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Sadie Robertson, one of the "Duck Dynasty" kids, struggled with (based on the way that it sounds) Bulimia, given that even her mother had no idea that she had an eating disorder (and especially those with paternal and maternal eyes can notice significant weight losses). Per "Frequently Asked Questions About Eating Disorders" per Johns Hopkins Medicine:
"Both anorexia nervosa and bulimia are characterized by an overvalued drive for thinness and a disturbance in eating behavior. The main difference between diagnoses is that anorexia nervosa is a syndrome of self-starvation involving significant weight loss of 15 percent or more of ideal body weight, whereas patients with bulimia nervosa are, by definition, at normal weight or above."
Why I am disappointed in Sadie Robertson, then, is her attitude re "tak[ing] authority over [her thoughts]":
"'The day I prayed for the Lord to enlighten my eyes to see His standard of beauty, is the day my whole life changed," she said. "Do these old thoughts come back from time to time? Absolutely, but it is my job to take authority over them.'"
For many fellow self-identifying Christians of Sadie Robertson with eating disorders and other mental illnessesⁱ, it's not as simple as the "Duck Dynasty" star makes it—and people like her whom use religion falsely give many a "Just pray and it'll mostly go away" idea to consider.
In fact, quite a few Christians and people in other religious groups with eating disorders and other mental illnesses think, "If only it were that easy!" and may even become antithetical toward religion as a result. Faith communities are supposed to be there to help those with eating disorders and other mental illnesses, not have an "Oh, ye of little faith; that's why you have a mental illness!"
Also, not everyone has the resources (e.g., money, groups of social networks, significant social status) that Sadie Robertson has. I even go as far as to add that Sadie Robertson may as well have kept her struggle with her eating disorder private instead of having talked about it in such a thoughtless and cavalier way.
As a Biblical proverb goes¹, "Even a fool is counted wise when he holds his peace; [w]hen he shuts his lips, he is considered perceptive." There is only foolishness in using religion to make light of serious problems, especially when the person whom makes light of the problem assumes at some level that she or he is the only one struggling with the problem.
One's making light of her or his her given mental illness (whether it is an eating disorder or another type of mental illness) with a "Pray for it to go away" attitude may even have a deadly affect on others, since "[d]eath and life are in the power of the tongue."
After all, people who feel like "I just don't have enough faith. I can't do this, anyway" may even commit suicide as a result²; and for people with eating disorders, suicide may come in the form of deliberately starving themselves to death. Sadie Robertson needs to remember that every time that she begins to assume that it's as simple as "Pray for it to go away" for everyone with eating disorders.
ⁱ Including myself—and I myself have OCD/Anxiety, Depression, and ADD
¹ I quote the New King James Version, via Bible Gateway, here.
² I don't know whether this was a motive in the suicides of Great-Granddad Czarnecki, Great-Great-Grandma Rusnak's brothers Ferencz "Frank" and Andrȧs "Alexander" Foczko, and
Great-Great-Grandma Rusnak's father (Istvȧn Foczko; also "Focko"). My family's case was and is different, as we are Anusim and B'nei Anusim whose ancestors became and lived as Anusim due to Anti Semitism in Eastern Europe and the United States, and mental illness set offs and flareups in our family indeed have been affected by the dynamics of being Anusim and B'nei Anusim—including the dynamics of family secrecies.
