Sydni White

March 2nd, 2015

Interview #1 (Friend diagnosed)
UWRIT 1102

I decided to interview (more of a casual conversation as opposed to an actual interview)

with one of my closest friends who was diagnosed with more than one mental disorder. I will not
put her name in this for privacy, but my friend was recently diagnosed with Bulimia nervosa,
which is an eating disorder characterized by binge eating and later vomiting what was eaten in
order to maintain or lose a certain amount of weight, and Depression, which kind of goes hand in
hand. This conversation with my friend made me think of a lot more issues within our society in
relation to mental illness that does not really get to be discussed as often as it should be
discussed. As opposed to talking about whether certain disorders should be classified as a mental
illness, I feel that after this interview, it would be more important to discuss the stigmas people
attach to people diagnosed with mental disorders, and the way peoples perceptions of people
diagnosed with mental disorders affects the people who actually are suffering day to day with
these disorders. Honestly, if my friend had never told me about her diagnosis, I would have never
suspected that she had any kind of mental illness, and even after finding out about it, my opinion
of her did not change. This also brings up the issue of diagnosing people with mental illnesses. A
lot of mental illnesses these days can either go undetected, or someone could be diagnosed with a
mental illness just for showing a few symptoms related to a specific disorder such as a child that
may just have hyper tendencies being diagnosed with ADD (Attention Deficit/hyperactivity
Disorder), when they do not really have the disease. Overall, this interview made me really think

about a lot more issues pertaining to the topic at hand beyond what I originally intended to
discuss.