"I may be fat, but I beat my eating disorder"

[Napoléon]

Yes, that message is not a good one, but you're comparing apples with oranges, since being severely overweight may cause longterm damage and shorten your life expectancy, which is hard to compare to more immediate effects. Statistics suggest that at least 4-5% of people with anorexia or bulimia die from it, and I guess this is a rather short term effect compared to the delayed effects of obesity. But your apparent message to people with clinically diagnosable eating disorder that being a bit overweight is just as bad as anorexia, is very dangerous as well.

I don't think it's apples and oranges at all.

My point isn't that they're just as bad, health wise. But they're both unhealthy ideals. Ergo, neither should be promoted, and the act of promoting either is what is just as bad, because it's hypocritical if you promote one and bash on the other.

We're talking about societal messages here. Considering the amount of people affected by obesity as opposed to anorexia, I don't think it's all that much to suggest that promoting either ideal is just as bad as each other.

My 'message' isn't to people with clinically diagnosable eating disorders. That's a mute point. It's to the people sending out these retarded messages in the first place. The only people preaching about what is healthy/unhealthy should be doctors or dieticians. People who know their shit. Not some tumblr fag who's give her own prognosis. What I'm saying is the precise opposite of dangerous. You're nuts if you think otherwise.

[Alex K]

Look at her "after" picture again. What I can criticize about her post is that she's calling herself "fat" in the first place. She looks perfectly fine, she is lightyears away from being pathologically obese. She herself, but also you, by calling her fat in that picture, are actually both promoting an unhealthy message to young women about what kind of body shape you have to achieve. So that's the main problem I have with both her and your post then. No, promoting being fat as the healthy alternative is a terrible idea. Labelling the woman in this "after" photo as "Fat" with a capital F is even more problematic, and that she calls herself that is not a good sign.

[Strider]

Look at her "after" picture again. What I can criticize about her post is that she's calling herself "fat" in the first place. She looks perfectly fine, she is lightyears away from being pathologically obese. She herself, but also you, by calling her fat in that picture, are actually both promoting an unhealthy message to young women. So that's the main problem I have with her post then. No, promoting being fat as the healthy alternative is a terrible idea. Labelling the woman in this "after" photo as "fat" is even more problematic.

I agree with you. That after photo doesn't look fat to me. She does look like she's slightly overweight, but nothing near the type of weight needed for serious health complications related to obesity. Now, I'll be the first to say that I'm not one of these "it's okay to be obese because that's who you are!" people. That's bullshit. People who are obese need to lose weight so they don't die prematurely just as anorexic people need to gain weight.

I'd like to point out that men are also subject to these negative societal images regarding weight. Family and friends around me noticed the beginnings of my own eating disorder a few years back. At my worst I wavered around 120 lbs at nearly 6' tall. Luckily, they helped me recognize the path I was headed down.

[Alex K]

Of course men can have eating disorders as well, the statistics just show that it is less prevalent. There was an interesting albeit a bit emotional talk by JT Eberhard a while back where he talks about his own disorder.

[vorlon13]

A friend of mine has a teenage son with severe anorexia. It has been a depressing ordeal for his family. The kid is not concerned with his appearance, he has convinced himself virtually all food is either unhealthy, contaminated or tainted somehow. The prognosis is not good.

[Alex K]

A friend of mine has a teenage son with severe anorexia. It has been a depressing ordeal for his family. The kid is not concerned with his appearance, he has convinced himself virtually all food is either unhealthy, contaminated or tainted somehow. The prognosis is not good.

It's something that one simply cannot comprehend as someone without mental disorders, terribly sad. One thinks - how can there be no way to change this person's mind?

[pocaracas]

A friend of mine has a teenage son with severe anorexia. It has been a depressing ordeal for his family. The kid is not concerned with his appearance, he has convinced himself virtually all food is either unhealthy, contaminated or tainted somehow. The prognosis is not good.

Take the kid to a hospital.
They insert a special tube down your nose to your stomach and feed you all the nutrients you need through that.
It's a bit on the expensive and I guess unpleasant.... but it may snap the kid out of that idiocy.

[Alex K]

A friend of mine has a teenage son with severe anorexia. It has been a depressing ordeal for his family. The kid is not concerned with his appearance, he has convinced himself virtually all food is either unhealthy, contaminated or tainted somehow. The prognosis is not good.

Take the kid to a hospital.
They insert a special tube down your nose to your stomach and feed you all the nutrients you need through that.
It's a bit on the expensive and I guess unpleasant.... but it may snap the kid out of that idiocy.

It's that easy, eh? Do you actually know anything about eating disorders?

[Thumpalumpacus]

She's calling herself "fat" when she looks pretty healthy to me ... perhaps she hasn't really defeated that eating disorder just yet.

[Alex K]

She's calling herself "fat" when she looks pretty healthy to me ... perhaps she hasn't really defeated that eating disorder just yet.

Exactly, and I think this is why Napoleons post reinforcing that pissed me off a bit even though he may be right in principle.