DVD Review: Thin

This documentary about a group of women who struggle with eating disorders was shockingly depressing. Of course I expected it to be sad, but I suppose I was also expecting some sense of hope at the end of the film. Lauren Greenfield films this at a treatment center in Florida and follows the patients as they try to recover. Some of the women are "restricters" -- usually suffering from some form of anorexia -- while others are purgers, aka bulimics; some women are a combination of both. All of them have very distorted body images.

Most of the women/girls there (some are just 15 years old) are forced to leave because their insurance runs out and there is no money to continue treatment. Even girls who have been inpatients for over nine weeks are not ready to be on their own. When they leave, they tend to fall right back into their habits of restricting or purging. Nothing motivates them to get better, even the thought of leaving their children motherless. Many of them express that they'd rather die than be fat.

Despite constant supervision, strict rules and an ultra supportive community of doctors, psychiatrists, nutritionists, therapists and other patients, these girls aren't able to maintain their recovery. Once they leave the inpatient program, most of them quickly lose all the weight they had struggled to gain. There was a woman who was so committed to her recovery that she moved her family to Florida so she could continue outpatient treatment. Her first night back at home, she orders a salad for dinner and you see her picking bits of Parmesan cheese off the lettuce. She goes home and eventually purges everything. The update says that she lost a lot of weight afterwards and had to check into the center again. She's supposedly maintaining a healthy weight now, but it's probably because she is still an inpatient (the film doesn't specify).

Watching the girls eat was eye-opening. As an American female, I've struggled with weight issues for what seems like my whole life. I think about how many calories something is or how much fat it contains. I don't weigh myself, but I do try to make healthy choices most of the time - with my main motivation being avoiding gaining weight. That being said, my body image issues are nowhere NEAR what these girls struggle with. Eating their first meal in the center is extremely difficult, it involves lots of support, usually with the girls crying, shaking and generally feeling horrible. It's as if someone had a gun pointed at their heads - it's that terrifying.

In the end, this documentary is enlightening, but it's just so friggin' depressing. None of the girls that the film focuses on gets better. It seems like these girls need constant support and structure. They can not do it if they're on their own. Treatment is very expensive and limited treatment (or even extended) doesn't seem to help in the long term. I kind of wished that the film had at least one girl who made it and improved just so there was a bit of light at the end of the tunnel. If I were a girl seriously struggling with an eating disorder, the message I'd get is that I can't win the battle against my own body and mind.

If this subject matter is remotely interesting to you this DVD is worth renting.