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For years, the surgical alterations in Michael Jackson’s face have presented such a haunting spectacle that another aspect of his physical transformation—his drastic weight loss—went relatively unnoticed.
According to autopsy reports, the King of Pop was a skeletal 112 pounds when he died last Thursday*. Although the cause of death won’t be known for weeks, two authors of Michael Jackson biographies have put forward an intriguing theory: that Jackson might have died of anorexia.
“I'm going to make a prediction: Part of the contributing factor not only will be substance abuse ... but it will also be anorexia,” Diane Dimond, who wrote a book about Jackson’s molestation trial, said on CNN on Thursday. She went on to recall that, when she was reporting on the trial in 2005, Jackson was so emaciated that she wondered how he could stand up.
Meanwhile, Ian Halperin, author of the forthcoming Unmasked: The Final Years of Michael Jackson, wrote in the U.K. Daily Mail that Jackson had lost significant weight in recent months, and that his doctors wondered if he was bulimic. He quoted a Jackson staff member saying: “He goes days at a time hardly eating a thing, and at one point his doctor was asking people if he had been throwing up after meals.” The staff member continued: “‘He suspected bulimia, but when we said he hardly eats any meals, the doc thought it was probably anorexia.’”
So Michael Jackson, spiritual sister to Mary-Kate?
Maybe. There are several unknowns here, so it’s a little early to add Jacko to the list of celebrity anorexics, with Portia de Rossi and the singer Karen Carpenter, who died of heart failure in 1983, collapsing at her parents’ home at the age of 32.
In particular, it’s hard to disentangle the causes of Jackson’s weight loss from his reported drug abuse. When anorexics die of heart failure, it is usually, as in Carpenter’s case, because they are vomiting or taking laxatives. Both practices lead to potassium imbalance, which can cause heart arrhythmia and cardiac arrest. It has been suggested that Jackson could have been taking laxatives, because the painkillers he was taking, like Demerol, cause constipation.
Still, it’s hard not to wonder if Jackson’s wraith-like frame in recent years was another result of his obsession with physical self-manipulation. Some consider Jackson’s repeated plastic surgeries—the autopsy report suggests he had 13—to have been a deliberate exploration of identity, but it’s just as easy to see them as the expression of a tortured self-image. There is a psychiatric disorder known as body dysmorphia, in which a person becomes fixated, to a crippling degree, on perceived defects in his appearance. It can lead to a dangerous obsession with plastic surgery, to excessive dieting, and to attempts to camouflage despised features (which is one way to interpret Jackson’s habit of wearing a surgical mask over his nose). It can also lead to alcohol and drug abuse, as a way of self-medicating.
The eating disorders “community” is apparently eager to claim Jackson as one of their own. Cynthia Bulik, a professor of psychiatry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, says that the Twitter feeds she follows were abuzz with speculation about Jackson’s possible anorexia. Bulik herself thought that Jackson might fit into a category that professionals refer to as “multi-impulsive eating disorders.” “There are some people who just have whole cluster of co-morbid conditions: They might have substance abuse, alcohol abuse, an eating disorder, body dysmorphic disorder,” she says. “It becomes an exercise in futility to find out what caused what.”
Comments
Twitter feeds she follows
By: preethi | Wed, 08/18/2010 - 08:07
Twitter feeds she follows were abuzz with speculation about Jackson’s possible anorexia. Nice post.
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Might be cause of a
By: preethi | Wed, 08/11/2010 - 00:16
Might be cause of a psychiatric disorder known as body dysmorphia, which may lead to excessive eating. It can also lead to alcohol and drug abuse, as a way of self-medicating.
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There is a psychiatric
By: preethi | Sun, 08/08/2010 - 09:57
There is a psychiatric disorder known as body dysmorphia, in which a person becomes fixated, to a crippling degree, on perceived defects in his appearance.
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There are some people who
By: preethi | Thu, 08/05/2010 - 08:52
There are some people who just have whole cluster of co-morbid conditions: They might have substance abuse, alcohol abuse, an eating disorder, body dysmorphic disorder.
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I dont know if Jackson died
By: tutor | Fri, 12/11/2009 - 13:19
I dont know if Jackson died of an eating disorder. What did the official report conclude?
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He could have been a role model in this realm
By: millermax10 | Tue, 12/08/2009 - 18:46
It really isn't all that surprising that Michael Jackson possibly suffered from an eating disorder. It is disappointing, however, that he did not let the world know and become one of the leading figures fighting this cruel affliction. Female eating disorders have gotten lots of media attention, but many many suffered from such disorders as well. It's too bad Michael Jackson did not do more to fight the disorder, and if he did I bet a Michael Jackson download would be even more popular than it is now.
Why is this news more upsetting?
By: lkerielark | Wed, 07/01/2009 - 17:57
The idea that finding out Michael Jackson might also have been anorexic makes his life and death worse is like the idea that when Ann Coulter said bad things about 9/11 widows, she had suddenly gone over the line. In that case, things she had already said (poisoning Supreme Court Justices, for example) were at least as bad, she hadn't hit any special low.
Michael Jackson's life was a tragedy. He had a wonderful talent, and enormous wealth from that talent. But we already knew he lived a strange life, and did terrible things to his body (the plastic surgery, and whatever else), and that he probably re-enacted the abuse he had suffered (or, at the very least, had no sense of boundries). If he was anorexic (and the news mention of being vegetarian, and eating one meal a day made that possibility come to mind) that's just another way to act out all the things we knew, not really crossing any new lines.
Honestly
By: bambam | Wed, 07/01/2009 - 16:36
I just happened to notice before forgetting this post entirely that at the very end of the article you mention that this might have something to do with shattering stereotypes. The rest of it read like petty gossip.
Not reliable information - why keep adding to the controversy?
By: Little Green Frog | Wed, 07/01/2009 - 11:05
It was noted by the Los Angeles County coroner that this autopsy report is a fake. Why is this article on the front page of Slate.com?
http://www.tmz.com/2009/06/29/jackson-autopsy-report-a-fake/
NOT the autopsy report
By: revelationisjoy | Wed, 07/01/2009 - 07:59
No, the autopsy report didn't say he was 112 lbs. The Sun tabloid in London did, and that is right there is the link you used. The coroner IMMEDIATELY slammed the paper, pointing out that the autopsy report hadn't been released yet. Please don't give something as a fact unless you have reliable evidence. You didn't even say "reportedly the autopsy report showed..." Why is this important? Journalism has certain standards, or at least it used to - there is a difference between speculation and fact, and your readers rely on you to be clear about the difference so they can have an informed opinion. The last decade or so has broken down trust in journalism - who knows when you're being lied to? How much of what we base our opinions on is a lie fed to us? These are important questions for those who want opinions based on substance rather than prejudice.
That said, I'm not disputing that he might have had anorexia - I didn't weigh him but I saw the slightness of his body on that stretcher.