Who's fault is it really in a person with anorexia or bulimia - the self or the society? This was the focus of a discussion that a friend and I got into.

We certainly do live in a society that does everything to promote an unrealistic vision of how a young lady should look. Glance into any teen fashion magazine and you can see what I mean. It doesn't matter that pictures are often doctored, because the final product is often all that people see. Those who have been thoroughly degraded, as does happen in the joyous public school system, typically have a much lower level of self-esteem. Then they see this girl in their next issue of Cosmo-Girl or whatever and...well...not a good combination all of the time.

We live in a time where everything is so geared towards taking advantage of people's willingness to believe that they are inadequate or dysfunctional in some way. Look at the pharmacutical companies - they profit the largest from it. The false self-perception is already rampant - and this is just another form of it.

However, no one takes one by the hand and says "Throw up your food or I'll beat the shit out of you!" Or something like that. Those with such a problem do it of their own accord. But can we discount the pressure of society? Its hard to say. Thoughts?

*bump* I moved this to this forum...no one posted in Lifestyles...

I don't know who to blame. And I dont think it matters. Someone who puts that much stock in physical appearance isnt anyone I wanna get to know anyway.

But is that really what is at the core of the problem?

I think it is. Society is going to be attracted to whatever it wants, and there's no stopping it. Its much easier to treat the individuals with the disorders, than to attempt to change the perceptions of everyone else. I know what I personally find beautiful, and no act by the media or anyone else is likely going to change it. Partial fault might be owed to the world we live in, but when it gets right down to it, its the individual who has the problem, not the rest of the world.

I don't agree. I know someone who lived through a lot of terrible things and she became annorexic. There was no direct link between physical beauty and her problems. I think fucked up people just do fucked up things and there isn't always a logical or clear reason behind it.

There are numerous things that can cause eating disorders in my opinion and its far too simplisitic to suggest that one of these factors alone could cause such a diverse and complex illness. You can't blame society, because there have been cases of anorexia for centuries, despite society then favouring a diffrent type of female. And you can't blame the person because, well, i don't suppose they asked to be who they were, or asked to have an eating disorder...they are made who they are, as are the eating dosorders, by a combination of societal pressures, insecurities brought on by up bringing, experiences at school, work, of abuse etc...and even things such as genes have been implicated in eating disorders.

I don;t think anyone other than those who have lived through an eating disorder can truely understand what caused it.

I became anorexic because a boy and then a girl said my legs looked fatter than before. That was all it took for me. I became totally obsessed with it. I don't know if bullying contributed. Maybe it did. I hated myself. Starved and cut myself. I hated parts of my body. Being anorexic pleased me to have my boyish figure back. I really thought underweight models were perfect looking. When my mum knew i stopped because i didn't want the attention and i didn't want her upset. I knew every trick in the book to conceive it and getting back in the habit of eating again was a struggle. My parents make me go on the scales every so often so they can check my weight. I REALLY hate that.

I think it depends on the type of person you are. I blame self and society.

Hm, I wonder what the rates for bulimia and anorexia in the United States are compared with other countries? I'd be willing to bet we have higher numbers of reported cases of the disease than elsewhere.

As George Carlin put it: "In this country we have people who have to eat out of dumpsters. Then we have other people who get to eat a nice meal, and then puke it up intentionally."

I'd imagine Britain would have a rate similar to ours...but I could be dreadfully wrong.

I think that although we will have cases of anorexia and bulimia for as long as people can hold opinions different from each other, society and and the societial views on beauty contribute heavly to the frequency of cases. The more an unrealistically and unhealthly skinny body type is idolized and lusted after the more women (and men) will become obsessed with weight.

I think that society always plays a role in perception and psychological disorders.

Society definetely has something to do with it, not just because of beauty ideals but because we live in a world where food is cheap and in such quantities that we can afford to view it as a burden (and become anorexic) or puke it up (bulimic). You could just not keep it up if food was your life line like in the past.
But nothing can "make" someone eating disordered unless they partake in it willingly- for a while at least.

Society and the person, as well as their family, i watched my sister struggle with an eating disorder for much of her life and believe me it wasn't pretty....i think that if society's views on beauty changed for instance so a HEALTHY looking woman and by healthy i mean a person who eats regularly not a 300 lb person or perhaps place less value on looks and more on other thingslike personality... but also if a person really believes that appearance is that important they should be slapped.

I won't dispute that at one time a person makes a decision to either do or do not...but some people feel that they have no choice. Just a thought. I have two friends who have gone to some extremes on it...one I can talk to, one I can't. The one who I can't talk to is going to end up accidentially killing herself if she doesn't watch...she's in bad shape with it. The other is just irrational...and her doing it and not doing it seems to rely more on how good her day was.

i had a crazy thought, and it's not what i think is truth or anything like that but here's a hypothesis.

man has always had a need for food for energy, and he had to work for it. when he obtained it, he used it.
now it's right there all the time. there's so much that our natural balance is off and good old adaptation is taking place. our bodies are starting to say "food isn't too important." this would explain the growing adoration for thin bodies in regular people ( a subconcious value for a righted "wrong" ) and the eating disorders in those that are actually caught in nature's attempt to balance this b0rked equation.

i just got way too analytical.

Actually, you may not be too far from the truth. Evolutionary Psychology tells us that when we were in the ancestral environment, we carried a natural craving for fat over fiber - because we had to work to get fat, whereas fiber was everywhere. Our brains haven't changed too much, quite like the rest of our body, and that holds true today. However, now fat is absolutely everywhere - and we still crave it just as much as before. All fast food chains unwittingly (or maybe not so unwittingly) cash in on this. It is innate within us.

So maybe eating disorders are some minds revolting against the recent (recent in terms of the big picture) en masse availibility of fat...?