My wife went to a doctor like that who treated her kids the same way. Later she worked with the doctor’s son who was still slender but would sneak home all the leftover drug rep food. Not publicly, saying, “It’s my practice so I get the leftovers,” or, “It’s for my kids,” but furtively, like he was doing something very, very wrong.
I had an eating disorder when I was younger, not exactly anorexia but something similar. I’m a guy that is 5’7" and felt that I was fat at 125 pounds. At the time I had a 26 inch waist and could barely buy mens clothes, but still felt fat. I too would weigh myself several times a day and knew my weight at all times. I didn’t have a magic number that would mean I wasn’t fat because I could always see something that was wrong with me. It was more that there was less wrong with me when my weight was lower.
People telling you that you’re too thin, that you need to eat and the like do absolutely nothing unless you’re ready to change. When people said that to me my thoughts were “What do they mean eat, I’m the size of a house!”
My point is that the analogy is inapt. Anorexia is, as WhyNot was describing it, a rationalized delusion. Nicotine addiction isn’t rationalized. Smokers don’t tend to think, “smoking is bad in general, but I won’t get cancer” the way that WhyNot described anorexics thinking, “Under 100 pounds is ddangerously thin in general, but not for me.”
(bolding mine)
No, I don’t (as a former smoker) think that bolded part is true at all. I knew (know) that of course, smoking causes cancer and other ill effects. In some people. But I also knew (know) that it doesn’t in everybody and gosh, I feel fine, I don’t have that hacking cough like Uncle Ed and I only smoke X number of cigarettes, which isn’t that much compared to some people and where’s that lighter?
I don’t think most smokers think that they, themselves, will be fatally harmed by their smoking. I didn’t, any more than I think I will be the car accident death on my block this week or my husband will be in the next office building some idiot decides to fly a plane into. Statistics are great, but even 99% leaves room for “not me!”
Similarly, many anorexics know that some people die of not eating, but not them. See, they really ARE fat, and if you have fat, you’re not going to starve. They’re not anorexic, they’re “eating sensibly and watching their weight”.
I do not believe this to be correct. I was a heavy-ish smoker for over 20 years, and although there were times I did worry about getting cancer or emphysema, for the most part I was thinking, “Nah, I’ll be fine.” I did finally manage to quit for good, but in the end the major impetus was not health, but rather finance–it was just too damned expensive to continue.
Well, it seems that other smokers (and former such) on this board have had different experiences than myself and those I’ve spoken to in general. I suppose the natural followup (off-topic to this thread, of course) would be to determine if there’s any demographic correlation to the attitudes.
Some anorexics do know they are not fat, but think they will be if they eat THAT meatball, cracker, marshmellow, etc. All food immediately goes to fat.
Someone I knew from South Africa told me of a study or paper or ??? he read there that proposed that young female anorexic’s problems were not being able to come to terms with their own developing sexuality. Keeping the weight down kept the curves away, thus they remained sex-less and/or androgenous.
I have no flippin clue if this holds any water at all, but it is an interesting thought.
-Tcat
Having been through both, I disagree. At least for some of us it is a very apt analogy. As a smoker I know (on an intellectual level) that it is bad for me and has a lot of very bad health effects. I also know (on a rationalized level) that I’m gonna be just fine because…well just because.
When I was dealing with body image issues and was underweight enough that I couldn’t buy mens clothes that were even close to fitting, I knew on that intellectual level that I had a problem, that I was way too small and there was no way that I could be considered fat. In that rationalized place (or mentally ill place if you will) I knew that I was fat, that if I ate that sandwich being pushed on me that I would need lipo or have to skip eating for 3 days and would lie about my weight to get people to leave me alone about it.
I wouldn’t try to say that my experience was similar to anyone else or that I’m representative of anyone but me, but at least sometimes that analogy fits perfectly.