to clarify

[efface]

i hear so many people talk about eating disorders and people who have them, i just feel the need to talk about it from my point of view.

what do i hear? how ungrateful we are that we can afford food but choose not to eat it. how we should just "eat a hamburger". how we're all a product of society's vision of perfection

Comments

wow

[littlefish81]

Sorry, you don't know me but I'm on chemchick's friends page. I decided to read hers and saw this and I HAD to comment. I am a pretty much recovered anorexic(im not sure you can ever get rid of some parts of it entirely) and all I can say is AMEN. I couldn't say it any better myself. Thanks for writing it. Again, sorry for the random intrusion on your journal.
~Toni =)

Re: wow

[efface]

it's not an intrusion. thank you for stopping by and commenting. and more power to you for having the strength to want to recover. <3

[painted_earth]

I've thought about becoming anorexic (sp?) lately.

eh.... that's like deciding to have cancer. It's a sickness, not a choice.

Well....

[incipientmom]

It is possible to say to yourself "I'm just going to stop eating"
Is it not? Therefore, it would be a choice. I'm not saying its not a sickness...but I also believe there are some people out there that start by choice. Maybe by saying "I've thought about becoming anorexic lately" was bad wording. It should have read, maybe, something like "I've thought about stopping eating" or thought about throwing up the food after its been ate.

Re: Well....

[petulant]

It's the compulsion that makes it a disease and not a choice. It's not "well, I've thought about it". It's "HOLY FUCK IF I DON'T GET THIS FOOD OUT OF ME RIGHT NOW I WON'T BE ABLE TO BREATHE." A lot of girls on pro-ana communities "diet" and such, but really they're around two hundred pounds and just want to lose weight. There's a major difference between that and not-eating for four days because you believe you could gain a pound and it would be the end of you.
It's the need for control that's the actual disease, and it's your environment that decides how you manifest it. What you focus on. Self injury, eating disorders, any addiction...it's all the same. It's just the need for control manifesting itself in different venues.
Does that make sense? What I'm trying to say is, you can't "get" anorexic. That need for control is either there or it isn't.

[idolessangel]

youre 5'4?!??!?! wow!

i used to have ____. i cant even say it. it hurts to think about it. ive finally gotten to the point where i just eat what i want and work out as much as possible. you are right though. the food controls you. its amazing how much power you put into trying to make it all stop but it doesn't work. anyway i hope someone reads this and realizes they have the strength to get through with the disorder and move on from the negative everything! <3

[rememberingjae]

This topic always bothers me on some level. I don't know what I believe

[efface]

i don't give all the responsibility away to it being a disease. at first, it was just about being thin, getting in shape. but i think once i reached a certain point, my mind was so far gone that i didn't have a clear perception of what was healthy and what wasn't. i would look at pictures of bony, anorexic girls and think, god they look good (pictures that now make me disgusted.)

i guess the only way to really realize how far gone you are (at least, for me) was to hear other people say how much weight i've lost and how skinny i was. i didn't see it at all. i was always (and still am, at least in my mind) too fat. and knowing that i'm the only one who sees myself that way makes me think that yes, this is a psychological disorder as well as something i got myself into.

i hope that makes some sort of sense.

[inmylife21]

I hate it when people say that you can control an eating disorder... you can't control it... just like people can't control being gay... or straight... I just think people are way too judgemental... probably because odf their jealousy of others... but who knows. That was a great post btw :)