Summary Of 'Restricted' By Jennifer Kinsel

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Restricted, a book on mental health by Jennifer Kinsel takes on a first-person, speculative, storytelling format about the author's long battle with various eating disorders as a teen. She recounts how she formed a shameful opinion of herself and how she saw herself in the mirror, subsequent to her low self-esteem by comparing herself to others. This compelling story quickly escalates to describe the spiralling effects of her detrimental obsession. Everything following her downfall makes up the bulk of the book, which is her recollection of the series of steps she had to take toward the pinnacle of recovery. This includes her relapses. It documents her entire progress, both physically and mentally (to show her changes in reluctant attitude) …show more content…

This book is written from a very personal standpoint, stemming from her real-life experiences on a topic that changed her life forever. Considering her emotional ties to the subject, she is very resourceful in detailing how she felt during each step of recovery. A corresponding source that demonstrates credibility in a different way is the PBS documentary "Dying to be Thin" directed by Larkin McPhee. This documentary not only presents interviews from people that have overcome eating disorders, but various expert opinions from doctors to further support that it is a matter of grave concern. Because it is supported with a mountain of facts and statistics on top of the collection of personal stories, this documentary is slightly more successful in encapsulating eating disorders and establishing credibility. For example, the documentary also uses Dr. Walter Kaye as a source for facts and statistics such as, "Nearly 50 percent of patients will relapse within the first year." All in all, Kinsel is a good source, but the documentary slightly outweighs her writing in the sense that it is heftily supported with more forms of medical evidence. It blends casual and emotional language from the various interviewees with formal, academic language from the medical professionals and narrator when addressing factual