your mind for a while. I
wanted my ad to say something like: Eating Disorders: you sure you still want one? Im

not sure yet exactly what I want it to say but I picture it turning out a lot like the Meth
advertisements you see on T.V.
XI.

Annotated Bibliography-

Barber, Chris. "Mens Health 8: Eating Disorders, Domestic Abuse and Self-harming."
British Journal of Healthcare Assistants 9.6 (2015): 284-87. EBSCOhost. Web.
3 Mar. 2016.
I like this specific journal because although it does deal with other issues as well, it brings to my
attention that men can also deal with Eating Disorders which is frequently forgotten. I love how
the site brings up Pro-Ana websites. Bingo. These sites encourage others in their eating orders
to stay strong and stay skinny. They promote lots of rules and tips to avoid eating or how to
purge more successfully. They often include photos of thinspirations and things of that nature
as encouragements. It is one thing to struggle with hating food, it is completely a different
monster to encourage others to also do so. These websites often leave out the fact that you can
die or have permanent body damage because of it. I am so glad this was brought up, no matter
how surprising it was to come up in a Mens Health journal. I was sure that some other article
that I found would bring it up, but I was wrong. I loved seeing people talk up about these
problems, especially men. I wanted to include this in my final paper because I want to bring up
how these things do not just apply to women, but also men. I also would love to bring up how
true it is that although these Eating Disorders may not be started by some of these internet sites,
they can definitely encourage it.
Brennan, Maggie A., Michelle E. Emmerling, and William J. Whelton. "Emotion-

Focused Group Therapy: Addressing Self-Criticism In The Treatment Of Eating

Disorders." Counselling & Psychotherapy Research 15.1 (2015): 67-75 9p. CINAHL
Plus with Full Text. Web. 27
Mar. 2016.
Out of all the sites I have viewed, this one actually talks about treatment of eating
disorders so Im super proud to have found this. I was super surprised to find in the group
sessions the Eating Disorders themselves are hardly brought up, they are much more interested in
the problems that started this issue. This article honestly gave me a super happy feeling because
it discusses this: if somehow they could just give a person with anorexia a magic pill to make the
Eating Disorder go away, would they really be healthy or happy after that? I believe not. If we
just deal with the after-problems but never deal with the cause of the reason why people act the
way they do, they may change their poison, but theyll still end up self-destructing.
Burns, Erin E., et al. "Deficits In Emotion Regulation Mediate The Relationship Between
Childhood Abuse And Later Eating Disorder Symptoms." Child Abuse & Neglect: The
International Journal 36.1 (2012): 32-39. ERIC. Web. 27 Mar. 2016.
I love this cite and although this cite is specific to childhood abuse and eating disorders it truly
shows one of the biggest problems in Psychology today. No two people are the same, meaning
that there isnt one solution to fix every person with an Eating Disorder and no two people ended
up with an Eating Disorder because of the same core reason. This is pretty specific to childhood
sexual abuse and eating disorders linked together, which the results are pretty strong that most
young girls that were sexually abused are much more likely to develop an eating disorder. But,
isnt this the case in all trauma? We realize we cant control what happens to us, we can only

control what we do. Eating is one of the main things we can control and this makes sense to
people that feel that they have no control left.
Burton, Maddie. "Understanding Eating Disorders in Young People." Practice Nursing
25.12 (2014): 606-10. Ebscohost. Web. 03 Mar. 2016.
According to this Journal, anorexia has the highest mortality rate. There are a lot of interesting
statistics but quite honestly, its from a nurses or doctors perspective so I am having to look up a
lot of what this means. Another thing about this journal is it tells nurses and medical staff how to
handle if they notice a young girl is too thin, they say to ask a series of questions which include:
how she is feeling, if she knows she has lost weight, if her periods are normal, what her mother
thinks, how her friends would describe her, and how things are at school. I dont know about
you, but if I was going to get a check-up and a doctor asked me these questions I think I would
just get up and leave. I get that they are trying to do their jobs but this is ridiculous. What I love
about this article is that it provides theories about where eating disorders come from. It identifies
three major theories: the Biological/Medical Theory, the Psychological theory, and the Social
and Environmental theory. I really enjoyed someone not pretending like they know a definite
answer, when in fact they dont. You can have an opinion, but no one knows for sure. I love this
source because this is a huge thing with our youth. I would love to use this because it shows a
new perspective on Eating Disorders and how people are told to deal with a potential eating
disorder. Although I may not approve with exactly how they say to handle it, at least they arent
turning a blind eye on it.
Morgan, John F. "The SCOFF Questionnaire: Assessment of a New Screening Tool for Eating
Disorders." Hwadmin. The BMJ, 04 Dec. 1999. Web. 14 Apr. 2016.
I was impressed to see someone took the time to write out questions in their tools for

diagnosing patients. I feel like most doctors only ask if their patients are severely overweight.
Most patients that end up seriously injuring or killing themselves are bigger than normal because
doctors dont think about asking them. This site says that these doctors are told to ask every
patient they see. The SCOFF questions are to show early prediction signs because early
diagnosis is key in these cases. This site says that if a patient struggles with an Eating Disorder
for over a year, their chances of recovering from it are under twenty percent. The SCOFF
questions include: Do you make yourself Sick because you feel uncomfortably full? Do you
worry you have lost Control over how much you eat? Have you recently lost more than One
stone in a three month period? Do you believe yourself to be Fat even if others say you are too
thin? Would you say that Food dominates your life? For every yes, doctors take note. Keep in
mind that a stone is fourteen pounds and doctors are encouraged to ask more questions before
diagnosis. My biggest worry about this way of asking, is that patients are likely to lie about these
questions.
Prevalence vs. Funding." Get The Facts On Eating Disorders. National Eating Disorders
Association. Web. 24 Mar. 2016.
This website starts out by saying that Eating Disorders are not a fad, so why then, in the statistics
does it show that if a person is friends with someone who shares about their Eating Disorder, that
they are more likely to catch the eating disorder? It is almost as if they are tricked into it and
then given the rules that they must follow. I know that these people are doctors and have done
studies on trying to find out what these eating disorders are, but I am always the type to question.
Just because a doctor tells me this is a biological disease, does that mean that is really what this
is? It also has lots of statistics about magazines and Miss America. But if this is truly a biological
thing, why would those matter? Do the images of these skinny girls bring it out of these girls? If

they were to be shown curvier girls instead, would they binge instead of purge and starve? Did
anyone stop to ask them why they felt like this was necessary? Or did we just diagnose them,
give them a prescription and send them out the door? This site brings up the financial side of
funding for help and awareness for Eating Disorders. Do we not have studies done because of
lack of funding? If this was truly impacting as many people as they say it is, why would they be
lacking for money? If my child or anyone close to me died from a disease and they claimed to
not be able to cure it from lack of funding, dont you think I would help? I liked the website
because it presents new opinions and it questions why things are the way they are.
Troscianko, Emily T. "Is Anorexia a Disease, a Series of Bad Decisions, or Both?"
Psychology Today. Sussex Publishers, LLC, 31 Jan. 2012. Web. 03 Mar. 2016.
The first con to this cite is that it is specific to Anorexia, and not all eating disorders. The next
con that I find is that she just states everything matter-of-a-fact, without ever showing me any
studies or explaining why this is a mental disease. She does inform me that it affects the body,
but that is exactly the definition of an eating disorder. She explains how anorexia is more severe
than some other popular eating disorders. The reason why I still used this source even though it
seems somewhat outdated, is that this author has experienced Anorexia in herself. She also talks
about the treatment for anorexia, saying that it is easily treated. So, if this really is such a serious
thing, why do so many people still struggle with this? Do they never take the time to get
diagnosed? For her, she talks about talking herself out of her anorexia through counseling. I
struggle with seeing this as a disease if someone can talk you out of having it, even though it
might be over time. So, I found it necessary to look up the definition for a disease. The simple
definition for disease from Webster says it is just an illness that affects a person, animal, or

plant: a condition that prevents the body or mind from working normally. A problem that a
person group, organization, or society has and cannot stop So, by the first part of the definition,
Anorexia is an eating disorder. But, when we read the second sentence, it said that it cannot stop.
Maybe each anorexia or eating disorder case is different, but from her personal experience, this
is not a disease. Even though this cite is specific to Anorexia, it is written from someone who has
suffered with it, itself. So Im using it for a direct citation of how it feels to know what an eating
disorder is but still struggle with it.
Steakley-Freeman, Diana M., Zachary L. Jarvis-Creasey, and Eric D. Wesselmann. "What's
Eating the Internet? Content and Perceived Harm of Pro-eating Disorder Websites."
Eating Behaviors 19 (2015): 139-43. EBSCOhost. Web. 27 Mar. 2016.
I love this website because although websites and social media were brought up in other articles,
this one is only talking about these online Eating Disorders that can actually condone the eating
disorder. They did a study of whether these websites are really for the best or if they do more
harm than good. They describe how they really see if these websites or not in four steps: proEating Disorder language on the site such as the words: perfection, skinny, or phrases like: eating
is the only true way to show control. The next steps are behavior, which actually gives tips and
tricks from one suffering from an Eating Disorder to another, Thinspiration content, pictures
glamorizing very skinny girls and shaming bigger girls and other content such as trigger
warnings or site disclaimers. The chart says that over half of the websites talking about eating
disorders did not pass at least one of these tests.
Walker, Morgan, Laura Thornton, Munmun De Choudhury, Jaime Teevan, Cynthia M.
Bulik, Cheri A. Levinson, and Stephanie Zerwas. "Facebook Use and Disordered
Eating in College-Aged Women." Journal of Adolescent Health 57.2 (2015): 157-63.

EBSCOhost. Web. 3 Mar. 2016.

So I think I just like this one because its blaming it on something else other than this girl doesnt
believe shes pretty enough. But then again, can a disease really be contracted by looking at other
peoples photos? If so, why are we still allowing photos to be posted at all? This website gives as
high of a percentage as sixty percent of the blame to Facebook and social media. I really did love
this website because it told me that they actually held the study on this themselves. They gave
me three different tables of information, they told me the questions they asked. They told me
how many people were asked these questions and I really enjoyed reading it. A new thing this
website brought up was the idea of how perfectionism plays in. I know a girl growing up who
was a perfectionist and honestly it was exhausting to be around her. It honestly annoyed me.
They said that these type of people are often the type to contract an Eating Disorder of some
kind, especially binge eating. This surprised me. Binge eating is eating as much as you can
without being able to stop yourself. Usually this is done alone and in secret. I guess that you get
so tired of seeming perfect that when you finally are alone, you just go crazy. I probably would
too.
Keel PK, Dorer DJ, Eddy KT, Franko D, Charatan DL, Herzog DB. "Predictors of Mortality in
Eating Disorders." JAMA Network. 01 Feb. 2003. Web. 14 Apr. 2016.
This site did a study of 246 women in a longitudinal study, which means over a long
period of time. They started this study in 1989 and this was published in 2003. The 246 women
were all diagnosed with eating disorders. 11 of them died during the study, more because of
suicide than any other reason. Sometimes with eating disorders, I feel like doctors are a lot like
politicians. If there is a problem of smoke in the area, instead of focusing on how to fix the
smoke, look for the fire and put out the main problem. Why are we focusing so much on how

these women arent eating? Hasnt anyone ever asked them what else is going on in their life? If
they feel out of control when they eat, whats another time they felt out of control? Were they
sexually abused so now they feel the need to control everything they do down to the smallest
details?