JRN 423 Video Story 1 (Battling Bulimia)

Untitled from rebecca crawford on Vimeo.


For the first video for Journalism 423 I wanted to focus on an illness or struggle. I wanted to show how it affected someone's life, and how they confronted and stood up to the issue.



Battling Bulimia

Brigid, 31, of Ludington has been struggling with Bulimia for the past 14 years, and admits that she has overcome many obstacles but is yet to wins some battles. Having grown up with overly busy parents, a shy personality, and Bipolar Depression, Brigid started to develop an eating disorder in junior high. “It was never a physical thing, it was much deeper than that,” Brigid says, combating the stereotype that people with Bulimia binge and purge solely because of appearance issues. While in treatment for Bipolar Depression, Brigid’s nurses suspected that she had problems with Bulimia, but Brigid denied it and was released. Two years later, during a time in her life where she consumed less than 600 calories per day, she passed out hitting her head on the bathroom tub. It was then it became clear to her that she needed help. “No one knew. My family didn’t and I just kept it secret. It allowed me to keep going,” Brigid says. After finding out that Brigid was fighting with Bulimia, many people in her family blamed themselves, especially her mother. She found it difficult to tell friends and roommates, but became friends with many of those in treatment with her, with whom she could confide in. Now, lucky to have narrowly avoided the worst of health complications from Bulimia, Brigid speaks to a counselor, make meals plans, tries to avoid the scale, and is excited to attend graduate school in Pennsylvania in the fall. Although she realizes that she is a long way from her view of being “cured,” she is just trying to take things slow. “You have some good days and you have some bad days. It’s just better to focus on one at a time,” Brigid says.