First things first: let’s try to get this straight …“To the Bone” is a movie. The outrage surrounding it frankly is a bit confusing. Yes, Lily Collins (who portrays the main character suffering from anorexia nervosa) is really freaking skinny. And yes, the actress has suffered from her own eating disorder in her past, which does make it significantly more dangerous physically and psychologically to drop so much weight for the part. Personally, I am far too tentative and simultaneously protective about the strides I have made (and the weight I have gained!) in recovery to ever risk it for a part in a movie. That being said, I’m not Lily Collins, and I’m grateful that she judiciously used a great deal of professional supervision in her endeavor. Most importantly, she’s okay now.

Next: if you have an eating disorder or are in the early stages of recovery, I will advise with a strong do not watch! I might even extend this suggestion to those who have walked closely alongside someone battling an eating disorder. In the approximate words of one of my fellow recovery friends, I would literally pry the remote out of my mother’s vice-gripped fingertips if she tried to watch it. This movie is for, well, entertainment; it also is intended to provide education to the general public about what eating disorders are and the fact that recovery is possible. I’m so grateful to have a fairly honest and accurate account of the truth behind how terrifying, miserable, and completely insane eating disorders are. This one even made it into the mainstream media spotlight (well done, director Marti Noxon!).

Poem used in the fictional treatment center depicted in “To the Bone”

Were some parts unrealistic? Yes. Were other parts dramatized or sensationalized? Well, possibly. I want to be clear that eating disorders are very serious, and I actually wasn’t taken aback by anything that the girls in the treatment facility said or did. If I, personally, hadn’t thought it, done it, seen it, or heard about it from a friend, the attitudes and behaviors of the clients were more than believable. The treatment center experience wasn’t exactly like my experience in treatment centers, and it wasn’t entirely perfect or ideal (clients hiding barf bags under the bed? My running watch got confiscated a mere five days into my second treatment experience). That being said, treatment facilities are very different, and they are constantly changing and evolving even today. According to Rebecca Robbins, “To the Bone” was based on Marti Noxon’s experience in treatment when she was very ill in the 1980s. While it certainly left something to be desired, no one can judge the process of recovery too much considering that eating disorders continue to have the highest mortality rate of any mental illness and adequate treatment is horrifyingly difficult to qualify for and fund even in 2017.

AND, I can definitely acknowledge how this movie was or would be triggering to people in recovery. I am still only beginning to transition from focusing fully on my recovery to focusing on advocacy (VERY beginning perhaps. That reminds me, I need to up my snack game…). To be fair, in the early phases of recovery, everything is triggering; I mean, up to and including, when your boyfriend brings you coffee in bed and forgets to add the proper amount of cream which obviously convinces you that he thinks you need to lose weight.

Finally, if you are appalled or confused by the fact that someone actively starving to death, sit-up bruises on protruding spines, feeding tubes, and “calorie Asperger’s” can make someone with an eating disorder feel jealous or competitive, then you have just received one of the major messages of the movie: an eating disorder is a serious illness.

Now, let’s change some healthcare laws so that those who suffer can get help.