It’s rare that I put anything really serious on here unless someone is dead, but I’m hoping this post might help prevent someone from ending up dead - whether it’s the singer I’m worried about or someone who is just reading this. We’re going to be talking about mental illness here, including eating disorders.
So, I’ve seen the recent pictures of Ariana Grande. She looks sickly, rail-thin, and like she could collapse any moment.
I know what she used to look like. For better or worse, I watched Victorious as a teenager (a show that I now know shouldn’t have been made). In between then and now, I remember when “No Tears Left to Cry” was on the playlist at Chuck E. Cheese, and two Winter Winnerlands ago when they first put “Santa, Can’t You Hear Me?” on.
This is somewhat of a tricky thing to talk about. On the one hand, this is a person who is clearly suffering from illnesses. She has PTSD, anxiety, and depression that she’s been public about. She probably has an eating disorder, too, from what I know about her and about the topic of eating disorders. On the other hand, she is also a public figure, and there is definitely something socially contagious about celebrities with disordered eating behaviors - this is something that has happened many times before.
We need to acknowledge that Ariana Grande is clearly unhealthy. We need to acknowledge that she has had a long history of things that can put a person at risk for eating disorders. We need to make sure the young people in our lives aren’t trying to look like her too much, because what she looks like is a very sick person. We need to acknowledge that this is likely to contribute to kids, especially little girls, developing eating disorders themselves. We need to acknowledge that anyone can get an eating disorder, and that anyone can experience other issues with their mental and physical health.
We need to see this for what it is. What it is, is a former child star who was hypersexualized as a teenager by a predatory director, who has a beautiful voice, who has a lot of influence on popular culture, who has survived a bombing, and who is now very sick in a very public and obvious way.
Yes, she’s rich and famous, just like any other celebrity. Doesn’t mean she’s happy and healthy. Doesn’t mean we shouldn’t worry about her.
Yes, she’s suffering. Doesn’t mean that we should excuse the fact that the way she’s suffering is going to cause others to suffer.
Yes, this is going to lead to an uptick in body image issues. Doesn’t mean that we can’t worry about someone we don’t know, while we worry about those we do know.
If you are struggling with an eating disorder, depression, anxiety, PTSD, or anything else, there is help for you. 988 exists, Trevor Project exists, and if it’s truly a dire situation (meaning, for example, you feel like ending your life right now), 911 or your local equivalent exists. You may also want to try talking to your doctor, parents, teachers, friends, therapist, religious leaders, camp counselor, nurse, grandparents, aunts, uncles, siblings, or other trusted people in your life. You are not alone. You deserve to be helped.
And as for Ariana Grande, well, I doubt she’ll ever see this. But I think she deserves to be helped, too. I think she’s going through something that we know little about, and I think it’s obvious that she’s very sick. I feel bad for her, and worried about her. Fame and fortune aren’t everything. I don’t know what pressures she’s facing right now to continue performing in the state she’s in, but I imagine it must be a lot. Mental illness is illness, and in this case, it’s also physically devastating. There’s probably nothing anyone can do for her unless they know her, and that’s really hard.
We need to be conscientious when we talk about these topics. My parents told me about Karen Carpenter when I was little, so I know from their memories what that was like to see. It sounds a lot like what I see right now when I look at Ariana Grande.
amandla
yousharknotpass
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blakekathryn
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