When Sherlock
Holmes says, “The difficulty, he maintains, is to
detach the framework of undeniable fact from the embellishments of hearsay and
reports,” means it’s hard for us to let go of pass experiences, negative
feelings, and the opinions of others. Our life is constantly being influenced
by outside sources, instead of what we want. Nowadays, the media and Internet
play a big part in what we “think” we want. I can’t think of my own personal
experience for this, but I have a friend whose experience would be appropriate
for this topic.
We’ll call her Sam (she didn’t want
her real name mentioned). Sam use to be on the heavier and bigger size in
middle school. One day, she realized it was not the “acceptable” body image in
our society. She worked out constantly, starved herself, and in the process
became obsessed and depressed about herself and her body. She eventually lost
the weight, but it was in an unhealthy way. Sam constantly thought she was fat,
even though she was now thin. She was still picky about her food, worrying
she’ll get fat if she ate too many calories or fat. Sam was terrified of going
back to the body she had in the past. She didn’t want people telling her she
was fat and ugly or how no guy would want her. She was trying to escape her
past, but she couldn’t because she relives it every day.
The media didn’t help at all. Photos
of models and celebrities were all over the web and in magazines. It was
difficult to miss. I remember she once told me she needed the body of a
Victoria Secret model. I was shock and heart broken. She was already there. How
could she not see what she had become? After that, her parents got her help,
even though she refused it in the beginning. After a few years, she is a lot healthier,
but there are moments where she falls back into her old habits for a minute
until she catches herself. This just goes to show how we can easily lose
ourselves when people are telling us what is acceptable and what we should be.
