What do you think causes an eating disorder? Is the media the only thing to blame? Or is it deeper? I just did a big assignment on it i school, and I found it very interesting. Eating disorders have been pretty close to me as my sister has been a bulimic in 4 years almost. It is so hard to watch her getting thin / thick all the time. And I feel that I can't do anything. She won't talk about it :/ and I love her so much. I wish we could switch places. One thing I don't get is that she seems so confident. She looks like any other teen and stuff. It is so weird that she hates her weight so much. She is also a beautiful girl... I dont know if the media is to blame. Of course they are, on some level. But that's just how it is today. It is way deeper than that.
What I actually heard is that eating disorders are about control issues and not about being thin. especially when they feel they cannot control anything else in their lives. And the only thing they can control is what they eat. I do think media is to blame self image and esteem issues. hope your sis gets help soon she wont get better until she wants to.
yeah, I believe it is "control issues" also. when bulimics eat, they forget everything around them and when they throw up they feel like they're throwing up all their problems, so to speak. It has been compared to alcoholism actually. And thank you very much, I hope she'll make the right choice soon. It'll ruin her if she doesnt /;
(Mod note [[as always]]) This is another very sensitive issue and MANY people can relate to it, anything that is not deemed sensible and immature will result in an immediate banning. Please be sensitive. Personal note: Personally, i know a few people with eating disorders, yet none of them share the same reasons for having the disorder and wanting to be thin and/or not eat. I don't think professional help works in cases like these, you need friends, family etc to show theycare and that is what can motivate people through the tough times, usually the hardest task is getting them to admit they have a problem, once they see this then it can sometimes be easier to cure and you can all work together on this Media has "some" blame on this, but i think that's just an excuse. For a very small % they wna look like victoria beckham etc, but even in days full of chavs in my classes soon as we mention the skinny girl celebs they all say EWW NO WAY she's too skinny and we can see her ribs. And when the lads discuss girls we usually say things such as that. Too skinny in my view is worse than too fat. Girls should be happy with whatever weight they are, (But saying that im trying to lose weight now ) Good luck to anyone who is helping a friend or family
SoC; I think you are right, but professional help is important (in my opinion). I think the professionals help the persons with admitting their problem because that IS very difficult! I had a period in my life where I lost about 15 kgs and I became very very skinny. I litteraly couldnt SEE it myself, not even when people told me that I've gotten really skinny. And that scares me even today (it's been a long time ago). I wouldn't say I actually had an eating disorder but it could've been going in that direction if I didn't stop it. I couldn't admit to people that I had a probem because I thought it was emberrasing. I couldn't control it. But again, I think proffessional help is important. You need to tell someone about it , and if you can't tell people close to you, it can be easier to tell someone you don't know. (Oh, and Soc? Did you just give me a warning for this topic? I'm a bit confused.)
Having an eating disorder is a lot about trying to control one aspect your life when you have no control over everything else.. kind of like self-injury.. it can also be about a struggle for perfection [you get the idea that food is dirty, and therefore, putting it into your body is dirty] it's not a logical disease.. the behaviours and thought patterns don't make sense to "normal" people.. and it's also something that you never truly recover from. only problem is, you get the idea that what you're doing is perfectly normal.. you don't see it as being abnormal behaviour, so why would you tell anyone?
I dont agree. I have known a couple of people with eating disorders in my life, and they KNEW it was wrong. They know that everybody isn't doing what they are doing = abnormal. They were very aware of it being "wrong" and therefore couldn't talk to anyone .. :/
I think it's more of the person's choice. I believe they cause it to themselves and if they wanted to, they could fix it themselves.
In my opinion, anorexia, at least, has nothing to do with the media. Neither does it have much to do with wishing to be thin - who'd go through all that just to lose a little weight?
Eating disrders are a mix of genetics and environmental factors. There ARE genes (I can't cite them specifically, but its not hard to find) that make a person more likely to develop an eating disorder during their lifetime, but seeing as the body is how it is, these disorders ARE conquerable (lol I sound like a weight loss commercial), it just requires persistence. Also, the environment draws us towards fit people (this is also evident in evolutionary psychology, which I greatly support btw), this puts added pressure on some people to fit certain models.
I think most of it has to do with poor self image, and peer pressure to be super thin. Do you think there were anorexic/bulimic people in earlier times? When there wasn't the media? (SoC - please don't gravedig)
Media is partly to blame because they focus SO much on the thin and beautiful- They hardly show anybody plus-size in a good light. Part of it is society, because yet again they focus on what THEY think looks good. And another part is control issues, because eating/not eating is one thing that you can control, and for some, it feels like the only thing.
I've heard that last bit is very true. I saw a documentary about anorexic kids, and they had to control EVERYTHING about what they ate. It was kind of disheartening to be quite honest.