Today I see a 17 year old girl with severe anorexia. When I saw her 3 months ago her BMI (Body Mass Index) was 17 and she looked, well, quite stunningly beautiful in fact. (point of interst: Kate Moss's BMI is 18) But today she looked terrible: grey, drawn and a BMI that had fallen to 13. This is barely compatible with life, which disturbingly, is exactly the way she likes it. She is filled with self loathing, to such a degree that wishes only to die. "A slow motion suicide, then" is how I put it to her and she does not demur.
Few things are as heartbreaking as seeing young, attractive girls slowly killing themselves by starvation. I imagine the CMHT (Community Mental Health Team) will take a hand soon and section her for her own safety. But depressingly often these cases do not turn out well.
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I heard the other day that 66% of New Yorkers want to stop the building of a mosque near ground zero. If you visit the Big Apple you can easily be persuaded it is a cosmopolitan melting pot where all points of view are out there and acceptable- a false impression as it turns out. Then today I heard that Americans are planning to burn copies of the Koran on the anniversary of 911, and that even general Patraeus, head of the US troops in Afghanistan, has begged them not to as it may endanger his men on the front line. Is there no limit to the bigotry of the American people?
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