Status of Women committee  Good afternoon. First off, I would like to thank you for having invited me to appear before you today in view of this important study. I also want to emphasize how grateful I am that my employer has not only given me permission to attend this panel in person but also strongly en

Status of Women committee  Right, that's correct.

Status of Women committee  I think I knew something was wrong, but as it was mentioned by others, there's so much dialogue as a teen in school and with your friends about appearances and looks that it seemed like we were kind of all obsessed a little bit with our bodies. I did ballet also, not that it's no

Status of Women committee  I think while I was suffering gallbladder attacks. I went three times to the emergency room before they actually decided that they should really remove it, because it was threatening my pancreas. That's when I knew there was a serious problem, but I think I was so scared of talki

Status of Women committee  Yes, early twenties.

Status of Women committee  I was so distressed while I was recovering from the gallbladder surgery, and I was able to speak to the psychiatric nurse at the hospital but they wouldn't let me see a psychiatrist because they said my case wasn't important enough. I'm sure that's not what they meant, but that w

Status of Women committee  Yes.

Status of Women committee  I would say the people in your life should be people who support you. If you find your friends or some family members are speaking to you about your weight, or about your body, or anything really in your life that is detrimental to your development, then you should really cut the

Status of Women committee  I think people discuss it more, but I think to be honest with you I find in my experience no one really talks about bulimia, about that kind of eating disorder, because a lot of people find it's really disgusting to make yourself throw up, etc. I see personally a lot of awarenes

Status of Women committee  I co-authored the surviving eating disorder blog on America's mental health channel, HealthyPlace.com out of Texas, so I do write a biweekly column. Most of the comments that my co-author Jessica and I get are from women who will write to us and ask, “How did you recover? How can

Status of Women committee  I think I did not have such a great experience with the medical community. Most of the doctors that I saw throughout the years didn't have such good bedside manner in terms of talking about a woman's body. I think that for me would be fundamental, because if you go to get help an

Status of Women committee  I think that's a big need, yes.

Status of Women committee  I think it's really important for men and women to see that you can recover and what the recovery looks like. I will often write on the blog and I also do video blogs and I talk about the fact that I'm a normal person. I'm an average girl. I grew up in an average family and had a

Status of Women committee  I think it should be included, because I think it really starts with you and what you can do to take control of your life and ensure that the disease doesn't control you. It's an internal dialogue. I have to tell myself very often, "No, Patricia, don't go there and don't think ne

Status of Women committee  The initial roadblock for me was the fact that after those sessions that I was allowed, I would have had to pay $125 to get therapy. So that was a big roadblock because I had just graduated and it was really expensive. I would say that it was the financial burden. Not only was th