Zina Garrison-Jackson: tennis star's battle against bulimia - profile of Zina Garrison's struggle to overcome deaths in her family

Ebony, June, 1993 by Karima A. Haynes

Supportive husband, therapy help a world-class player to overcome eating disorder

THEY say you can't fool all of the people all of the time, but Zina Garrison-Jackson fooled tennis aficionados for many years. While playing the best tennis of her life during the 1989-90 season, she was secretly suffering from the ravages of bulimia, an eating disorder marked by binge eating and purging.

On the surface, she appeared serene as she humiliated--and retired--tennis legend Chris Evert in a semifinal match at the 1989 U.S. Open. That same year, she joined tennis' elite when she cracked the top five with a fourth-place ranking.

The following year, she cooly annihilated Monica Seles and Steffi Graf in back-to-back matches to reach the finals at Wimbledon, making her the first African-American woman to curtsy on Centre Court during a final match since tennis legend Althea Gibson won the coveted title in 1957 and 1958.

Three sets of tennis against archrival Martina Navratilova was all that separated Garrison-Jackson from her life-long dream of a No. 1 ranking and a Grand Slam title. What a triumph it would be for this young Black athlete--who spent years honing her skills on the sizzling outdoor courts of Houston's MacGregor Park--to reign supreme in the lily-White bastion of women's professional tennis.

Yet, just as Garrison-Jackson stood at the threshold of her biggest break-through, her career suddenly careened off course. She lost the Wimbledon championship to Navratilova in straight sets as Althea Gibson looked on.

Tennis analysts surmised that she lacked a killer instinct. Tennis fans thought she just choked under pressure. Family members explained that she was emotional and sensitive. Only Garrison-Jackson knew the truth.

For years, Garrison-Jackson had quietly endured bulimia. She, like others who suffer from the disease, gorged herself on high-calorie foods and then expelled them by intentionally vomiting, taking laxatives or diuretics, or through excessive exercise.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Nutrition Information Center, an estimated 5 to 20 percent of college-age women suffer from bulimia, a disease that usually strikes young women who have undergone a major change or traumatic experience in their lives. Most sufferers require extensive psychological counseling to control their dietary habits.

Garrison-Jackson's bulimic episodes began following the death of her mother, Mary Garrison, in 1983. The two were extremely close and constantly shared the triumphs and trials of life.

The loss hit Garrison-Jackson hard. She could not let it sink in. For months, she told herself that her mother was away on a long trip. She later attempted to fill the void with food, although she did not realize it at the time.

"I was eating all the time," the 29-year-old tennis star recalls, "then I'd go and purge. Binge and purge. Binge and purge, all the time."

Garrison-Jackson would stuff herself on pizza, cold cereal, chocolate and other "junk food." Afterwards, she would feel full--and guilty--and throw up.

"You definitely feel guilty," Garrison-Jackson confides. "Your self-esteem is down. You know that it's wrong. It's really depressing."

Despite the debilitating disorder, Garrison-Jackson continued on the professional tennis circuit. She topped $3 million in career earnings in 1991 and collected her 11th career title by taking the 1992 Virginia Slims of Oklahoma. Yet, her bulimic condition was taking its toll on her emotionally, physically and professionally.

Like most bulimics, Garrison-Jackson was a secret eater. "You're hiding, so you never feel very comfortable with yourself," she says. "The relationships that you have with others are unstable. You always feel they are going to run away and that they're not going to be there. I felt insecure all the time."

That uncertainty carried over onto the court. "I felt insecure on the court, so I didn't have any confidence," she reveals. "I felt weak. I didn't have the strength that I needed to compete."

Garrison-Jackson lacked physical strength because she was robbing her body of the nutrients it needed. As soon as the food entered her digestive system, she would purge.

"As far as my appearance was concerned, my hair and nails were weak," she recalls. "One time, I got really bad. I had a skin rash. I also learned later that the [stomach] acid from throwing up all the time basically rots your teeth. I have a whole lot of caps on my teeth."

Gradually, Garrison-Jackson came to grips with the severity of her disorder. She remembers losing a match in Kansas City, Mo. "I was really weak. I had no energy and I had just eaten," she says. "I was getting weaker and weaker and I felt really bad about myself."

She slowly began to comprehend the damage she was inflicting on her mind and body. She realized she needed help.

"It was so weird because all of a sudden it seemed that all these programs were on televison about bulimia," she says. "I was like, 'Oh, wow! That's me.' There were commercials for clinics and a made-for-TV movie about an actress who had bulimia. I learned that 30,000 women have died in the last couple of years from this; that just kind of woke me up."