My Thoughts On Anorexia

[Dog19]

The perfect body.

How far are young girls willing to go to achieve the perfect body? Well, according to American studies some are willing to die just to fit the ideal standard. All around the world girls are pressured to have a flawless body, and look perfect at all times like a Barbie. You see it on television shows, TV Ads, billboards, even in magazines women are bombarded with unrealistic images on how they should look. This is extremely harmful to young women and causes them to take a dangerous path to obtain this look.

Some women starve themselves and refuse to eat, others vomit their guts out and exercise daily without having the proper nutrition. Some girls take laxatives so they can have explosive diarrhea, while others force themselves to become walking skeletons.

Anorexia nervosa can destroy lives and turn into a deadly obsession for most people living with it. This is not only a physical disorder, but a psychological one as well that can leave life long damage on a individual.

But we as people can change this fate if we all work together. So therapy, counseling and family support is greatly needed. Group therapy for anorexics is also very helpful because it helps the victims talk about their experiences, and know that they are not alone. Doctors could prescribe medication and make food plans for them too.

Another great tip for helping anorexics, is monitoring what they eat. making sure they're getting all the calories and nutriments they need and telling them they don't have to be a size zero to be beautiful.

Doing all this we are paving the way for less death and a better future.

[lumos]

A few things I want to point out:
- Eating disorders aren't always about perfect beauty standards. Some people want to be more in control of their lives, and they feel like they're in control when they refuse to eat, or control how much they eat. Other people become obsessed with being healthy, and take it too far, which also leads to eating disorders.
- Please refrain from calling those who suffer from anorexia/eating disorders as "anorexics". That's offensive and reduces them to their disorder. They HAVE anorexia. They AREN'T anorexia. So, refer to them as "people with anorexia", not "anorexics".

[Dog19]

Best notes I got so far :3

[Waffles731]

I was actually dangerously underweight when I was younger.
My ADHD medication had pretty much elmintated my appetite all together and they nearly had me hopsitalized to forcefeed me.
People with Anorexia do need help.

[Azara]

many more people die from obesity related illnesses. doesn't take much to be considered- diagnose with anorexia. most are not dying just ten pounds under average weight. you also dont know why people are how they are. there are many re sons people eat differently than you. doesn't have to be because of brain washing or wanting to be a size zero. also by make up over 30% of people diagnosed with anorexia. people only talk about girls bc they like to make them sound weak.

hunger strike is a thousands of year old type of protest which would technically can put someone in the anorexia area. fasting is an age old mechanism for clearing out toxins and gaining clarity. human in the cultures would be considered anorexic in the unite states. women who are heathy in other cultures would be considered anorexic in the united states. people with different lifestyles that dont cause them to be addicted to food over weight and tired easily get labled bc there's so much food oriented lives. 'monitoring people' is an invasion of their privacy and this search for anorexia exploded in the 80 like the ale which hunts. treatment centers go over 1000 $ a day just to make money off of exploiting someones lifestyle... anyone actually harming themselves has that tendency its not bc of anorexia or whatever it is they 'have'. you can easily take good care of yourself and be thin. self harm is a separate issue and as with anything a person has to seek treatment not have it thrust upon them by people who dont know whats going on. i say if yo want to help starving people, concentrate on people who actually are asking for food but can't afford any or have access to any.

[Puppydog12]

I have been skipping lunch for about a week now... I used to have issues with eating disorders in my past and they seem like they have come back... but most of he time I tell myself "this isn't healthy" and I stop. Ironically, I can cry over the fact that I feel so fat yet some people complain about The fact that I'm too skinny. It really does mess you up..

[Dog19]

Your not gonna die from skipping lunch... :3

[Puppydog12]

I know I'm not dying from only skipping lunch. I don't plan to die. I don't plan to get sickly skinny. My question to you is: do you think that a person with anorexia iIs only important if they are dying? That's what it kinda of seems like... Anorexia isn't about dying or starving so much that you only eat an apple a day. I'm not saying I'm anorexic bc I know I'm not starving myself to a pulp. I'm saying that anorexia is more of a mental issue. It's the mental issues that make anorexia a mental disorder.!

[Anonymous]

anorexia is a such a strong word but i feel like a lot of girls have suffered from some type of body image/ food related eating disorder. i definitely have when i was younger, i tried for years to lose weight but it just never worked until i was 16/17 and my awkward teen phase stopped and i could lose weight just by eating normally. it's not something superficial and honestly lies deep within your psyche, for me it was mostly because of control. i wanted to have one aspect of my life i could control and make steady progress in. even right now, i haven't eaten much today and my hands are shaking. i never thought i had a problem but i might actually be anorexic.

[somebodysaycheese]

My mother is recovering from Anorexia. I think it is important for people to ralize you dont have to be deadly thin to have anorexia or an eating disorder. And that in the end of the day Anorexia is not identifying with your body, what you feel is not what you see in the mirror.

[Psi_Unknown]

I agree it is psychological. Even guys are kind of pressured to be thin when not muscular. Sometimes people stare not because they are hot, but because they worry about you. When you get to that point, you kind of look too thin, weak, and unhealthy. Know that you are loved and beautiful, and perfection does not really matter, nor can it be achieved. Beauty really may not even matter either. Honestly, I used to have a professor who was thin like that, sometimes things happened, and we worried because he appeared frail.

[Spiorad_Aisce]

Good take for raising awareness of Anorexia - When I was in the outpatients unit for bipolar on 10 day course, we were beside the teen eating disorder clinic, it was some of the saddest sights I had ever seen, beautiful young girls who had been starving themselves to skeleton thin because of massive pressures inside their head and from the outside.

[Anonymous]

You mean well with the take but it won't work doing that. I'm anorexic, I have been since last year and I made myself purge for quite a while, I take mixed brands of diet pills, laxatives and I exercise way too much for eating just 1 banana a day and if someone told me to eat infront of them so they can see I'd get worse. We feel guilty when we eat and even more guilty when it's in front of people. Neither therapy or counselling would work because most girls who are anorexic and bulimic don't actually feel so bad because of models, billboards tv ads etc for most it's when they hang out with girls they think are prettier than them (family or friends) or when something bad happened to them (they were sexually abused, cheated on or bullied) and also guys are anorexic. It's a cool take, you are raising awareness but most anorexics would find it harder if family knew than a friend

[Dog19]

Thanks! I hope you get better too. :3 oh yeah, and I'm entering this in my school's writing contest so wish me luck that I win. The winner gets a lot of money

[Anonymous]

Do you have personal experience with anorexia?

I think there are a lot of people out there eating in an unhealthy way because of the pressure to look good (though that's probably a smaller problem overall then the people eating in an unhealthy way because we have an unhealthy culture shovelling too many shitty calories at us). But anorexia is something different.

If anorexia were just about trying to look good, anorexics would be happy and satisfied, and not carry it to the point of being hospitalized.

There are much larger doses of perfectionism, self esteem issues and body image dysphoria mixed in. Is the 'media' pressure to look good a factor? Yes. But i'd also suggest the fact that our culture is generally overweight is at least as big a factor. Anorexics take a perverse pleasure in being able to exercise self control in a way the people around them fail.

[Dog19]

No, I never suffered from it. I'm just going by what I got on the Internet.

[Poppykate]

I don't think that individuals with Anorexia take pleasure from their mental illness. Because that's what it is- a mental illness. It is often the result of an unsettling event or course of events beyond the control of the individual, and anorexia is a way for the individual to control their environment and to sort of cope in a way.

[Dog19]

@Poppykate it didn't win... :(

[Anonymous]

Better to be underweight than overweight! sad that people die from anorexia but this isn't nearly as big of a problem as these super-sized hippos rolling around on scooters. anorexic girls are usually messed up by including themselves in the latter category they have maybe fat friends or family members that say they are fat all the time and as a result the anorexic person does the same. Real shame what these whales are doing to the normal fish of the sea! Stop obesity it's causing anorexia! These stuffed oversized Thanksgiving turkey lookin girls are ruining it for everyone else!

[DiamondRuby]

I don't have anorexia, but I appreciate this post because if my body were capable of losing that much weight, I might be. Coming from a morbidly obese family, I'm an advocate for eating healthy and exercise, but the standards can go too far. And people who have terrible genetics (like me) are the real losers. You'll never see their eating disorder because even on a banana a day and jogging countless miles, they won't look the part.

[Dog19]

K, I wanted to lose weight and get a bigger butt but I was always to lazy to do so...

[Byakuyarko]

Fact: Size 0 is beautiful to a lot of folks.
Fact: Not all humans can attain a size 0 figure, notwithstanding what they eat or how hard they work out.
Fact: there's nothing to be gained from torturing oneself. People should be brave enough to accept defeat and move on to goals that are achievable.
Fact: good personal hygiene, tasteful apparel, and a winsome smile will get you more friends and lovers than simply having a GAP-model-worthy figure

[archiz]

this^

[hazoplmeught]

@archiz you shouldn't be worried about size cause i bet other girls look at you and in their mind they are saying "goals" ight

[archiz]

@hazoplmeught I am not worried about my size I am jusr saying what he said is correct.
But thanks anw ^^

[YourFutureEx]

Girls staying hungry to get that anorexic body are superlative idiots. PERIOD.

They need psychological therapy more than food.

[Remembermyname4]

I wouldn't call them stupid because their minds have been altered by society, and they lack the right guidance.

[Sabretooth]

@Remembermyname4 that is understandable, but it does show idiocy when you see the results all around you... but you still manage to ignore them.

[Remembermyname4]

@Sabretooth Its human nature to sometimes do things that can be harmful to you and you know it, but still keep on doing it. Everyone does it ☺️. The result is not "stupid" and neither is the person "stupid". We don't understand what's it like to be that person and why they do what they do.

[Sabretooth]

@Remembermyname4 it's still poor judgment.

[Remembermyname4]

@Sabretooth I didn't say it wasn't wrong.

[timeversestears]

As a recovering anorexic who has been to Cambridge University, I can assure you that people with anorexia are far from superlative idiots - we are actually often intelligent high achievers. Anorexia is a mental illness. The causes of anorexia are complex and include physical, environmental, biological and genetic influences. I suggest you do some research on the matter before making such ridiculous statements.

[YourFutureEx]

@timeversestears I suggest you to take English classes before getting offended on the internet. Did I say that anorexic girls are idiots? I said that the normal girls who try to become anorexic are idiots not the ones who already are because of poor circumstances. Duh.

[timeversestears]

You actually said 'Girls staying hungry to get that anorexic body are superlative idiots' and did not state that you were referring to 'normal' girls. I would argue that no 'normal' girl would strive to achieve an emaciated, skeletal body and that those who do so are anorexic by definition.

[YourFutureEx]

@timeversestears "Girls staying hungry TO GET that anorexic body are superlative idiot" it means they're normal.

And there are so so so many girls like that.

[timeversestears]

I think we will have to agree to disagree because you are not understanding my point. Anorexia is a mental illness. No 'normal' girl would strive to have an anorexic body, whether they are trying to 'get' it, or whether they already have it. A 'normal' girl might strive to have a slimmer body, but not an anorexic one.

[Sabretooth]

@timeversestears disagree. I know one girl who looked anorexic because of her trying to eat healthy... and stress

[timeversestears]

@Sabretooth Yes, mine started that way too. I wanted to be slimmer and at that point I wasn't anorexic. I didn't desire to be skeletal. That desire only came once the loss of weight spiralled out of control and I was anorexic.

[YourFutureEx]

@timeversestears physically "normal"

I added "They need psychological therapy" for a reason.

[Sabretooth]

@timeversestears as i told a girl with emotional, both are extremes to avoid.

[Anonymous]

The face is more important and this is something I've tried telling my sister. She doesn't listen. It actually made it worse because she thinks her face is ugly, and she wants to be attractive somehow. She's actually pretty which is why I told her that the face is more important.

[kittykatbrat]

For ME personally, anorexia is a psychological disorder first and foremost that became a physical display, coping mechanism, friend and then daily way of life.

Each person has different reasons for arriving here.
None of us ever really leave.

[timeversestears]

This is the most sensible comment I have read on this thread. However, I do hope that with persistence, determination and strength, we will be able to eventually leave it.

[kittykatbrat]

@timeversestears (smiling) TY. I wish you and anyone else with any type of eating disorder the best of luck xo

[hazoplmeught]

Super skinny is unattractive to most men, i like slim. No ribs showing and no bony arms. This is more of a result from model bodies (some are anorexic) that women be looking at or a mental disorder that needs attention and should be treated.

[hazoplmeught]

so funny how society puts pics of fat women on --------->sports<----------- illustrated to combat anorexia, its a more complex disorder than that.

[nalaa]

No they did to combat underweight and anorexic models, which most models are.

Before you comment. anorexia is not the same as anorexia nervosa

[hazoplmeught]

@nalaa you basically proved my point, the put fat people on sports illustrated to combat overly skinny people (which is unhealthy). They should put "sports" or "sports" looking women on the cover instead of people that are obviously overweight

[nalaa]

You were saying the did it to combat anorexia, which is not true. They just changed up the sequence of underweight models that is usually on magazines.
The same issue also had Ronda Russey on the cover. It's no big deal really.

Ashley Graham is actually still in a normal weight range if I recall correctly

[hazoplmeught]

@nalaa 1st off no she is not in healthy weight
2nd off she is a fat chick always posing in lighting. There are girls working hard in the gym to get some modeling job and she is eating burgers n shit getting attention. Like wtf is this society getting to?
She won't be healthy weight no matter how much PC people are trying to justify her weight as normal
i3.mirror.co.uk/.../...ction-for-Addition-Elle.jpg

[mrfoox]

It makes me sad how the majority of the male replies don't take this seriously...

[Jxpxtxr]

You do realise that the causes for anorexia lie way deeper and are different for each individual though?

[archiz]

did you have anorexia?

[Jxpxtxr]

@archiz I struggle with it since I'm 13

[archiz]

since? O. o
you mean, you re still struggling now?
sry if I am being too curious :P

[Jxpxtxr]

@archiz yes because I keep relapsing every time I start a new treatment for recovery after a while & dw that's ok )

[archiz]

man that sucks :/
I am always curious about you, because people tend to think that good looking people have it easier.
and you re a prime example that proves otherwise. still baffles me though, when you really do have everything going for ya yet chose to ignore it in a way.

[Jxpxtxr]

@archiz seems like that's just another thing people assume a lot though

[Dog19]

Yes my friend, did you read the essay?

[Jxpxtxr]

Yes my friend, and you act like the media is the source of all evil. That, however, is only the cause for a tiny percentage of anorexics.
It's really not this simple.

[Alexious]

What makes someone anerexic? I'm like really skinny and I have bony arms.. Do I fall under it?

[Jxpxtxr]

@Alexious its a mental disorder, not a body type

[Alexious]

What does the mental disorder consist of? I just often have a lack of hunger and cba to eat sometimes haha

[Jxpxtxr]

@Alexious you're definitely not anorexic, it's really complex to explain but basically anorexia is when you purposely starve yourself and it makes you feel incredibly great when you withstand your cravings/hunger because you think it means you're disciplined and strong. Losing weight is just a side effect, at least it was for me.

[Alexious]

Then I'm not haha. I guess I just don't eat enough. That and my metabolism is crazy high.
I've always been slim, but I'm the skinniest I've ever been atm.
Some days I'm super hungry, others I'm not. It's really weird

[Jxpxtxr]

@Alexious nah it's normal, people with a high metabolism are usually skinny

[dominiquois]

Its about dehumanizing people. Its sick. There is nobody on the planet worth killing yourself over to lose weight for expect maybe yourself.

[Anonymous]

anorexia begin like a diet but even if you have the weight you wanted. You always want to lose more cause it just feel so good to be skinnier and skinnier even though you know it's wrong. You can't not help it.

[Sabretooth]

i've seen girls who eat whatever they want... and look breath takingly beautiful

[dominiquois]

They're blessed with great genetics and have ectomorphic type bodies. Other girls cannot afford to eat like a barbarian. I for one cannot unfortunately.

[Sabretooth]

@dominiquois it's called exercise

[DiamondRuby]

Before you make that assumption, Sabretooth, I eat 500-700 calories a day, walk everywhere I go (6-8 miles a day), and jog for 3-5 miles a day, and I will never drop below 140 lbs. Which is a fine weight by me, but like hell I don't pay for it.

[DiamondRuby]

Oops wrong post! Sorry!

[DiamondRuby]

Wait nvm. The layout here confuses me.

[Sabretooth]

@DiamondRuby i'm sure you look good.

[Sabretooth]

@DiamondRuby besides, i don't care for bony. so long as you don't look like getontrackfitness.com/.../May2012-Jill.gif on the left, i'm happy.

[DiamondRuby]

That wasn't my point. I'm saying the measures I take to look "normal" aren't healthy, and that's because genetics play a huge role.

[Sabretooth]

@DiamondRuby never denied that fact.

[hazoplmeught]

@DiamondRuby uhh... you probably look good at 140 for your height after all ur doing

[dominiquois]

True but you cannot possibly deny that some people are naturally thinner than others and can eat more. I know someone who is built like a 11 year old boy, no boobs no butt and skinnier than a pencil can eat like a whale and never gain weight. While someone who is naturally curvy woman (not fat) with boobs and ass usually has to watch very carefully or they'll gain weight super easy.

[DiamondRuby]

@dominiquois Exactly what I'm trying to say. Thank you!

[dominiquois]

You're welcome. I thought that was common sense though.

[DiamondRuby]

@dominiquois so did I...