Thin, With Problems

William Leith, author of "The Hungry Years" in an article by Holly Brubach in The New York Times, Feb 26/06

As Leith observes, "If it's successful, a diet merely makes you temporarily look like a person who doesn't have your problems." In a society overrun with images of movie stars and supermodels, that's enough for most people.

Until, of course, it's not.

This is one of the things I have found over and over in my life, and I hear it so many times in OA meetings, "I thought that once I was thin, my life would be perfect". Of course, life doesn't happen that way. It's amazing how so many of us get caught in that simplistic idea. You would have thought that I would have learned that when I was thin, temporarily, at 15, at 24, and now at 44. I think that one of the reasons I have managed to stay at a healthy weight for as long as I have this time around my foray to the planet of the non-obese is, I recognize how much deeper than my size my problems run. Sorry, but the weight is only the tip of the iceberg.

This week the firestorm in my head has been miserable, and I know it's been reflected in my posts, or lack thereof. But my food has been fine. I am a thin, not model thin, person with problems. I don't feel normal, but I think I am actually moreso than I have ever admitted.