It’s Not Just White Girls

Jennybabe???s Comment: ???You are mistaken, eating disorders develop from emotional turmoil. It is this emotionally pain that sometimes craves control. Think about it, after a while eating disorders take over every aspect of your life and that is not control.???

Jennybabe-just b/c an eating disorder may indeed take control over every aspect of an anorexic???s life, doesn???t mean that the need for control is NOT the anorexic???s driving factor, even if it???s not at a conscious level. I???m 44 years old and have struggled with anorexia/bulimia since age 11. I recognize the need to control as a driving factor for the behaviors associated with anorexia, although sure, that need (for control) may be triggered by emotional turmoil. But far more people struggle from ???emotional turmoil??? who do NOT become anorexics as a result of it. Personally, I think the connections that many researchers and mental health specialists are beginning to draw between eating disorders and ocds/obsessive-compulsive disorders (from which I???ve also suffered for just about as long a period of time) are intriguing, and those too have obvious elements of control as a factor. I really wonder what is the motivation behind your need to ???correcting??? people on the control component.

I am a Caucasian male Master's in sociology who is 120 pounds overweight. Here is a strange bit of ethnic or social class relations.... I seem twice as likely as date African American women as presumably middle class Caucasian women. It must have something to do with Caucasian middle class culture: the obsession with one's weight and each other's weight. My African American friends back me up on this hypothesis. Thanksgiving 2007: two Caucasian middle class married women friends discussed weight and dating. One stuck to the subject of weight, health, table manners, and impressing women, but the other freely admitted her disdain for her overweight father in law and her efforts to keep her husband literally in line (shape). I remember my own mother who freely admitted her prejudice and dismissal of an overweight, supposedly obnoxious female administrative assistant, managed to keep my dad's weight less than his brothers (Dad said it was necessary to be hungry, and eat salad, but he also smoked), and also kept me to about 180 pounds until I went to live on campus with an all you can eat cafeteria. I believe food is a compensatory solution to love: it is there when and where love is not. Food does not have prejudice or fear or hatred or hesitation: there is also no food harassment policy at work (many times I have longed for the psychological companionship of some of my colleagues, because we attract talent across several dimensions, peopls skills being one dmension). I really don't know the dynamics of attraction. I also have Asperger which poses other challenges. But identifying the correct problem suggests the appropriate remedy. Weight is theoretically correctible: being on the autistic spectrum is not..

KariK - you are absolutely right. Its about being healthy - both mentally and physically. Some people are naturally thin and never should it be assumed that a thin person has an eating disorder - just good genes!!!

When the world famine hits the USA then only the fat people will survive.

Eating disorders are the problems of white girls almost exclusively, unless some baseless person falls into one of the white man's traps - acting or modeling. The self-imposed negative self-image is a mind game that the man has put on his women to maintain control over women as they rise up to compete against him for school admissions, jobs and businesses. If a woman is focused on her appearance, she can not adequately compete against him in the real world. Plus, the idealized image of a woman is ludicious - the so-called ideal weight profile of 95 - 110 lbs. is largely for women in the middle of The Great Depression, when even white women were starving. A strong, healthy white girl today could easily weigh anywhere from 120 - 160 lbs. Women need to stay on point and not get caught up in the mish-mash of this eating disorder jive. Plus, the actress Thandie Newton IS a white girl - almost every movie role she accepts pairs her up with a white man. And like so many other black actresses in Hollywood (Kerry Washington, Sanaa Lathan, and Halle Berry) she has lost her identity in Hollywood, and has lost her way, pleasuring and in some cases even giving birth to white man's seed. What a shame it is and what a disgrace they are. Race-mixers will not inherit the Kingdom of God!

My mother passed away in 2001 weighing less than 90 pounds. She was 5'7". I tried to get her GP to realize that she was anorexic and was told that it was a "young woman's disease." During at least one of her hospitalizations, I not only approached her GP, but any and every medical person concerned with her case -- even the hospital dietician/nutritionist, to no avail. Finally, someone did listen, a PA. He instructed the nurses to monitor her food intake. I had to inform him that she hid food -- she would place half of her meals in the nightstand or cabinet. She would ask me to throw some of it away, stating that she had saved it for a snack, but it had gone "bad".
This was a condition that not only affected her, but me and my female children. At age 16, she took me to my doctor to have me placed on a diet. I was 5'4" and weighed 124. She called my oldest daughter (at age 15/16) "obese" and said her belly flab was revolting. The girl weighed about 120 pounds and was 5'5". My youngest was 8 when her grandmother died. Over the next few years, she put on more and more weight. She did not want to die from being too skinny like her grandmother. Her self-esteem was tied into her body image as her older sister called her 'fatty' -- as did other girls at school. Recently, a health condition caused her to change her diet and lose a lot of weight. Girls at school accuse her of being anorexic/bulemic. I had to talk to the school nurse and admin when rumors reached them -- pointing out the medical paperwork I turned in with her diagnosis. (Her weight is not a medical issue; she is healthy and looks healthy, too.) She was upset with the accusations of anorexia/bulemia from other girls and, then, angry from constantly defending her weight loss -- even a year later. This shows me 2 things -- that school officials are aware of the potential problems of eating disorders (good) and the power of 'peer pressure/gossip' (bad).

I've been both an anorexic and a bulimic. I tried everything to lose weight- sleep deprivation, laxatives, the slim fast diet, cigarettes and black coffee for weeks, obsessive ''meal'' planning. There were times (when I'd be throwing up my food) I wouldn't be satisfied unless there was blood-meaning I'd thrown everything up. Then I got into (Bikram) yoga, it was there that I learned the importance of NOT losing weight. My teachers, Marc & Cristina, taught me that it was better to develop strength and flexibility rather than count calories. It was also there when I realized why we SHOULD eat and that our body already know what it needs, sadly we're often times just too selfish to listen it.
Eating disorders are more of a psychological disorder rather than a digestive problem. In my case, I was just bored & ignored. Having a hobby or getting into a sport really helps change things. You begin to focus what's inside rather than outside.

I really think that this is a american problem. We have the worst diet in the world. People that come here will later have this problem just to fit in ,to look like the thin women.

There are many ways to commit suicide and for some, just wasting away is one of them. Interpret that as you may but if you think about it, it is about "Not to be" but in the slowest way possible. People self destruct in all sorts of abuse, this is self induced. Another point is that Anorexia/Bulimia is about contol as much as anything. When a person seemigly has little to no control of the events in thier lives, they CAN CONTROL every morsel that either goes in or what is purged from the body. People who take upon themselves this disorder are very much determined, aware, strong willed and tenacious. As a former anorexic/bulemic, these are my personal points of view.

In many cases, in my opinion, anorexia is a misdiagnosis. Sometimes it is the result of pancreatic insufficiency wherein the pancreas doesn't release enough digestive enzymes to break down food. Thus, the food can rot in the gut and become toxic (food poisoning). Pancreatic insufficiency forces patients to eat less because food (especially large portions) makes them suffer. In the past, doctors who tried to force feed these patients often killed them (see refeeding syndrome). Surprisingly, many medical doctors are not trained to create accurate gut profiles. The good news is that many Naturopathic Doctors can now do a complete gut profile. They often use laboratories such as The Great Plains Laboratory and US Biotek Laboratories.

I know i have an eating disorder, but no one believes me. I weigh over 220 lbs, but I never eat more than 500 to 600 calories a day. By most dietians standards I am anorexic. However, when I tried to talk to my doctor he didn't get what I was saying and told me a diet would be good for me because of my weight. When I was a teenager I lived of half a sandwich a day and water. My lowest weight at age 22 was 89 lbs. My eatiing habits have not changed and I eat mostly soup at lunch and fruit and never eat breakfast and very rarely eat dinner. I have damaged my metabolism and even though I starve myself and exercise my weight stays the same. Is there anyone out there that knows what this is called? How can I be anorexic and weigh as much as I do?

i'm a current bullemic. the reason i say current is b/c you never get over this. you think about it all the time. eating disorders seep into every part of your life. i was a raging bullemic/anorexic in high school. oh, by the way i'm a gen-x - A-A woman. after, HS i went to the other extreme and blew up to over 231 lbs. now, i am at 148. understand, i realized what i was doing. i coul not stop. it was my addiction, my security, it was me. however, A & B is worse than any "normal" addiction. i say that b/c unlike most addictions this one is FREE. you don't have to go to a special store to buy booze, or travel to some alley to buy drugs. you can just go to the golden arches (or not depending on which you suffer from) and then head to the privacy of your own bathroom. you get your high from purging. this is not about what other people think. it is about control. it is about when you feel like you have none and you want to control something in your life. what is easy, visible, and fast? food. it's funny sometimes i THINK i have control.... . but when things start to feel "shaky" i think about it all the time. i still have habits that linger from my A&B days. what i mean is.. i won't eat past 6pm, i abuse laxatives and diruetics. also, i have "scars" from my raging days. I have lost teeth, i have chronic bad breath, and hormone issues. no kids...it a'int just white chics

I am sorry, but I do not buy into thoery being implied here that anorexia is somewhat universal. I of course do not have any scientific proof but based on my exposure and encounter with people who suffer from this dreradful disease, it seems to be that anorexia is culture and lifestyle driven. I guarantee that one would be hard pressed to find a victim of anorexia in any African countries amongst people who are not influenced by the thin-at-all-cost hollywood driven images of beauty. I do fast from time to time, but though I avoid food during that time, my emphasis would not be on me, but on God. So it would not be that I am depriving myself of food, but rather that I am focusing my thoughts on God.

How do you get to be anorexic? I know there are a lot of negatives but it seems like something that would really help me. I'm over 350 pounds and just can't stop eating. I wouldn't mind being underweight if only I could slow down eating. Any tips?

Shar8559, In response anorexia is caterogized as people with a BMI below 18%. In those standards, your BMI is +30% and that is not considered anorexic. However, from your daily intake it doesnt sound much. The problem occurs that you have trained your body that you can only burn so much, in other words you have slowed down your metabolism more than it would on its own biologically. Females metabolims tends to slow down after 25, so we can not eat what we used to as young girls. Now, back to your case, perhaps you should contact a nutrionist who is qualified and seek some help there and also a psychologist (even though you probably dont want to). Remember balanced diet is best with exercise. So at this point you need to up your caloric intake, exercise and seek behavioral help. All the best.