Regurgitation The Life Story of an Anoretic-Bulimic

Regurgitation: The Life Story of an Anoretic-Bulimic In Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia (1999), Marya Hombachers testimonial delves into the dark underbelly of her illness; her battle is regurgitated within the text with the same fervor as the disease besieging her body and mind. Marya, divulges her fourteen year long struggle with Anorexia and Bulimia with often macabre honesty. Her story is terrifyingly painful and provides a glimpse into the devastating progression of her illness. Marya was not a planned pregnancy; her parents both actors and directors were both surprised by her conception (Hombacher, 1999, p. 17, 29). Her mother, a woman trapped in a family she didnt want, bitter and resentful, her father was the†¦show more content†¦My mother stopped eating, grew thinner, sharper, more silent. I looked at each and settled on both: eat, throw up, starve, scream, skip town, disappear, reappear screaming and skinny, smoke and smoke and smoke (p. 22). Early on, Mar ya associated thinness with wealth, success, self control, and discipline, something she learned from the societal culture she grew up in (Hombacher, 1999, p. 46.) Marya was a mesomorph, not fat, but not skinny, not thin, successful, wealthy, controlled, or disciplined (p. 15). Her experience of growing up in the theater had taught her that nothing was as it seems, and she viewed her body as a costume that could be changed. That the changing of bodies, like costumes, would make me into a different character, a character who might, finally, be all right (p. 31). In fourth grade, Marya begins binging and purging (p. 41). Shortly after her bulimia began, Marya reads a book on anorexia nervosa called The Best Little Girl in the World and she decides when she grows up she is going to become an anoretic (Hombacher, 1999, p. 43). Marya thought bulimia seemed like a decent starting place. Puberty came early for Marya, as her body matured and developed, so did her bulimia. By the time Marya was eleven she met the diagnostic requirements for severe, uncontrollable bulimia nervosa (p. 51). Marya used bulimia as a way to gain