Monday, April 28, 2008

BIG TROUBLE BITCH

Eating disorders are no more about food than alcoholism is about beer. It is widely recognized in treatment communities that eating disorder symptoms are about helplessness and control—not, intrinsically, about food. Just as a drug addict shoots heroin to avoid painful or uncomfortable emotions, an eating-disordered person either reaches for food as a way to stuff the feelings down, or turns away from food in order to try to establish a sense of control over an out-of-control life. Reducing eating disorders to a habit of dieting is grossly oversimplifying a complicated psychological process. Although fat activists might assume that their antidiet stance could discourage or treat eating disorders, this oversight highlights the exclusion of eating-disordered individuals from the fat acceptance movement and the broader ignorance about eating disorders as a whole.

No comments: