Princess Diana and Bulimia
Bulimia is No Respecter of Persons Including British Royalty
Sep 20, 2008
Amidst global broadcasting, Princess Diana and Prince Charles were married on July 29, 1981 at St. Paul's Cathedral in London. The adoring British public crowded the route leading to St. Paul's on the day of the wedding hoping to catch a glimpse of the royal couple. The marriage into royalty launched Princess Diana into public and private roles--the intensity of which she was not prepared to cope with.
Public Roles
As Princess of Wales, Diana accompanied her husband on numerous tours and public engagements. She was known for her fashion style and association with the fashion community. Over time, Princess Diana attended to some public engagements without her husband. She traveled the world.
Additionally, she was responsible for numerous charities of which she played an active role (the banning of land mines, the homeless and the disabled to name a few). She was seen visiting lepers and even touching them without gloves! She was known as the "People's Princess."
Family
Princess Diana was devoted to her family especially her sons William and Harry. The internal pressures of sustaining and nurturing her family, holding the family image and unit together under the scrutiny of the public eye in addition to the pressures and responsibilities of her position as Princess of Wales were more than Princess Diana could handle.
Then there was the media who pursued her relentlessly--no escape. The pedestal the media placed her upon was another facet of the daily pressures she coped with. Though she had friends and caring people around her, her life held elements of loneliness.
Princess Diana and Bulimia
She turned to binge eating as a means to comfort herself. The eating disorder began shortly after her marriage to Prince Charles. Princess Diana endured the disorder for a number of years until she sought treatment during the late 1980's.
Binge eating and some physically destructive gestures were her cry for help, but they were misinterpreted. Regarding bulimia, "...it was my escape mechanism, and it worked, for me, at that time...you fill your stomach up, four or five times a day...it gives you a feeling of comfort." The Princess stated that she did not know how to comfort herself after spending significant amounts of time helping others who were suffering (from Princess of Wales, BBC, aired ABC-TV, Friday, 11/24/1995).
When Prince Charles began seeing Mrs. Camilla Parker-Bowles, the bulimia intensified. The Princess expressed, "...feeling of being no good at anything...and failed in every direction."(From Princess of Wales, BBC, aired ABC-TV, Friday, 11/24/1995).
The comforting effects of a binge were fleeting--to be replaced with the negative feelings of shame and low self-esteem. She was accused by the Royal Family of "wasting food." Relief from these emotions was found in vomiting (purging).
"The Diana Effect"
After Princess Diana's public revelation concerning her problems with bulimia, a surge of bulimia cases hit an apex during the 1990s. Perhaps the stigma associated with admitting to having an eating disorder was diminished enough to encourage other sufferers to seek treatment with the Princess' revelation.
Despite her own problems, Princess Diana had the gift of reaching out to the hurting, unveiling her own humanity (albeit through a crown) and giving sufferers of bulimia recognition, validation and the permission and freedom to seek help.
Sources
Royal.gov website, no author or dates.
Sam Lister,Healthyplace.com,"The Diana Effect"written for a website, no date.
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