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In my whole life I've known like two people with eating disorders (the not eating enough kind). Almost every single other person aside from those two eat too mu

In my whole life I've known like two people with eating disorders (the not eating enough kind). Almost every single other person aside from those two eat too much, and I'd say mostly they eat way, way too much. Now, those two people definitely had a problem, but knowing them it was one I knew couldn't begin to understand, and I can't imagine that any of the pithy things people say all they time to express concern about not "developing anorexic" if I (while carrying a slight gut myself) skip a meal would make any difference to them. You might as well being telling someone in the grip of an oxy addiction to "just say no". Conversely almost nobody has ever told me I was eating too much. I never see it addressed in "movies with an important message" or any other pop culture PSAs. Nobody said anything during the COVID pandemic where people are literally dying of COVID from being overweight and not able to get enough oxygen with their damaged lungs to keep their whole body alive. Instead they euphemistically called it "co-morbidity" and left it at that. All this concern for eating disorders I think it's mostly just a smokescreen.

rimunroe 5y ago
> In my whole life I've known like two people with eating disorders (the not eating enough kind). I bet there were a lot more than two! Anorexia is extremely common. It’s also extremely easy to hide from friends and family (and to a lesser extent bulimia, at least for me). I’ve struggled with anorexia and bulimia for about 20 years (since I was 14 or 15). I’m pretty sure this is the first time I’ve said anything publicly about it. Prior to me starting to talk with people other than my wife or a handful of other friends about my eating disorders, there were fewer than ten people who knew or could have possibly known that I was dealing with such things. Anecdotally, I definitely knew more than five people who had told me about their eating disorders before I told anyone about mine, and since doing so I’ve found that a lot of other people have them. Personally, I would like to see more discussion of this sort of thing, and would especially like if a little more attention could be paid to the occurrence of such disorders in boys/men (though it certainly doesn’t seem to affect them nearly as frequently and/or as severely). I honestly think it would have helped me get help earlier if I’d known that anorexia was something that boys dealt with too. For a long time I had myself convinced that I didn’t really have a problem, and I think that’s mostly because I’d always seen anorexia framed as something only experienced by girls/women.
- rimunroe 5y ago
  Also, if you’re really set on only focusing on one of these things (which I think this is a bad idea): the health impact of being anorexic is generally much worse than being overweight.
sundvor 5y ago
Every body is beach body ready etc. Can't have anyone have their feelings hurt, lest they get the idea that getting into shape might not be a bad idea - instead of getting to live in the delusion that obesity is normal and to be embraced.
KptMarchewa 5y ago
As formerly obese person, I can't imagine anyone obese that doesn't know that they ate way too much. You'd have to have astrology nut delusion to not know that. There's no point in stating the obvious.

rimunroe 5y ago

> In my whole life I've known like two people with eating disorders (the not eating enough kind). I bet there were a lot more than two! Anorexia is extremely common. It’s also extremely easy to hide from friends and family (and to a lesser extent bulimia, at least for me). I’ve struggled with anorexia and bulimia for about 20 years (since I was 14 or 15). I’m pretty sure this is the first time I’ve said anything publicly about it. Prior to me starting to talk with people other than my wife or a handful of other friends about my eating disorders, there were fewer than ten people who knew or could have possibly known that I was dealing with such things. Anecdotally, I definitely knew more than five people who had told me about their eating disorders before I told anyone about mine, and since doing so I’ve found that a lot of other people have them. Personally, I would like to see more discussion of this sort of thing, and would especially like if a little more attention could be paid to the occurrence of such disorders in boys/men (though it certainly doesn’t seem to affect them nearly as frequently and/or as severely). I honestly think it would have helped me get help earlier if I’d known that anorexia was something that boys dealt with too. For a long time I had myself convinced that I didn’t really have a problem, and I think that’s mostly because I’d always seen anorexia framed as something only experienced by girls/women.

rimunroe 5y ago
Also, if you’re really set on only focusing on one of these things (which I think this is a bad idea): the health impact of being anorexic is generally much worse than being overweight.

sundvor 5y ago

Every body is beach body ready etc. Can't have anyone have their feelings hurt, lest they get the idea that getting into shape might not be a bad idea - instead of getting to live in the delusion that obesity is normal and to be embraced.

KptMarchewa 5y ago

As formerly obese person, I can't imagine anyone obese that doesn't know that they ate way too much. You'd have to have astrology nut delusion to not know that. There's no point in stating the obvious.