Anorexia Nervosa: Disease or Choice? -- Enough With the Willful Ignorance!

As discussed in my "Anorexia Nervosa & Related ED's: Are Disorders Genuine Diseases?" video, there is ample evidence supporting the fact that AN is a genuine disease. Perhaps one of the reasons why so many people wrongly assume that anorexia nervosa is entirely volitional is because people who suffer from them seem so intelligent and rational and able to function (at least for some time early in the disease). This is not an issue of being smart enough, nor is it a matter of rationalizing out of it. ONE CANNOT REASON WITH PATHOLOGY! I think the widespread media sensationalism of ED's is also damaging not only because of the overt promotion of extreme thinness, but because the popular assumption is that anorexics starve to be pretty or look like a celebrity. Not true. AN has been around a LONG time. Avoid stereotypes! Get educated! AN is NOT A CHOICE!
For more clinical information, please check out my video discussing facts that prove AN is a disease: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUuPafK81Rg
The term "disorder" has resulted in a great deal of inappropriate assumptions that the illnesses so labeled are not genuine diseases. This is incorrect.
AN is NOT a Choice! It is a serious illness and kills 20% of those afflicted!

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[AnaGirlEmpath]

@Mysticfaerieluna: Thanks, love! ED's aren't all the same, but all are born of a maladaptive coping mechanism for survival. Sadly, seeing people struggling in treatment wouldn't likely impact those w/ apathy or outright resentment. If only they could spend a day within the psyche of someone afflicted w/ a mental illness. Empathy is learned. Excellent point re: force-feeding! It doesn't work! Often, it only serves to deepen fears & worsen ED's as a result. Much love!<3

[AnaGirlEmpath]

@Farfromperfect90: I'm sorry you have suffered so much, too. So many of us have. You are far from alone! *safe hugs* Much love & be well, sweet spirit! <3

[AnaGirlEmpath]

@malymotylek96: I agree love! *hugs*

[AnaGirlEmpath]

@YTPNoob: LOL! So let's see: You saw a George Carlin skit & consider yourself an expert, parroting his words as all-inclusive fact?! Congratulations! You are a willfully ignorant idiot! Anorexia is NOT a rich, white, adolescent American girl's disease. Clearly, you have zero understanding of mental illness. I hope someday you are humbled & decide to pry open your arrogant, condescending mind. Only then might you actually learn something. Until then, fuck off already!

[AnaGirlEmpath]

Not only is anorexia nervosa very much a disease, it is also the most fatal of all mental illnesses. It isn't even about food. It isn't about selfishness or vanity, either.

Rich cunt?! Seriously?! Dude you have NO idea what you are talking about, nor to whom. My family happens to be under serious financial duress. AN does not discriminate on socioeconomic status. You would do well to educate yourself before running around spouting insipid bullshit and hurling derogatory insults.

[AnaGirlEmpath]

@emptycompleteness:

Thanks, love! It's so good to see you! I miss you! Much love sweet spirit! Xoxox

[BadabingXDD]

you are so intelligent and I LOVED the way you phrased everything!! I couldn't agree more. I suffered from disordered eating - anorexia tendencies and binge eating tendencies - for 2 years and still have the "thoughts" that come in. I heard from my mother every day: "Narcissism." "Just eat lunch." "Stop being irrational." No ability, no desire to see that I couldn't control it. Thanks for highlighting this, the stigmas - like you said, on any disease - NEED to stop.

[mysticfaerieluna]

con't...(& btw...Anyone who thinks he can force his gf to eat 3 meals/day after claiming anorexia, better fellow them to the washroom right after she eats or chances are she wasn't ill in the 1st place

[mysticfaerieluna]

con't... I challange ANY individual to spend just 1 day in a Residential Eating Disorder Program. I challenge them to witness the pain and the tears that come of eating disorder patients just when faced with eating a snack! Hey...If these ignorant people are so strong in their belief, then they should have NO problem taking me up on this challenge. .

[mysticfaerieluna]

con't... Does anyone really understand that a compulsive over eater is trying to run and hide from trauma from their past just as much as anyone else?

But those people ARE eating so they look "ok" when in reality...they aren't. If it was all about "being thin"....why am I killing myself every minute of every day with the fight just to put a damn carrot into my mouth?!?

[mysticfaerieluna]

Well said and I agree. it IS a disease. It isn't that we "anorexics" don't want to eat per say. We are just terrified to. Why? Because then that numbing feeling you get from starving yourself...that ALL consuming fighting within our brains stops and we will then be forced to face the very traumas that we are trying to hide from. And it isn't just anorexics. Bulimics and compulsive overeaters are doing the same thing!...

[farfromperfect90]

@YTPNoob Really now!? Did you actually read what you just posted? Or do you actually ignorant enough to believe this? You have NO IDEA what we have to go through. Rich cunt? Yeah right- as a kid I had to steal food from drug stores because my parents couldn't put any on the table.How good I really have it? I was molested and beat up for four years. I don't wanna eat? You have no idea how hard it is to actually eat. Yes, it is a messed up world, but that doesn't mean you need to add to it.