ED community- do you remember how it started?
The downward spiral i mean. I myself have been dealing with anorexia for the past 3-4 years. I can't pinpoint the exact moment or reason whyi started but i do remember people always making comments on my weight a eating habits. I remember my aunt saying "look at how much weight you lost!" after i started puberty. Iremember girls saying "Are you anorexic?" if i just skipped a meal at school( this was before ana) i remember my family compairing me to my beautiful cheerleader of a cousin. Just recently i have been given the opportunity to write about any subject of my choice for english. My topic "Does the fashion industry really make that big of a contribution towards Eating disorders?" My answer is no. To be truthful i think most of us blame the fashion industry because even we don't know why do what we do. And if we do know the reason why, we won't tell other when they ask us. I'm sick and tired of people who have no idea what it's like, to make accusations on our issue. They think they know but they don't. Another confession about all of this. I'm not just asking because of this stupid paper i could care less about but because i'mtired of feeling like an outcast. Most people say the reason they have an ED is because of fashion and models. I'll be the first to admit, evenmyself has said this because i feel as if my situation is too complicatedto understand. I'm sorry if i had upset anyone here. I'm sorry if i have insulted you. I truly am sorry but please know that what people see is only half the story. It always will be. So do me a favor? do you remember how or why you started?
I don't personally struggle with an ED but I have been finding myself showing beginning signs of binging and anorexia which is confusing me a lot. Anyway, point of this reply is that I agree with what you said about the fashion industry influencing eating disorders. One of the most common phrases people who've never struggled with an ED use is, "You don't need to look like the girls in the magazines." That frame of mind is so out of date. The people I know who suffer from an eating disorder don't look at models and use them as their reasoning for their sickness. They're just sick.
Holasoyanorexicaybulimicadesdelos 16asmegustarconocerpersonasquehallanpasadoporestoo loestenpasando.Muchosbesos!!!
Mine hasn't got anything to do with models or media - mine started when I was a nursing student. I felt like I was not as in control of my life as I previously thought - my studies were going badly, and I felt helpless with them. I became hyper aware of my weight because I was studying to be a specialist nurse in type 2 diabetes, and I was quite large at the time. I started restricting and cutting out "bad" foods, counting calories and food and exercise became my life. I was diagnosed with OCD and Anxiety, and that I have an ENDOS (I fit all the criteria for anorexia nervosa but I am not underweight). I lost quite a bit of weight. I went to therapy and got better... and two years later, I am much, much worse than I was originally.
It's only very recently, two years into my original diagnosis, that I have started worrying about how others look - and not models, but people on the streets. I am determined not to be in the "obesity" statistics of my country. I feel disgusted with myself, even though I am no longer meeting the criteria fir "obesity", based on my current BMI.
It's how I perceive myself visually and mentally, and how I medically perceive myself.
I personally don't find the media having that much of an influence on me. However, I don't watch many movies or really interact with it, so this is only my personal opinion. I found more that I began to restrict as an alternative to self-harming, thinking it was better to not eat than to hurt myself. I turned out to be incorrect, as I was hurting myself anyways, but that was my (very flawed) logic.
I'v never liked todo eat. Seriously. Never. When I was a kid I used to hide the food. Then, at age of 15 I started doing it because of my self image. I felt ugly and fat. It started with a healthy diet, I justo needed to loose 2 kilos, and then I realized that I lost 15 kilos. I still hating food, but now I just dont wanna eat because I want todo be as skinny as a stick
I'm sure the media plays a role in a influencing our perception of there and ourselves in general, but no, I definitely don't blame magazines or models for my disorder.
There were a number of factors that made me predisposed to it, I guess. I was ways very perfectionistic. My mother always talked about weight and diet and eating. She was constantly trying crazy new pseudoscientific diets, and when I was 7 she began imposing those restrictions on me as well.
I can say quite clearly when my body image issues began. It was the last day of 8th grade, and my mom was driving me to my friend's house for a celebratory pool party. She commented that I was getting chubby (a valid point; puberty had changed me) and should work on losing a few pounds. I looked down at my lap, at my bikini-clad body, at my stomach spilling out around the seatbelt, and for the first time my confidence drained. It never came back.
The summer after grade 10, I decided to go on a diet, just to lose a little bit of weight for summer. At this point, my body had worked things out. I was on the slim side of normal, a healthy teenager. I was ambitious, as always, and decided that less was more. It became a game of "how few calories can I get away with eating?" I wanted results fast, but I had no intention of losing the amount I did. Something changed inside my head.
I didn't know I had an ED really until I started my Freshman year of High School. I thought what I was doing to myself was okay because I was losing the weight fairly quickly. Until health class when we were talking about eating disorders and I didn't even have to go to a doctor to know what I was doing to myself and get diagnosed with Anorexia. Except, I was terrified to get big again, so I kept doing what I was doing. I recently relapsed and I'm still not confident at all with my body. I'm ashamed at myself.
