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American Morning

The Big Question: Is Television Teaching Teenagers How to be Anorexic?

Aired April 09, 2002 - 09:43   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Our "Big Question" at this hour: Is television teaching teenagers how to be anorexic? Millions of Americans suffer from eating disorders. And actress Christina Ricci is now talking about her battle with anorexia as a teenager. In the current issue of "Jane" magazine, Ricci says watching a TV movie about an anorexic child star, served as a how-to guide for managing the disorder. She says, "I did get all my tips from a Tracey Gold Lifetime movie on anorexia; it taught me what to do."

Well, lots of other young viewers did not get that message, so can you really say that television was to blame. Does it play that powerful a role in influencing young women in how they live their lives?

Well, joining us now from Rochester, New York, Dr. Richard Kreipe, director of adolescent medicine at the University of Rochester, and in Los Angeles this morning, a very early morning there indeed, Lori Gottlieb, a childhood anorexic, and the author of "Stick Figure: A Diary of My Former Self."

Welcome to both of you. Nice to have you with us.

Dr. Kreipe, if you could, put us into perspective, the statistics that eight million Americans at least are suffering from anorexia. Who are they?

DR. RICHARD KREIPE, UNIV. OF ROCHESTER: Certainly. There are two different kinds of eating disorders. One is restrictive anorexia, which the individual reduces the intake of food, usually exercise as well, and can lose a significant amount of weight and can actually die from it. And the other form of eating disorder that is in that category is also bulimia nervosa (ph), which people will overeat large amounts of food, and sometimes throw up, take laxatives and do some other behaviors in other to throw up to rid themselves of the effects of the food. And it certainly i seen in many, many adolescent and young adults, women, as well as males. We're also seeing it with minorities.

ZAHN: Lori, how old were you when you got sick?

LORI GOTTLIEB, AUTHOR, "STICK FIGURE": I was 11 years old when I started my diet, and from there, I just completely stopped eating.

ZAHN: Can you tell me why you went on a diet at the age of 11?

GOTTLIEB: Yes, I think a lot of it had to do with what was going on around me, and I noticed that a lot of women around me were on diets and my friend at that age were dieting. So I felt that in order to kind of fit in, I should also be on a diet. And then, of course, I took it too far.

ZAHN: Well, I know those of us raising young daughters are often -- try to be as careful as we can. We talk about food, and try to emphasize eating healthy food as opposed to talking about losing weight or gaining weight and all that stuff.

What is the biggest mistake do you think was made in your own household? Or did the influence go far beyond that?

GOTTLIEB: I think it went beyond that. I think anybody who looks at a magazine or watches television can't help but look at the women and say, I don't look like that, and I want to look like that, because these people on television seem to be happy and popular, and especially at that young age, it seems to be the guiding force.

ZAHN: We should explain that today, you are a healthy author, and film executive, and doing many, many projects garnering attention.

But describe to us how bad things got when anorexia took a toll on you?

GOTTLIEB: I think at the worst stage, I was eating maybe 200 calories a day, which obviously isn't enough to sustain you, and I was hospitalized. I ended up finally eating right before they were about to feed me intravenously, because I would not have stayed alive had I not started eating at that point.

ZAHN: What finally got through to you?

GOTTLIEB: I think that a lot of people who go on these diets feel like being thin is going to make them happy, and that it's a panacea. And what you realize is that the thinner you get, the more miserable you become, so that I wasn't really making myself happy. In fact, I was just, thin was not really the answer, and you come to that realization and then you say, well, I really need to change my thought patterns as opposed to my behaviors.

ZAHN: It's just so hard to imagine you got sucked into this when you were 11 years old. How old were you when you finally felt you had beaten anorexia?

GOTTLIEB: Because it happened at such a young age for me, I really got over it rather quickly, but I think for girls who start their diets in high school, when their 15, 16 years old when the pressure is really intense to look a certain way, it takes longer, because all of girls around them are also on diets, so it is very hard to decide, am I anorexic or am I just on a diet, which is considered normal on the culture.

ZAHN: And, Dr. Kreipe, Lori has just done a really good job of helping us understand how she went into her downward spiral.

Is it a cop out you think for people to view television as one of the main influences of making these young girls sick? I know that is not what happened to Lori, but this is what Christina Ricci is now saying in the latest issue of "Jane."

KREIPE: I think one of the difficulties is that you can give a message and different people will interpret this differently. So the prevention message is, I think, a good one, but I think what into people will interpret it different, the message is a good one but what happens probably with Christina Ricci was to say, that particular person, Tracy Gold, got sick, but I can diet and not get sick. I think that is the part of the magical thinking that some adolescents have.

So you're never quite sure how the message is going to be received, and I think it certainly is the issue of TV, the media, the pressure to be thin, so I think there are a lot of pressures, and for certain individuals, I think they may actually respond to TV as one of the more powerful forces in their life.

ZAHN: What advice do you give to parents and their adolescent daughters, who I guess is primarily who is getting struck by this, who say they can't escape the constant bombardment of these images of these perfect, thin women?

KREIPE: I think that one of the most important things is to make sure that they keep an open dialogue with young people, that talking to them about how they feel about themselves. I think if someone were to watch a movie, and after the movie talk about what they experienced. I think it is important to emphasize that what is important for an individual is what is on the inside not what is on the outside, so to look to the more enduring features, and not necessarily the physical features, but that really is an uphill battle, because society makes such emphasis on physical appearance, especially for thinness for young women. So it is an uphill battle, but I would recommends focusing on the positive internal points that the characteristic features that a young person has.

ZAHN: Lori, a quick final word of advice for young woman out there?

GOTTLIEB: I think that women need to realize when they are watching these images on television, these women are dieting, they are working out with trainers. This is not an easy thing to achieve, and it's also not necessarily a healthy thing to achieve.

ZAHN: Well, you know, you hopefully hope had a lot of impact on young lives out there with your book "Stick Figure: a Diary of My Former Self," which is a horrifying tale of what can happen when you get anorexia or bulimia.

Thank you very much, Lori Gottlieb, coming in. Dr. Richard Kreipe, thank you for your advice this morning.

GOTTLIEB: Thank you. KREIPE: Thank you.

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