Quarter 2 Post 3B

I'm reading Just Listen by Sarah Dessen.

What drives someone into depression or into developing a disorder? How does a person recover from such trauma? In Just Listen, Annabel's mother was very depressed after her mother, Annabel's grandmother, died and withdrew herself from family completely. She would sleep most of the day and not speak to anyone about her sadness. "My mother's condition quickly grew to dictate our lives. It was the barometer by which we judged everything" (32). Her family was very careful not to upset her and everything they did orbited around her. Her father took up cooking which he was terrible at and he normally didn't do it. Annabel and her sisters quit modeling for awhile because there father couldn't handle it and they wouldn't dare ask their mother to take them on go-sees. Their lives were altered completely due to thier mom's depression. However, the daughters' modeling was exactly what brought their mom back into the real worls and out of her depression. She felt like that needed her and her life had meaning once again.

Annabel's sister Whitney, the middle child, took modeling very seriously, as she did everything in her life. She had always been quiet and withdrawn, yet always ambitious. When she moved away to New York to see wht she could become she tried to do everything and ran in overdrive. It was too much for her to handle and she developed an eating disorder. "To Whitney she said, 'Like we talked about on the plane. Either you tell them, or I will'" (44). Kirsten is concerned by Whitney's behavior and weight loss. She told their family and now Whitney is in denial while the family tries to help her.