"I know what conscience is, to begin with. It is not what you told me it was. It is the divinest thing in us. Don't sneer at it, Harry, any more - at least not before me. I want to be good. I can't bear the idea of my soul being hideous." Oscar Wilde (The Picture Of Dorian Gray)

7.12.08

The glam-life; "a degree is not an insurance against ignorance"

"To the girl who said she wanted to loose weight.


So...you think starving is a good way to lose weight, do you? Well 
I think you've read too many fairy tales. And this isn't one. Neither are eating disorders. They are sheer and total HELL. But, since you want one, I'll go ahead and prep you for it. I'll let you know exactly what will happen to you. If this doesn't make you realise how completely stupid running out there and trying to develop anorexia is, then I wish you the best of luck in killing yourself. Because that's all you'll be doing.


The completely ironic part about people trying to lose weight by starving is that half the time it does not even work! I bet you think you'll wind up insanely thin and gorgeous, right? You're wrong. You won't be gorgeous. One thing's for certain: insanity is a definite part of the package. Your mind won't be yours anymore. Kiss it goodbye,- I hope you didn't enjoy it..

The less you eat, the lower your metabolism goes. You might starve and starve and barely lose any weight...or you might be extra lucky...you might starve and starve and 
gain weight. Your body might just shut itself down and the weight goes nowhere. And even though you aren't losing any, you'll still be HOOKED. You still won't be able to stop. By the time your body shuts off from malnutrition, you'll be too far in it to *snap* and think: "Oh...this isn't working...I think I'll eat again." No...you'll be desperate and eat less and less and work out more and more. Eventually, you won't be ABLE to work out. Your muscles will eventually stop cooperating.
Then you'll panic and try and eat even less to compensate for not being able to work your ass off (simply a figure of speech, since you're not losing any weight, of course). By then you can't eat less though. You're barely eating enough to stay alive as it is. And you just can't stop. It isn't working and you still can't stop. And whether it is working or not, you won't see the truth. You'll never actually know what you look like. Nope...no matter what you'll think you must weigh at least four hundred pounds. This is true if you weigh 150 or if you weigh 70. You will be fat. Insane is the proper term for it, isn't it? Yes, you might just be one of the lucky ones, one of the ones that doesn't lose weight. But don't sit there and think that means you won't be sick. Not true...not true at all. Your skin & hair will be dry, your teeth sore, your period gone, your bones aching, your muscles cramping... There is no need to go on, I think. Because you still want this, of course. After all, you won't be like that. You won't be one of the failures. You'll be successful; you'll be thin and perfect. Beautiful.
Well, since you're going to win, why don't I tell you about your prize, hmm?? It's quite nice. You will be skinny. You will be sickly thin. Your ribs will stand out and your hipbones will be sharp. 
But you won't see it. You'll look in the mirror and see fat. You'll see rolls. You'll look at girls who weight fifty pounds more than you and wonder why you can't be as thin as they are. You'll look in the mirror everyday and swear that you've gained at leastten pounds... Other people will see you shrink but you won't get to watch. You'll never see the truth. Others will though. You'll be sickly skinny...but you won't be pretty. And they'll all see that. You won't though...you'll be too busy staring at your ass and wondering when you turned into your fat Auntie Bertha. You will not be attractive. You won't. You'll have huge dark circles. Your skin will be pasty pale and have a lovely gray tint to it. Makeup will not help this time. Don't even bother to attempt it. You'll be wasting your time; time that could be better spent doing your usual pastime, staring into the pantry to watch the food. Of course, people might not notice that you're gray. They could be too busy staring at the dark black, blue and purple spots you're covered in. Everything you do will result in a bruise. Everything.


Do you have pretty hair? You won't anymore. It will be straw dry and dull. It will not shine. Think conditioner will help? It won't. It won't and again: there is no sense in trying it. It might soften your hair for a while (after you use half the bottle, that is) but it won't make your hair look any better. Buy a ponytail holder. You'll need it. You'll probably be wearing it all the time. You'll also need some hair dye. I sincerely hope your hair isn't a nice color....because it won't be soon. Yes...the color of your hair will fade out. You might even get grays. But gray is a nice color, isn't it? I rather like it. I think the grayish brown color where my natural red and blonde highlights used to be adds a bit of...oh...dignity to my look.
Speaking of hair,- do you like facial hair? I hope so. You'll have it. I have some lovely sideburns. Quite gorgeous. Actually, I have sexy hair everywhere. Fuzz, fuzz, fuzz. It's hot. All the guys love it and all the girls I know ask how to get some. They're jealous, you know. I tell them how I got it, starving. They never attempt it...I know why though. Its not because they're smart and healthy...no, no. Its because they're weak. Not strong, like me. Of course, my muscles are deteriorating as we read on and I can no longer use even my five pound weights but I'm still strong, aren't I? 
Yes... Because I don't eat. And that's true strength. Denying yourself the basic fuel you need for life. Yes.... Strong and smart.
I bet you're one of those girls with the enviable natural nails. Those shiny ones that are so long people sometimes think they're fake? Cut them. Go ahead and cut them off now. They'll only break soon anyway.
Kiss your newly gray hair goodbye too. It'll be falling out about now. You get to clean the drain about 6 times during your shower, just so the water will go down.
Also, you'll need to find a way to throw away your tampons to make it look as if you've been using them. Remember to tell your mom to buy you tampons once a month. Can't have her knowing you lost your period. Because, yes. You 
will. I hope you're not having sex, because you'll never know if you're pregnant or not. I guess you can just take a test every few weeks; you can still get pregnant. I hope you don't love the baby though, because chances are you'll lose it. It would probably be for the best if you did though, because of the nice birth defects caused by eating disorders. So, you might get to live with the knowledge that your child died or had to go through life with a terrible disability because of you...but it was worth it for thinness. A small price to pay for perfection, even though you're not the one paying it. Who needs their full mental capabilities anyway? I hope your kid doesn't. But that might not be a problem. You might never have children. You might become infertile. Oh well... Pregnancy makes you fat anyway.
Since you're one of the special ones, one of the anorexic ones, I'll bet you enjoy ice water. Pour it out. Drink plain water, warm diet coke. It hurts too badly to drink iced drinks. You're taking sensitive teeth to a new level. Forget those special toothpastes though. They don't work when your teeth are slowly dying from
 vitamin deficiencies. Never liked those teeth anyway. Dentures are nice.


How do you like to sit? Oh...you like your legs crossed? Hmm...too bad. Can't do that anymore. Your legs will fall asleep all the way up to your hips. Painfully asleep. This isn't like what you're used to, that tingly feeling. 
This hurts. A little word of advice: after uncrossing them, just sit there. Don't try moving them or hitting them to wake them up. Bad idea,- very painful. Don't stand up either, unless you enjoy collapsing.

Oh and fainting is common too. And don't think this is something you can hide. Whenever you pass out dead in the living room in front of your mom or brother they'll wonder why. And unless they're complete idiots, they'll probably know why, especially when you're 30 pounds underweight. So get ready for nagging;
 "Eat this, eat that, why are you doing this to yourself??"

But, of course, you could always go to your room to escape! Then you can lie in bed and bite your lip until it bleeds...why would you want to do that, do you ask? Because of the leg cramps, of course...oh! I must've forgotten to mention those! Oooh...the cramps are nice. Your muscles are balled into excruciating knots. You'll double over to massage the knots out and...what? There are no knots. There IS no rubbing the knots out because there are no knots. It just feels like it. There's nothing you can do. You just get to lie there & try not to scream. And trust me...you'll want to. Of course, you could always rub your legs anyway...it might make you feel better to pretend there's something you can do to help them. But you might not be thinking about your legs...you might be distracted by the headaches. Take some aspirin...oooh...or don't. Your tummy's too empty; it'll only make you throw up everywhere.


It's worth it right? Anything's worth it, even your hair, nails, bones, muscles, possible children, your family's heart, everything. Sacrifice it all, throw it all away. You're thin now, that's what counts, even though you don't know it.


You'll probably get 
chest pains. Maybe heart flutters. This is scary too, because you never wanted to die, you just wanted to be thin. But remember, you can't tell. 
Telling is
 forbidden and asking for help is weak.


Do you have problems with depression? Ha, you certainly do now. The less you eat, the more depressed you become. Partially from vitamin deficiencies, partially from your lovely eating disorder. Have you had problems of insomnia before? No? Ah well, there's a first time for everything, eh? You're exhausted beyond belief but you still can't fall asleep... And even when you do, you can't 
stay asleep. Who needs sleep anyway though?? Not you. Staying awake burns more calories.


Do you do well in school? You don't now. You can't concentrate. Your mind won't function and the only thing you can actually think about is 
food. Your grades will fall. Want to recover? You'll probably have to leave school. How does repeating a grade sound?

Do you like going out with friends? You won't for long. You'll be afraid someone might notice how obese you are. You can't leave the house now without hiding under tons of clothes. You're terrified someone might see your repulsive body. You'll become more nervous too,- jittery. You'll also have difficulty talking. Oh...have you never had a stuttering problem? Well, you do now. You also forget what you wanted to say alot. Goodbye memory.
Ah well, staying home from going out with friends isn't such a bad thing as it might seem at the moment anyway... Reason? If you go out with friends they might want to eat! Maybe they'll want to go to a restaurant or the movies. How can you explain that you don't want any popcorn? How can you find an excuse for sitting there at the table sipping Diet Dr. Pepper or nibbling a salad and water while everyone else has cheeseburgers?? You can't. And they might make you eat. You can't do that, 
no. But why do they want you to eat? Is it because they care? No. Its because they WANT you to be fat!! How dare they?? They're jealous...that's it, they're jealous. Soon you'll realise something. Everyone wants you to be fat
Your parents, your siblings, teachers, friends. The world is against you and they all want you to spiral intomorbid obesity. Get away from them. All of them. They don't understand and they're plotting your downfall. You can't have that; you can't loose this. Every time someone urges you to eat or recover "for your health", you know the truth.....They hate you and want you to be fat. Push them away. Push away all the people who love you. That's the only way you'll ever be thin.



But one day this will be over. One day you will either die or recoverDeath is easier. First you'll have to admit you need help (that is, on the chance that you haven't been forced into recovery...recovery that will not work until you cooperate). This is one of the hardest things you've ever done. Maybe you'll tell your mom. She might be wonderfully supportive, she might've already known. Or maybe she won't think you have a real problem. Then you're on your own. Maybe you'll tell your doctor. And if you tell your mom, she'll take you to a doctor. Then its better. You're safe now, they'll help you. They'll understand. 
Wrong
A degree is not an insurance against ignorance. And speaking of insurance, it only pays so much on mental health problems. And ED treatment costs are outrageous. So, even if you find a doctor that knows his ass from a hole in the ground, you might not be able to get help. You might not be able to afford it.

As you recover, your school might have to know. Your teachers will not understand. Students might find out. They won't understand either. 
Their comments will hurt, you'll want to scream when they ask why you don't just eat. They might call you fatjust for fun. Someone might start to admire you and try to become anorexic too, but then... You've been there. You wanted to be anorexic once and you never realized how stupid you were. You know it now, but it's too late. Its too late and you have to fight this or die... And fighting it is the hardest thing you've ever done. You'll put food in your mouth; that disgusting, terrible food. You will panic and want to cry. You will cry. Maybe you'll freak and spit everything back out. Maybe you will refuse to eat and get a lovely feeding tube. Triggers are everywhere and you want to kill yourself with each bite you swallow. Maybe you will kill yourself. Maybe you'll fight and fight and enter recovery only to die while in recovery or even afterwards from complications caused by your years of having an eating disorder.

After fighting for the longest time, maybe you will get out. Maybe, after numerous slip ups and times that were so hard you thought you'd die, you recover. It takes a while. Even after you've eaten right for months and months, your body still won't be the same. You start to wonder if it will ever be the same again. It might, but you won't. No. This will always be a part of you, it will never go away. Years later it will still be with you, you will still have those moments. Sometimes you'll pass a mirror and suddenly be 200 pounds larger. You'll panic and shake your head,- trying to clear the image away. Something will happen in your life, maybe you'll lose your job.
Something will happen to take away your control and you'll try to gain it back through starving. You will never be the same again. You'll see an article on a someone with an eating disorder and you'll start to cry,- remembering that terrible pain. I'm not talking about the physical pain. That's the only pain I described, because it's the only part that's describable. There are no words for the mental anguish. It can never be described. It's unimaginable. You'll never feel another pain like that, another pain so filled with self loathingvulnerabilityterrorragedesolation...


WHY do you want this?? WHY?!? I know, even after reading this, that you're still sitting there, wanting this life. The "glam-life". But why? What is it exactly that you want?? Is it beauty? Do you honestly think you won't be like this?? Do you honestly think malnutrition won't steal your looks? Is it glamour? READ THIS. 
Show me the glamour in this life. Is it control?? Let me tell you, you'll NEVER be more out of control than you are when you have an eating disorder. You don't control what you put in your mouth or what you pour out of it. Hell, you don't even control your thoughts. You have NO control. None.


Do you honestly think that you'll be able to do this and not wind up this way? The one doesn't come without the other, darling. Never.Do you think you are the one person on earth who can control this, who can just...stop??? Do you think that maybe you can just do this; get thin and stop?? 
WRONG! It doesn't work that way. Do you want to die? Do you want to be a martyr or something? Do you think this is beautiful? I bet you think it is some sort of tragic beauty. Well, it's not, okay? There is nothing beautiful about it. Do you want some attention? Buy a new eyeliner, dance naked in the streets. Needing attention is a natural thing but there are a hell of alot better ways to get it.


Do you want to look at your family's faces and know that you are killing them too? Imagine watching your child killing themselves, imagine your helplessness, imagine
knowing that they're dying knowing that there is nothing that you can do. Imagine fearing the day you'll come home to find them dead because of this. Just sit there, close your eyes and try to think about it. Of course, while you're starving yourself you won't see that anguish. You won't be able to. You can't see anything, you're too self absorbed. You're too busy thinking about your weight,
 about food. You'll see it when you recover though and you'll hate yourself for doing that to the ones you love. You'll wish there was something you could do to erase it but there is nothing. You just have to live with it... And trust me; living with it is hard. Especially when you think of how many times your anger came out on them, how many times you got nasty when they were only trying to save your life. Yes. You'll hate yourself. And that while you think you're so insignificant... You hardly exist. But think about it: you have made yourself the most important thing in your own life for the past time, through doing this. You have made the people who care about you, the people around you who love you, worry so much about you... You were all they could (can) think of! You're basically making yourself way too important. And I bet that you don't like hearing that, do you? That's because it's true.


But do you know what? Of this all..... Self-hatred is the least of your worries now. Because you've likely just signed your own death warrant... And you likely don't even care...yet. But you will. You will care. You will care and you will cry and rage and swear you'd give anything to take it all back. But it's too late now, because by the time you're in deep enough to care, you're already dying. Its too late to snap out of it now, no matter how much you want to. It will always be a part of you.

This is the reality of anorexia. It is nothing like the powerful articles you read on how so-and-so overcame it. It is nothing like the beauty you see when you look at that skinny model. It is nothing like that beautiful popular girl who naturally weighs 80lbs. It is nothing like anything you've ever lived before. You will never be the same."



There is no glamour or beauty spending your last living moments over a toilet.


6.12.08

"Ignorance is bliss."

TickTick. Tick. 

Somewhere, a clock is ticking. For every second that a clock has been ticking, a second has been wasted,- a second that could be spent dreaming, loving, LIVING. It's a one-way-road and sooner or later we all get to our very own dead end. And we will all think: 
I could have spent my seconds better. I could have made a difference. 

Death. War. Divorce. Bulimia. Abortion.
They don't affect you, do they? So..they don't exist. Right?
I have learned that it's good not to know anything,- 
ignorance is bliss. I have learned that thinking about these subject is inappropriate, sinful almost! It's not in my right to create an opinion about these subjects.
But which boy died in front of my eyes? Which uncle was sent to battlefield, to never return again? And whose father stayed away from home more and more often as well? Who thought that beauty equals pain? Who needed someone to see her when she was invisible?
Yes, it's better not to know anything.
 Ignorance is bliss.
You look for truth in all their lies. You want to believe that a 'war against terror' is not only a made up phrase to comfort people.. You even want to believe that a certain religion may be the projection of all hate! A leader preaches that everybody has the right to back up his or her belief, as long as he or she does not hurt someone else through doing so. This leader, however, frowns heavily and turns away, when it comes to gay-marriage. 
Since when do we play the game of Love according to a book of rules?
And you are scared of my words. The realisation that you are not safe,- that the society you are living in, is narrowing itself... It scares you.
And you're just sitting here, taking notes!


TickTick. Tick. 

For every 3 seconds you have been reading this, 450 people have died.
And you could ask yourself the question: 
Was it the little girl that sat next to me on the bus? I don't know. Maybe it was the old man who you passed by on the street this afternoon; the man you didn't think of twice. Or wait, maybe it was a premature child, whose right of living got taken away from. Maybe your mother, or your best friend?

You are scared of my words, but you know what? Everything has different options,- a fork in the road, where you choose to go left or right. You make a good decision, or a bad one. Are you going to ask for directions? Or are you going where your heart brings you? Are you going to stand up for what you 
feel and believe? Or are you going to sit and watch how your possibility passes you by?


TickTick. Tick. 

You are scared of my words, because they speak the truth.


4.12.08

Vanunu! The Girl.



&waving schoolboys. The Model.


The Moulin Rouge is still nameless.

Oh dear.
I just wrote the most gigantic post you could ever imagine.
Then I pressed the button 'Publish Post' and the whole thing erased itself.

These are the moments I would just like to disappear. Completely.


I basically said that I was sorry, about 4 times, because I hadn't blogged in such a long time. I said I'd blog you all 'in a week', but instead, it took me almost exactly a month.
Again: sorry. I really wanted to write something, but I really didn't have the time or the energy, unfortunately (I DO IB, ARGHH!).

I said that Tanzania was the greatest experience since.. Well, ever. And I couldn't have wished for a better Focus Week (except for the fact that I got a sunstroke after the first day, due to exhaustion from Sweeney Todd and just an over-intake of sun, hehe)! I actually took a couple of real nice pictures, but they're on a new SD card and my laptops don't allow me to upload the pictures!!! It's so frustrating!! Let's ask a friend to put them on a thumbdrive or something, so I can put them on anyway for you guys to see them! :)

The last thing I mentioned in the post was that I am staging the story of 'The Moulin Rouge'. One of the problems, is that there is no official play of it, so I have to rewrite the whole script of the movie (even the songs and the music!! /: ) and even the name of the play cannot be 'The Moulin Rouge'. So we're basically telling everybody that we're staging 'The Moulin Rouge', but we cannot put it on the posters, because that would mean that we could get sued. And with 'we' I mean the school and I. We wouldn't want that to happen, so I was wondering if you creative lot had any nice ideas? The best thing we could come up with, was 'The Sparkling Diamond' and that is still really lame.
Thank God that the rewriting of the songs is going better than that..

Ohh by the way! I have done two more photoshoots. The first one with Vania, who wanted me to take some pictures of her so she could send them to her 'sort-of-boyfriend' in France (gah). The second shoot was with Wingshan, who is an official Hugo Boss model and absolutely stunning. She is very young, but also very tall and skinny. The poor girl was ill the entire week before the shoot, however, and on the day we held the photoshoot, she still had a terrible cold, which didn't allow her to give it her everything, but the pictures were still quite nice. If I may say so, that is.
I'll post the pictures in another blogpost!


Love,
xCamilla

7.11.08

Tanzania CAS trip.

So, tomorrow is the big day that I'm stepping on a plane that heads to no country less than...
TANZANIA!

I can't wait till I'm in the magical country of music, warmth, culture, and exquisite wildlife.
Can you even believe it? I'm going to TANZANIA on a school-trip!
I can't even believe it fully myself.. I've always wanted to go to Africa, specifically the countries Kenya and Tanzania. Considering the fact that there are wars in Kenya at the moment, it wouldn't be safe to go there, so YESSSS... Tanzania. Oh my god,- Tanzania. TANZANIA.

Heehee.

I'll blog you guys in a week!!


http://www.firstafricansafaris.com/African-ElephantsTanzania.jpg


http://www.oxford.anglican.org/files/door/tanzania_random.jpg

http://www.kirikou.com/tanzania/tanzania1.jpg

http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/places/images/photos/photo_lg_tanzania.jpg

http://peacecorpsonline.org/messages/jpeg/tanzania001a.jpg

6.11.08

3.11.08

Prostitutes and meat pies.

Wingshan and I at one of the Sweeney Todd: the Demon Barber of Fleet Street (school production) rehearsals. I am Mrs Lovett's understudy and if I'm not needed as Mrs Lovett, I am a prostitute. This is my prostitute make-up..


"How'd you like a lil' jig-jig, to eat me muffin, to push me parsley?"