For almost 20 years, political cartoonist Linda Boileau of The State Journal in Kentucky's capital of Frankfort, population 30,000, struggled with anorexia. At 30, she weighed 78 pounds and was told by doctors she had the bones of a 70-year-old. She overcame the disease in 1994, but only now is telling her story. State Journal reporter Jordan Smith interviewed her for an article that was published with autobiographical cartoons depicting her experience. She's also speaking out on her blog, "Starving." Editor Carl West notes that Boileau is "a survivor of the deadliest known mental illness ... and wants those who are struggling near and far to know that there is a way out." (State Journal photo)Boileau recounts her issues with low self-esteem as a child that manifested during college into full-blown anorexia. From her graduation in 1980 to 1994, her life was an "uncompromisingly meticulous" routine of eating zero-calorie food and exercise. In 1988 Opinion Editor Todd Duvall (since deceased) and West surprised her with an intervention, which she said "began paving her way, just barely, out of starvation." As her professional life began to gain recognition (she was invited to the White House with 11 other cartoonists in 1989), she was "close to bottoming out." She admitted herself into a treatment program 12 years after her struggle began, and now, 18 years later, she's gained wisdom from her experience: "You can make your life what you want it to be. You are worthy just because you’re a human being." (Read more)
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