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Today:
6:00 PM: NHS Art Auction 7:30 PM: Band
Pops Concert @ NHS
Saturday:
10:00 AM: Var-sity Softball Double Header @ Brule
Monday:
Varsity Track Regional @ Frederic High School
Tuesday:
9:00 AM: Boys Varsity Golf Regionals @ Ashland
5:00 PM: JV & Varsity Base-ball @ Iron River
Thursday: Varsity Track
Sectional @ Medford HS
Pg. 4 Abuse
Pg. 5 Sui Hotlines
Pg. 6 Activists
Volume 67, Issue 29 May 20, 2016
Article submitted to the editor by an anonymous student.
A year ago I was a completely different per-son. I weighed about 108 pounds and I looked sick. I was always cold, tired, and easily irritated. I was seeing a dieti-cian every Monday and a therapist every Wednesday after school. These appointments were intended to help get rid of my eating dis-order, anorexia.
As a child, I was nev-er a stick, but I also was never heavy. I was an average size and my body never bothered me. I was perfectly happy. But when I joined my spring sport freshman
year, I was inspired by all the athletes. I sudden-ly became aware of my average body, and I de-cided I wanted to be per-fect.
I wanted to be toned, slim, and fast, just like them. So I started watch-ing what I ate. Nothwatch-ing dramatic, just simple things such as no pop, cut back on sugar and processed foods, and eat more nutritious foods. After about a month, I noticed a change in my body. I also noticed a change in the number that showed up when I stepped on the scale. Seeing that number go
down gave me a sense of accomplishment.
When track ended, I joined summer weights. I became more athletic and I looked and felt amazing! But slowly and unconsciously, I started eating less.
My mom noticed that my eating habits had changed and that I wouldn’t eat much, and whenever I did eat, it was always low calorie foods.
When I returned to school for sophomore
‘Anorexia’
Contin-ued Pg. 2
“I’m so OCD,” “He’s so bipolar, god, why can’t he just make up his mind?” “That’s so retarded.”
These are phrases that are often heard, espe-cially in high school. However, these phrases are harmful, and further stigmatize and dehu-manize mental illnesses and disabilities. Wheth-er we realize it or not, by saying phrases like these we are contrib-uting to stereotypes and discrimination. So, as May is Mental Health Awareness Month, I’d like to point out words that we should not use, and alternatives.
1. Psycho/Psychotic-
People with psychosis are not monsters, and psycho is a slur. Alter-natives: illogical, fool-ish, obscene.
2. Retard/ed/ation-
mental disabilities are
not to be used as an in-sult, retard is degrading, and a slur. Alternatives: By Jay Gaare
‘Harmful
Lan-guage’ Continued
Pg. 2
Titled: “I am not my psychotic disorder,” with the written caption “Stigmatized.” Image courtesy of Steve
year, I received lots of comments about how I was so thin. Back then, I took them as compli-ments; it made me feel good that people noticed I had lost weight. How-ever, I didn’t realize that I was also beginning to look sick.
My hair started falling out and I was always cold. I would come to
school wearing three layers and I was still freezing. My skin was a yel-low color and I was skin and bones. I know that people noticed. I was called into the nurse’s office one day because some-one had expressed concern for how thin I was.
Looking back, I realize how severe my obsession with food was. I would throw food away that I didn’t want to eat. If mom was ever watching me eat, I would stuff small pieces of my meal into a napkin or pocket any time she looked away.
Sometimes I would eat as little as I could during the day and then binge on food when sup-pertime came around; after I binged, I would throw it all up.
I was always searching on Google how many calories a certain item had, always on the look-out for the lower calorie options. At one point, I was eating just over 800 calories a day.
Not only did this eat-ing disorder destroy me physically, but it
de-stroyed me psychologi-cally. During anorexia you're brain becomes deprived of serotonin and nutrients. Serotonin has a central role in depression and anxiety and I did be-come depressed. I lost interest in doing things that I had once loved. I would get easily irritated by the smallest things, and I had a hard time hiding my moodiness. Someone making a com-ment on what I was or wasn't eating easily set me off.
I also started to se-clude myself from peo-ple. Because I tried to avoid any situation that involved food, I never went out with my friends. I began pushing myself away from people and even became abnor-mally comfortable with
being alone. That girl who used to be so out-going and bold was now someone who didn’t en-joy socializing. I missed the old, confident me who could go up to any-one and strike up a con-versation. I had become a completely different per-son.
Editor: Jay Gaare
Staff Members: Maddy Gross Isaac Klobucher
Lilli Kovaleski
Advisor: Mrs. Thompson not smart, nonsensical,
ridiculous.
3. “I’m/They’re so OCD”- OCD isn’t hav-ing quirks, wanting things to be clean or or-ganized. OCD is a debili-tating disorder, and so much more than liking organization.
Alterna-tives: picky, neat, orga-nized.
4. Bipolar- unless you’re actually referring to Bi-polar type I or II, you should really stop using this. Specifically for someone who you deem moody, or one who is indecisive. Alternatives: moody, indecisive, un-predictable.
5. Schizo- schizophrenia isn’t to be used as a harmful description or insult. Schizophrenia is a serious mental illness. Using “schizo” to de-scribe something you deem weird marginalizes those with this disorder.
Alternatives: strange, unnatural, weird, ec-centric.
A good rule of thumb if
you are unsure if an in-sult is harmful, check whether the phrase/ comment originates from a criticism of a specific type of people, illness, disability, or other mar-ginalized people. If it does, that insult is most likely harmful. And if you really can’t think of another word to use, there’s a helpful source called Google.
‘Harmful
Lan-guage’ Continued
‘Anorexia’
Contin-ued
Titled: “I am not my eating disorder,” with the caption “It’s a war I’m winning.” Image courtesy of Steve Rosenfield, in
his “What I Be” series. http://www.whatibeproject.com/
5/14
Brett Botten Monica Schnepper Carmen Sclavi
5/15
Ryan Moran Molly Niven
5/16
Brianna Wrege
5/17
Olivia Kalin
5/18
Jordan Olsen
5/19
Cody Chruscielski
Today:
Derek Olsen
5/22
Meggan Lind Zachary Makela Emily Weiss
5/24
Alycs Perez
5/25
Natalia Woodhull
Happy
Birthday!
In October of my sophomore year, after months of constantly fighting with me about my eating habits, my mom made an appoint-ment for me to see a nu-tritionist.
I was against it and argued with her about it, but she made me go. I sat at those appointments and “listened” to what the nutritionist had to say, but I never really listened.
My anorexia had made me a great liar. I lied about what I ate. I told my nutritionist I was eat-ing about 2,000 calories a day even though it was only about 1,000. Even-tually my nutritionist
sug-gested seeing an eating disorder “specialist.”
Once again, I was op-posed to that idea. I would sit at my therapy sessions and listen to her talk.
I said little because I did-n’t want her to know an-ything about me.
I didn’t make any pro-gress in getting better. My condition worsened.
I honestly thought I would stay in that mind-set forever.
At one session, my therapist told me I would have to start missing school if I didn't im-prove.
This was an eye open-er. I was at my lowest weight of 105 pounds and it was then that I fi-nally realized I had a problem. My GPA meant too much to me and I decided I was not going to miss school just be-cause I wouldn’t eat.
It was a difficult jour-ney from that point on. I would improve and then I would relapse; this hap-pened multiple times. At this point, even though I
had acknowledged to myself that I had a seri-ous problem, there were times when I didn’t want to get better. To me, re-covery meant getting fat.
My last appointment was this fall. It took me a year, but I have over-come anorexia. Through this journey, I realized that no one is perfect and there is no way to
achieve perfection. Be-hind every “perfect” body is a surgery, a Pho-toshop edit, or even an eating disorder.
I stopped comparing myself to everyone, and I slowly learned to love my
body again. I learned not to worry about calories. I started viewing food as fuel, not as something that would make me fat; rather, as something that would keep me alive. I no longer focused on the number on the scale but on how I felt. I am now strong, healthy, and I feel
amazing.
Before anorexia, I used to think “How can someone not eat?” I nev-er undnev-erstood how some-one could not want to eat food especially when there are so many deli-cious options out there. I’m sure others don’t un-derstand this eating dis-order either. I never un-derstood anorexia until I developed it.
People often say “just eat something,” but it’s not that easy. Anorexia isn’t a life choice, it's a mental disorder. Your brain becomes messed up.
At my lowest weight, I was 105 pounds, but I still viewed myself as fat. Im-agine your biggest fear and then hav-ing to conquer and get over that fear. The thought of overcom-ing it is absolutely terri-fying. That’s what hav-ing anorexia is like. No two cases of ano-rexia are identical; some-one can have a case simi-lar to mine or it can be way more serious. Lucki-ly, my organs never start-ed failing and I never ended up in a hospital or recovery institution. I was fortunate to receive help and recover. Eating disorders can kill and they need to be taken more seriously.
If you are reading this and you’re stuck in an eating disorder, I want you to know that there is so much more out there. There’s more to life than constantly thinking about food, every minute of the day. Eating food, not eat-ing food, throweat-ing up food, counting food, hid-ing food. There is noth-ing better than the feel-ing of befeel-ing at peace with your body.
There’s more to life than always thinking about numbers. Numbers in your food, numbers on the scale, numbers on your clothing tags. You are more than this eating disorder. I know it sounds terrifying, but seek help. It will be the best decision you ever make.
“There’s more to life
than constantly
think-ing about food, every
minute of the day.”
‘Anorexia’ Continued
Titled: “I am not my eating disorder,” with the caption “Mentally fat.” Image courtesy of Steve Rosenfield, in his “What I Be” series. http://
By Jay Gaare
Did you know that 12.5 percent of children in the U.S. experience a confirmed case of physical, sexual, and/or emotional abuse by the age of 18? Did you know that one in three high school students are physically, emotionally, sexually and/or verbally abused by their partner?
So what even qualifies as abuse? I’ll go over sexual, emotional and physical, as I feel these three are the most common that can affect high schoolers. But remember that there is also verbal abuse, financial abuse, neglect, and abandonment. If you or one you know has been abused, I encourage you to read the advice at the end of this article, and feel free to skip to the advice on page 5 if you know the information will be triggering to you.
So what can you do if
you’ve been abused?
Continue to page 5
for advice.
Sexual abuse is non-consensual sexual contact. This especially includes those unable to consent including chil-dren (remember, you’re still a child according to consent laws until you’re 16), the elderly, disa-bled, intoxicated.
Sexual abuse includes (but is not limited to):
Rape, and it is important to note that if one is intoxicated, a minor, unable to communi-cate that it is not enthusiastic consent (if one is uncomforta-ble or unsure, it is not con-sent), or decides that they no longer consent and this is not respected, it is rape.
Sexual assault, including un-wanted sexual acts, groping, favors, etc.
Forcing one to witness por-nography or masturbation, or to sext.
Coercing or forcing one to masturbate or be in pornogra-phy (including sexting as porn.)
Refusal to use contraceptives or deliberately interfering with contraceptives.
Stalking.
If you did not consent to something completely, it is sexu-al assault or rape. It doesn’t mat-ter if you are in a relationship or previously consented. If you felt that you had to, or that if you did-n’t your partner would leave you, it is sexual assault, rape, and/or abuse.
Emotional abuse can come from an-yone, but is most often from a parent or one you are dating.
Emotional abuse is often gone unnoticed because it leaves no visible trace, and a very common part of emotional abuse is being manipulated to feel as if you are making things up, overreacting, or aren’t important enough to talk about your prob-lems, so one being abused in this manner will often not be able to see that they are being abused, or will realize it long after it has happened.
Common forms include:
Victim-blaming- making the victim feel as if they are in the wrong when they attempt to speak to the abuser about something they have done wrong.
Degradation- making fun of or dis-missing you or your fears, mental ill-nesses, opinions, feelings, suggestions, etc. This can be in private or in front of others.
Threats- threatening to harm them-selves, you, or others you care about. Similarly, being afraid of one, or intim-idated by one can be put under the “threat” category.
Control- deciding what you wear, do, spend, who you are friends with, or monitoring your activities constantly.
Isolation- limiting contact with friends or family, limiting social outings, or not permitting one to leave one’s room. Extreme cases would be classified un-der physical abuse.
Denial- denying the victim’s emotional needs, not allowing any opinions differ-ing from the abuser’s, makdiffer-ing one question if situations really happened or their sanity, and withholding com-munication (otherwise thought of as the silent treatment.)
Physical abuse is the use of force that can re-sult in injury, pain, im-pairment or physical dis-comfort.
Physical abuse can include:
Beating with an ob-ject, whipping, hitting, slapping, or kicking.
Shaking, such as shak-ing one’s head or body violently.
Hair-pulling, pinch-ing, or biting.
Choking or arm-twisting.
Threats with a weapon (or object.)
Burning or stabbing.
Force-feeding.
Pushing or shoving.
From left to right:
If you’re ever in crisis, there are people to talk to. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (1-800-237-8255) is open 24/7.
If you cannot speak over the phone, you can text “Go” to 741-741. If you don’t have a cell phone or data, there are online places to go. You can talk with trained individuals on the websites www.imalive.org or www.7cups.com. Seven Cups of Tea (7cups.com) also has an app called 7 cups, which works in the same way the online browser does.
There are also specific hotlines for certain prob-lems, for example Trans Lifeline (877-565-8860) is there to help transgender, nonbinary or gender-questioning people. There is also a Na-tional Domestic Violence Hotline (1-800-799-7233).
If you need help or to talk to someone, and can-not ask a loved one, please use a crisis hotline or chats. If you need to talk about a specific issue and want someone who will know about it, you can always google [insert term] hotline.
If you are in a safe enough posi-tion to get help, I highly encourage it.
Even if this is talk-ing to a friend or therapist, this can prove extremely worth-while.
If you can get out of your situation, that’s great. If you can’t right now, don’t feel bad about it.
Try not to blame yourself for staying with your abuser. People who are not victims don’t understand how hard it is to leave, and that it’s literally im-possible for some to leave.
Please try to under-stand that none of it was your fault. You did not do anything that would cause your abuser to abuse you.
If you were any different, if you were the ideals they manipulated you into thinking you should be, things would not have
changed.
You did not cause any of this to happen to you, and this can take years to realize, but it’s never too late to start thinking about it.
Know that you will be okay one day. You might still be in your abuser’s range, but you will one day be free of their harm. Yes, you will most likely always have mental or physical damage, but
re-covery is possible.
It’s okay if you didn’t realize it was abuse, or are just starting to think something might be off. I was unable to see that I was in an emotionally and sexually abusive relation-ship the entire year I was in it, plus months after until small pieces started forming an image.
It’s okay if you are still affected by them. It
doesn’t matter if it happened years ago, or if others have it worse, your trauma is valid.
Life isn’t a com-petition on who’s is the most terrible, so please try to allow yourself to feel emo-tion about it without comparing to others, or guilting yourself because it was a long time ago.
You are not your abuser. It doesn’t matter if you are re-lated, you are not them.
You will most likely not become them, espe-cially if you realize that you were abused/are being abused, and take steps to address your mental health related to it.
You’re allowed to love yourself. You’re allowed to feel content with your body and personality. It’s okay, it’s not selfish, it’s not wrong, it’s not terri-ble, I promise.
Titled: “I am not my abuse,” with the caption “We’re a ‘Normal’ Family.” Image courtesy of Steve Rosenfield, in his “What I
Right: Pete Shaughnessy
1962-2002 (Cofounder of
Mad Pride)
Marilyn Rice Unknown-1992 She was an anti-ECT activist that worked closely with Lin-da Andre. Rice founded the Committee for Truth in
Psy-chiatry.
Peter Lehmann 1950-
Judi Chamberlin 1944-2010
Left: Ted Chabasinski
1937-
Right: Leonard Roy Frank
1932-2015 Linda Andre
1959-
May is Mental Health Awareness month. Men-tal health plays a big part in our overall well-being. Some people are lucky and do not have to face problems in this area. Then there are others such as myself who struggle with various is-sues. You wouldn't think it, but it affects every area of your life: your school work, your friend-ships, your motivation to do anything.
Motivation has a clear connection to depression. Depression causes you to have none, even to do the most menial tasks, such as brushing your teeth, showering, eating, get-ting out of bed. Those basic things become mountains you have to climb every day.
So please don't make jokes about mental
health. It's not funny, and it does not make you look cool. Don't joke about cutting, suicide, depression, or other things people mental health issues have and can NOT help.
This week, some one on my bus asked me, “Are you bipolar?” and not in a way that truly
showed concern for me. It was more of an off-the -cuff criticism thrown at me in passing.
First off it's not your place to ask if I am. Even if I were, please do not attempt to pin me down with a label. Secondly, if you truly care about my or another person’s men-tal health, you would not
shout the question across a bus full of students; you would quietly pull me aside and ask me how I am doing.
So in conclusion be kind to everyone, you never know what prob-lems they may be facing. By Maddy Gross
By Jay Gaare
