Questions to ask my Interviewees

This is the original script composing of the questions I am intending to ask my interviewees during the course of the filming of my documentary 'The Girls Who Wouldn't Eat'. I expect to condense the responses down on final editing as the entirety of the clip only commences for five minutes. I have also included my personal opinion of which direction I'm anticipating the responses to go once the question has been stated to the individual.

Script for the girls

Question one : How did you develop anorexia? Was it a slow or quick process?

I expect to get quite a thorough, detailed response from this question as ultimately the interviewee could go into great depth about the starting points of their illness, how it came to be and the journey throughout as it progressively got worse. However I am also anticipating some of the girls to give short, brief answers - some may feel uncomfortable going into their life history and wont be prompted to entail their stories in full as it is a sensitive matter. This will certaintly be factual information about the disorder so I would consider placing these responses near the beginning of the documentary

Question two : How did your lifestyle change after your eating disorder developed?

Here I can also imagine a wide range of responses, a few of the girls may go deep into content, whilst others may avoid to as it is still quite personal. Because of the sensitive topic it would not be uncommon to see some of them 'brushing' the question off and attempt not to give a thorough conclusion to it. Really this can all depend on the individual the ones who are more bold and open about their experiences may give a wide variety of content, its all down to individual differences within the person themselves.

Question three : How did the illness impact you as a person, did it effect your mental well being?

Another sensitive matter is covered here, the emotional stability of the girls will be discussed and I can guarantee it will elict some sympathy from the audience as it will truly highlight how vulnerable these young girls are to the effects of their eating disorder. I can imagine the interviewees going into quite some depth again with this response so some may have to be condensed down for the final documentary.

Question four : Did you ever consider seeking treatment or acknowledge you needed help?

The answers here could be quite brief, I am anticipating a variety of blunt 'Yes' and 'No' answers so they may need prompting to go into further detail if they choose. Some may still be in denial about them even being diagnosed with an eating disorder so could find it hard to accept they truly need professional help in their lives to overcome the condition

Question five : How did the anorexia influence your thoughts about food? Were there any rituals you participated in or foods you avoided?

Again this is a thoroughly personal question as the girls may reveal scecrets here they have previously kept hidden from all those closest to them. Therefore I can imagine sterotypical replies like 'I hid food' or 'I over exercised' as they may feel prompted to follow similair trends/rituals other anorexics partipate in.

Question six : When was it that your family began to notice changes in your persona?

This is quite an opinionated question that could promote some very biased answers - a individual suffering from anorexia is most likely to deny that nothing was even noticed as they are 'oblivious' to their own condition occurring around them. Generally I would anticipate fairly short answers because unless they are on the route to recovery most anorexics wouldn't admit to ever really causing a problem to their family.

Question seven : At this point were you fully aware of the medical complications at stake?

Again I can imagine most of the anorexics would be vehement that they were 'fine' and that there 'was nothing wrong with them' in the first place. However for those who have suffered life threatening circumstances I believe they would be more open to discussing what happened to them, beneficially they would most likely recognise how serious the situation for them was if medically they became unstable due to starvation

Question eight : Did it come to a point professionals had to medically intervene?

Basically this is undoubtedly a yes or no answer - it really just depends on the severity of the anorexics mindset and how in control the illness was or is over them at the time. Only 10% of sufferers actually need medical attention so I'm assuming the rate of girls who have been hospitalised is slim. However if they did require inpatient treatment the responses could vary due to the entire individual differences scenario and how open they feel about being with their responses to the question

Question nine : How are you approaching recovery, are you seeking it?

The answers granted here will hopefully delve into the full insight of what the sufferer actually expects to achieve in their life  A majority will be dedicated for recovery, even though they have their blips, as ultimately it is not a life anyone would choose to lead. Yet one third of anorexics never recover so it wouldn't be rare to come across an individual who wasn't seeking it

Question ten : Do you think you will ever be able to engage in a 'normal eating regime' again?

Predicting the future is an extremely difficult process, I would love to hear that some of the girls are attempting to, for those however that don't think this could be accomplished, I would be upset but understanding. I suppose a range of responses would show how much the severity of the illness ranges between separate people.

Script for the parents

Question one : Were you aware of anorexia as a mental illness?

Here i can simply see the answer being predicted as that they were 'aware' of it but never fully understood it until their child developed it. This sounds fairly stereotypical of me to say yet in most documentaries that involve anorexia I have noted that most of the parents either had some vague understanding of it or were completely oblivious to it even existing, so I would not be surprised if the responses I obtained here followed that trend

Question two : Did you ever believe your child would develop it?

I've witnessed first hand that most parents deny there was ever a problem with their child as they were always 'perfect' in some way and were high achieving in school or other clubs. A majority of parents who have a child with anorexia never see the illness coming as it is something they never 'expected' of their 'perfect' child

Question three : Had your child always been a normal weight when they were younger?

Fairly personal, this could simply be a very blunt 'yes' or 'no' answer by the parents. I don't assume they would go into much detail, the exception would be if their child was of a normal weight or slightly underweight because I could anticipate them discussing how it confuses them even more their child developed this condition as they were never overweight.

Queston four : When did you start noticing changes in your child's behaviour?

My main prediction is that the answers will range from either from when the child stopped eating or began restricting, became secretive with their behaviour or adapted abnormal routines that involved some systematic planning (disposing of food) or engaging in excessive exercise, as I've observed in many TV and newspaper interviews these are the vast element of the responses that are gained from parents

Question five : What was it like when it came to meal times?

I would be thoroughly shocked if the parent said meal times were 'average' in a sense that most families would experience. With anorexics sitting down as a family is extremely difficult so I'm expecting the parents to go into a thorough amount of detail about how heartbreaking it was attempting to get their child to eat.

Question six : Did you consider seeking medical help for your child?

I'd also be stunned if the interviewees denied ever trying to seek medical assistance. Obviously they would be very worried about their child not eating and because its such an alarming matter I am fairly confident at some point the parent would have insisted to take their child to the doctors/hospital etc

Question seven : How did it effect you having to live with your child who was refusing to eat?

This is of a highly personal nature as it documents the parents feelings to the whole dreadful situation. I can expect them to become very emotional and distressed throughout their responses because of how dramatically the illness would have affected them as well along with their child - observing someone starve themselves who you love is mentally a damaging concept.

Question eight : Was there a point when you believed a worse case scenario?

Depending on how ill the child got I can expect a mixture of response, a large majority will possibly think that something catastrophic would have happened to their young because of the complications of the illness yet I can see some of the responses being more severe if the child did require the assistance of a hospital medical wing/inpatient unit.

Question nine : How is your child's relationship with food since they were diagnosed?

Really the answer will contemplate how focused their child is on recovery - some may state things are improving as their child wants to recover, others may be more negative saying saying its still a hardship. Overall their response is dictated by their child's motivation to improve their health again.

Question ten : Do you believe your child will ever fully recover?

The expected remarks can be linked directly back to question nine, overall the responses will fluctuate determined by the child's motivation to get their life back which the parent will pick up on. If the child is negative so will be the parent, if the child is positive the parent will be as well.