Quote From: gwarrior6
So by your rationale, she should just turn on a switch and get better? That doesn't happen. She could help all the people she wants, but it's NOT going to stop the anxiety, the depression, or the cutting.
Anorexia is about CONTROL issues, NOT attention. People with eating disorders try to HIDE it, not make it known. I hate it when people make light of a mental illness and say "oh, they just want attention". If the parents said that, their daughters would end up dead- they need enough attention to get help.
They're not "little girls who don't want to grow up", they have low self esteem about the control in their lives, and it mutates into a perception issue. They need professional help to deal with any underlying issues instead of someone callously telling them to grow up. Why don't you just call them fat, too? Chipping away at a fragile self esteem is NOT what they need.
I am also a recovering anorexic at age 43. I spent my entire youth as overweight with my wedding gown being a size 20. Something sort of went hay wire for me around age 36 and I started having anxiety issues that got worse and worse. One of my coping mechanisims was to loose weight....I could at least control that. Loosing weight for a person who has been historically overweight was intoxicating. It got to a point where I could no longer control it , sort of like a runaway train that builds momentum. It was not the worst time in my life, but it was undeniably the strangest time of my life. Not "fueling" your head leaves you in a constant state of numbness and mental "haze". It allowed me to "opt" out of life for at least 6 years. What I regret is that I lost time ,not to mention the other physical deficeits that this disease leaves you with. Like any addiction to begin to heal, it requires the most difficult thing to admit to.....SURRENDER!!!!!
