Bad questions, excellent answers

I've been a fan of Dr. Cynthia Bulik's work for some time. Her research rocks!

But after listening to this December 10 radio show, I now feel I must form a fan club.

I'm sorry to say the interviewer's questions were the worst ED interview questions I have ever heard. And I've heard some bad ones...

He wasn't just unprepared, he also didn't listen. I forgive him, because he was only asking the questions most people unfamiliar with EDs ask, but I still chafe at the emphasis on lowest weights, media pressures, and the word 'thin.'

If he said "painfully thin" once he said it 20 times.

My very wise daughter reminds me, whenever I am tempted to worry about someone based on the appearance of illness: "The pain is worst when you don't seem ill."

Yet Bulik made the questions work by resolutely sticking to new information people really need to hear and aren't getting a lot of. She did it with class and generosity. And I know she does a lot of these interviews. (I even had the honor of being interviewed with her last year on NPR - she was reasoned and informative, I sputtered.)

Michele Crisafulli, the college student from UNC Chapel Hill who was also interviewed with Bulik, was breathtakingly wise and unflappable. We're going to need another fan club for her. Listen for the way this very young woman refused to play the victim, and offered a view of recovery that was inspiring and insightful.

In her recommendations for parents, Bulik recommends something near and dear to my heart: the Academy For Eating Disorders' patient treatment bill of rights, Worldwide Charter for Action on Eating Disorders. I am proud to serve on an AED Patient/Carers Task Force which helped draft the Charter. In all my encounters with AED's leadership I have found that this organization of clinicians and researchers is working hard on finding answers.

The rest of us need to work on asking better questions!

Comments

  1. Michelle is wonderful isn't she? Haven't yet got to the bit with Dr Buik, but wow that man is an idiot.

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  3. The patient, Michelle, is so articulate, intelligence, calm, and wise--I am blown away by her.

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