In the beginning
There were two differences between a graduate-level psych student and I: age and motivation. I was seven, not a university student, and I wasn’t aiming to help others or fulfill education requirements. I was in training to get thin and sick.
If I believed everything I read in the first-person accounts, anorexia and bulimia are polar opposites, akin to siblings who are nothing alike. ‘Ana,’ as she is referred to on pro-eating disorder websites, is the good kid, bringing home perfect grades and always speaking with manners; ‘Mia,’ or bulimia, is rude, messy and libel to come home drunk three hours after curfew. Anorexia is to good girls as bulimia is to brooding bad girls, or so I surmised from such books as The Best Little Girl in the World and Girl, Interrupted.
It seemed that there was often a specific method and path that each person would follow to ultimately become sick. And sick meant different things for the two different camps.
Anorexics were typically sensitive, virtuous perfectionists who started their massive weight loss with the single step of a diet or increase in exercise that quickly grew its own reins. It’s always a girl (or a boy) trying to be their best—the best athlete, student, daughter/son—and then, oops! they’re anorexic.
Bulimics had deep closets filled to the brim with bony secrets. I don’t think I’ve read a single account of bulimia that didn’t imply sexual abuse or rape. It’s also been widely published that bulimia co-exists with other addictive tendencies like cutting, drug and alcohol abuse, smoking and wait for this… promiscuity.
But even at a young age, this didn’t make sense to me. Why would someone who has been sexually abused engage in more risky, frequent or anonymous sex? And why isn’t anorexia tied in so closely with these other addictions and doing the nasty? It almost seemed like maybe there was something to the unofficial dichotomy of these two eating disorders.
That’s how rumors get started, kids.
If I believed everything I read in the first-person accounts, anorexia and bulimia are polar opposites, akin to siblings who are nothing alike. ‘Ana,’ as she is referred to on pro-eating disorder websites, is the good kid, bringing home perfect grades and always speaking with manners; ‘Mia,’ or bulimia, is rude, messy and libel to come home drunk three hours after curfew. Anorexia is to good girls as bulimia is to brooding bad girls, or so I surmised from such books as The Best Little Girl in the World and Girl, Interrupted.
It seemed that there was often a specific method and path that each person would follow to ultimately become sick. And sick meant different things for the two different camps.
Anorexics were typically sensitive, virtuous perfectionists who started their massive weight loss with the single step of a diet or increase in exercise that quickly grew its own reins. It’s always a girl (or a boy) trying to be their best—the best athlete, student, daughter/son—and then, oops! they’re anorexic.
Bulimics had deep closets filled to the brim with bony secrets. I don’t think I’ve read a single account of bulimia that didn’t imply sexual abuse or rape. It’s also been widely published that bulimia co-exists with other addictive tendencies like cutting, drug and alcohol abuse, smoking and wait for this… promiscuity.
But even at a young age, this didn’t make sense to me. Why would someone who has been sexually abused engage in more risky, frequent or anonymous sex? And why isn’t anorexia tied in so closely with these other addictions and doing the nasty? It almost seemed like maybe there was something to the unofficial dichotomy of these two eating disorders.
That’s how rumors get started, kids.
This article reminds me so much of myself and a period of time in my past. I can't tell you how many books, autobiographies, studies, articles and research papers I have read on eating disorders. I find it is amazing how something that can happen almost on accident can consume a life.
Props for gender-neutrality. I think most people think guys can't have eating disorders, and that only escalates the problem for them because they're less likely to be noticed by friends or family and/or offered help.
i really don't like how this article views the thinner community; just because someone is thinner or more muscular doesn't mean that their dumber or abusing their bodies- it simply means they know how to care for their body. obvioulsy anorexia and bulimia are not the ways to do it, and if anything, those are super extreme ways to do it, but causing hate for body types that aren't chunky isn't going to solve your problems.