This movie abysmally fails at this unless you count having a vision while passed out in the desert as hope. 3) Will it provide hope and an example (or examples) that recovery is possible? But it is our job (and our privilege) as therapists and support staff at treatment centers, to be able to walk with people and help them navigate those feelings as we work together to identify other ways to cope. When we are asked to replace something we have learned to rely on, our brain is going to fight us. If it wasn’t effective, they wouldn’t have continued engaging in those behaviors. Treatment is hard, and being in treatment means that they are challenged to give up one of the few things that has genuinely helped them cope effectively. The reality is, at treatment centers we expect people to be frustrated sometimes and to question their desire to be in treatment and in recovery. The closest environment to a treatment center seems to be at the beginning to the movie however, they reinforce harmful misnomers about motivation, resistance, and treatment centers after they kick Lily out of treatment following a snide comment in a group. The movie also suggests that Maudsley therapy, which is a well-respected family therapy approach for youth with eating disorders, may be ineffective for treatment as well. If you are not familiar with treatment centers, you may not catch it. There is one real treatment center that is name dropped during the movie and their lack of ability to help another woman with an eating disorder was highlighted. Living in a group home environment and eating whatever you would like while meeting with a therapist who tells you the solution is “to grow some balls” is not actually treatment. Unfortunately, I had a few issues with this portion of the movie, as it doesn’t really portray any formal kind of treatment at all. And they don’t get into specifics about how much, how long, how frequent, etc. Good news, this film doesn’t really share any shocking secrets or specifics outside of counting calories, running, laxative abuse, and vomiting, which are all pretty well-known in the general public. Depending on the depth of portrayal, I also would have been concerned about teaching people how to become more effective anorexics. Portraying in depth behaviors could have been helpful for educational purposes (particularly for people who are not at risk for development of eating disorders and would like to understand them further). What we see in the trailer is pretty much the extent of eating disordered behaviors that are shown (with the exception of one of Lily’s castmates vomiting into a bag and hiding it under the bed). 1) How in depth will the movie go with the detailed portrayal of eating disordered behaviors? Since Lily Collins (the lead actress) is in personal recovery from anorexia, how will they navigate the weight she needs to lose for the role while mitigating her risk of relapse?.Will it romanticize weight loss and other eating disorder behaviors?.Will there be solid resources exemplified throughout or at least offered at the end of the movie?.Will there be adequate trigger warnings at the beginning of the movie?.Will it provide hope and an example (or examples) that recovery is possible?.How in depth will the movie go with the detailed portrayal of eating disordered behaviors?.Despite my lack of desire to watch the movie, I wanted to give it a chance to see what the other one hour and forty-five minutes the trailer didn’t show, and I also wanted to be prepared to navigate it with the audiences that may see this film. If I’m being totally honest, after watching the trailer, I was in agreement with many eating disorder specific organizations, experts, and survivors I felt cautionary about this movie’s triggering factors in comparison to its educational potential and wasn’t sure that its educational factors would outweigh the trigger and contagion effect of learning more about specific anorexic behaviors. As a warning, this post is filled with spoilers. So after begrudgingly watching the film, here’s feedback from me as an eating disorder therapist. Many individuals and organizations have criticized the specific eating disorder behaviors the lead actress (Lily Collins) exhibits in the trailer with concern that it will teach others how to engage in anorexia more effectively. There has been some criticism and skepticism following the trailer’s release that To The Bone will be the equivalent for individuals at risk for eating disorder development or triggers as 13 Reasons Why was for people at risk of depression and suicide. To The Bone is a movie about a young woman’s struggle with anorexia through two different treatment attempts. There has been quite the conversation in the eating disorder community about the To The Bone movie release since its trailer came out in June.
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