Ellyn
Veteran
The stereotype surrounding this illness is that the typical sufferer is a privileged young female, who develops a commitment to delusional vanity strong enough to kill her by self-starvation. What I've learned to the contrary is that 1 in 4 men are afflicted with anorexia (according to researchers at the University of Oxford and the University of Glasgow, reports Alex Cukan for United Press International...and I'm not allowed to post the link yet) (Wait, 1 in 4? That can't be right. I don't know what they mean by 1 in 4 cases...cases of what? Mysterious hospitalization? At least that would narrow it down so that 1 in 4 is a fraction of a fraction.)
Even in a study of women, research into the phenomenon show to be more complicated. While a culture saturated with the sexual objectification of young women can trigger the development of anorexia, or similar pressure in some professions (such as in fashion modeling or the performance arts), anorexia can also indicate an underlying obsessive-compulsive mental state combined with a more general trigger. Bullying at school (because this can affect quite young people) or an abusive home environment (whether the abuses are emotional, verbal, or physical), especially sexual trauma-- when an obsessive-compulsive feels out of control in such circumstances as those, one fatally simple way to cope is simply seeking the feeling security and accomplishment in being able to control what goes into one's body--which only feels like an accomplishment if it's difficult to do, hence the habit of starvation.
A lot of it is mental and emotional.
The physical effects of starvation from anorexia are just the tip of the iceberg, but what a ghastly tip it is. Even after sufferers have worked through the mental and emotional underlying causes, many physical effects of malnourishment and starvation can remain. Recovery usually isn't as simple as suddenly eating three solid square meals a day until nobody else can see the bones anymore.
Full disclosure: I am in recovery from anorexia, or perhaps it was EDNOS (Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified) but my therapist didn't correct me when I called it anorexia because the result was the same--I didn't eat.
I had always enjoyed the more technical part of cooking, being able to mix in raw ingredients and transform them into something good...but at the dinner table, my family would be so concerned with eating correctly (good china, crystal goblets, no stains on the placemats--or even the napkins) that in my late teens I just got traumatized from eating at all!
Since then, I've managed to cut myself off from my abusive home life, and hope to re-discover the joy of cooking and eating that I once had. I've learned to love my body again, and I want to take care of it by eating healthier.
Even in a study of women, research into the phenomenon show to be more complicated. While a culture saturated with the sexual objectification of young women can trigger the development of anorexia, or similar pressure in some professions (such as in fashion modeling or the performance arts), anorexia can also indicate an underlying obsessive-compulsive mental state combined with a more general trigger. Bullying at school (because this can affect quite young people) or an abusive home environment (whether the abuses are emotional, verbal, or physical), especially sexual trauma-- when an obsessive-compulsive feels out of control in such circumstances as those, one fatally simple way to cope is simply seeking the feeling security and accomplishment in being able to control what goes into one's body--which only feels like an accomplishment if it's difficult to do, hence the habit of starvation.
A lot of it is mental and emotional.
The physical effects of starvation from anorexia are just the tip of the iceberg, but what a ghastly tip it is. Even after sufferers have worked through the mental and emotional underlying causes, many physical effects of malnourishment and starvation can remain. Recovery usually isn't as simple as suddenly eating three solid square meals a day until nobody else can see the bones anymore.
Full disclosure: I am in recovery from anorexia, or perhaps it was EDNOS (Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified) but my therapist didn't correct me when I called it anorexia because the result was the same--I didn't eat.
I had always enjoyed the more technical part of cooking, being able to mix in raw ingredients and transform them into something good...but at the dinner table, my family would be so concerned with eating correctly (good china, crystal goblets, no stains on the placemats--or even the napkins) that in my late teens I just got traumatized from eating at all!
Since then, I've managed to cut myself off from my abusive home life, and hope to re-discover the joy of cooking and eating that I once had. I've learned to love my body again, and I want to take care of it by eating healthier.