I just watched To The Bone the other day and as someone who has been through that whole ordeal, who has hit rock bottom like that before, and who has been to treatment centers, I definitely empathized. It just felt familiar I suppose.
It was pretty cheesy at times and I'm not going to say it's an amazing ground breaking film about eating disorders because I don't think there are any and there might not be (maybe Girl Interrupted, but that is mental illness in general, or some documentaries).
But the way the film depicted the desperateness and the conflict between the family, as well as the demented/distorted mindset you have when you're in that deep, like a foggy haze with a euphoric high, but at the same time you feel this consistent terror which is your own mind. It was nostalgic but still just scratching the surface.
*spoiler*
The scene where her mom feeds her like a baby was yes, very new agey dramatic and a little silly, but it rang true. There were times when I was at my LW and at my sickest that I felt like there was no way I could feed myself, I had to have my mom with me at every meal time watching me, even at breaks during school (not my choice), she would have to be there. I always described my brain at that time confusing my fight vs flight. Instead of the fight telling to me eat it was doing the opposite, so eating felt like dying, it seriously felt so emotionally painful.
WOW, sorry that was an essay. I guess what I am trying to say is that there was an empathy involved in the film that made me feel like someone had been through what I had in one way or another. Although it had potential to be a lot more raw and show the true gritty and unglamourized eating disorder world, which is what I think society needs to see.
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