Triggering? Girls and Eating Disorders

NY Times has an article on 'contagion' and eating disorders especially among young girls regarding Young Adult literature.  

Quotes:

"The Internet has given rise to countless “pro-ana,” or pro-anorexia, Web sites that promote anorexia as a “lifestyle” rather than a disease. Photos of rail-thin celebrities like Lindsay Lohan and the Olsen sisters serve as “thinspiration,” while reading lists tout the appeal of eating disorder books."

"I’ve gotten tips, motivation and many of the characters have become my role-models"

"Are there things in this book that will trigger unsuspecting people? And if so what do we do about that? What their response was, was that we have a culture that glamorizes this. The docs say, Yes, the book is going to trigger people. Turning on the television triggers people — looking at billboards, going to the computer, walking past a magazine rack. But the challenge in the book they felt I had met was to show the entire story. There is nothing glamorous or lovely about an eating disorder. It’s horror."

"There is a dangerous trend to view anorexia as a lifestyle choice rather than a serious mental illness"

"Books such as these should be read with careful parental supervision."

From the Comments:

"IN ANSWER TO THIS QUESTION: In writing about eating disorders, are authors, unwittingly, creating an alluring guidebook to the disease? MY ANSWER, BASED ON PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IS: “YES”

More than 28 years ago, I, as a teen, first began reading about bulimia and anorexia in popular, safe magazines like Woman’s Day, and Ladies Home Journal...These magazine articles, which were meant to inform, led me down the road to be a practicing anorexic/bulimic for almost 15 years. Be VERY wary of these types of books. They may very well turn out to be a how-to guide for your teen."

"On the “Yes” front: I know my disorder was triggered by an article in New York Magazine - among the first on the topic, a few years before it burst into the headlines...

On the “No” front: Anorexia, bulimia, binge eating, pica, EDNOS, are all manifestations of an underlying problem. Whether you want to define this problem as a reaction to external issues (e.g., poor peer relationships, dysfunctional family, etc.) or internal issues (depression, OCD, bipolar) or most likely an interaction of both, there will be SOME trigger and SOME manifestation. If it isn’t an eating disorder, it could be acting out, or inappropriate sexual behaviour, or kleptomania, or cutting, or something else. The psychological force is a river, and if you dam one channel it will cut itself another.""

"I don’t think it’s a coincidence that more girls are having problems with anorexia and bulimia at the same time. The same goes for “cutting.” No one cut or had these eating disorders before they became popular. Just like no one considered shooting up their schools until others did it"

Self Harm: Cut it out

Article about the UK authorities' stance on self-harm, new campaigns to reduce stigma.  This article is fascinating because it is decidedly ANTI-self-harm, and ANTI-stigma-reduction.  Quotes:

 

"The UK medical authorities are sending the message that young people hurting themselves is an acceptable lifestyle choice."

"It is a sign of a sick society when young people start turning to self-harm to work through their emotional problems. But it is an even sicker society in which medical and political authorities give sanction to their actions." 

"In March 2004, the Mental Health Foundation and Camelot Foundation launched an inquiry at the House of Commons looking into self-harm in young people, which was backed by MPs from across the political spectrum. The inquiry’s website cheerfully announces its aim to ‘educate and raise awareness about self-harm - for everyone!’. By ‘shifting culture’, it wants to move ‘towards a more flexible, user-focused, non-alienating, “no-blame” culture for young people who have experience of self-harm’ (3)."

"Michael Maher, a group analyst, tells me that when he first started working in the area of self-harm 17 years ago, it was seen as an ‘exotic behaviour’. Now, he said, it has become part of people’s vocabulary: ‘if you’re going to choose a language of distress, self-harm is part of the menu of choices that people use for expressing distress.’ The issue has become part of popular culture: for example, there was a recent story about self-harm inHollyoaks, the soap for young people. We also hear about celebrities who have harmed themselves, such as Johnny Depp and Princess Diana - which prompted the MSN self-harm discussion group to set up a section entitled ‘Your [sic] not alone - celebs who SH’ (5)."

"But self-harm needs to keep its ‘stigma’, in the sense that we shouldn’t forget that there is something deeply wrong with it. Giving self-harm official sanction as a ‘coping mechanism’ is only likely to entrench the practice, and make it more acceptable. "

Read more here.

Celebrity: Amy Winehouse

This gossip site has the link to a 2007 article on Amy Winehouse and self harm.  It's refreshing in that it is in her own words.   Key quotes include:

 "She says: "It's a funny thing, a morbid curiosity. I'm talking about when I was nine. What does that feel like? 'Ow, that f*****g hurts.' It's probably the worst thing I've done."

Also: "She said: "It's a way of suffering for the things that mean a lot to you. Actually I like the pain. To me, it relieves you.""

Another gossip blog has an article about it  here, in her own words/texts, includes an episode with her husband finding out.  More recent than the other article.    

Amy is also used as a 'poster child' for self harm in this article.

See previous celebrity post.

Celebrity Cutting

Consumerism, Cutting, and Celebrity.  

Check out the Lindsey Lohan Self Harm Speculation, 2006.  

More recently, tween star Demi Lovato had marks on her wrist.  

In that vein, many 'self help sites' for self harm have pages devoted to 'Famous Self Injurers'.  Examples include:

Self-Injury.net

and

Wide Open West

What does it say of our celeb-obsessed culture that such sites proliferate--and that questions about self harm plague young starlets?

Perhaps most enlightening: Comments  from the Lindsey Lohan article

"Seriously guys, I am not a fan of Lohan but seriously, it honestly isn't our business whether or not she is and for a second thing, self harming isn't always "to die", its used as a way to release emotional pain into physical."

"Shut up you douche, take your preachings elsewhere. Why are you even in a celebrity gossip column anyway? Oh, and Lindsay, please come up with something original in the pain category. e.i. slitting palms or fingers. it's more honorable. 

I feel stupider for even wasting this energy to type this shit"

"wow, big deal a TEENAGER that CUTS HER SELF =0. man everybodys paying too much attention to celeberties, i dont even know y im on here. and as far as her publicist denying it, he probably just doesnt want to worry her fans (that is if theres still any more lindsay fans out there)."

"Ok. Those are cut marks. I cut, my friend cuts. They are cut marks. End of story. She wouldnt have covered it up at before if she fell in a bush. Whatever. If it was a suicide attempt, its pathetic, you cut down the legnth of your arm if you want to die. Whatever."