Anorexia and Bulimia Should Not Be Made Fun Of

 

By Pamela O'Connor

 

From the “Anna Rexia” Halloween costume in 2011 to the new controversial article “5 Reasons to Date a Girl with an Eating Disorder”, it has been shown that eating disorders are not taken as seriously as they should be. The costume itself showcases what an anorexic girl’s skeleton would look like, and was banned from stores. Unfortunately it was brought back, with the message that it would be funny to dress up as an anorexic on Halloween. Essentially, this poked fun at a serious mental disorder that can cause long term effects and sometimes even death.

Interestingly the article is attracting much more negative feedback than the costume. “5 Reasons to Date a Girl with an Eating Disorder” was posted on a website named “Return of Kings” by the author under the pseudo name Truthmosis. He/She starts the article by saying that eating disorders are luxuries designated for the white, wealthy girls. He also states that a classic eating disorder can predict a lot of traits about a woman and these traits end up being desirable to today’s American man. He also makes a side note to clear up that this article does not pertain to “fatties with no self-control”, only to girls with anorexia or bulimia, because they are considered to be the more attractive diseases.

The article then goes on to list the reasons that a man should date a girl with an eating disorder, insulting more and more women with every word. He believes that when a woman is fighting a disease such as anorexia or bulimia, she will improve her overall looks because she has become so obsessed with them. She will never be fat, and will care about her clothes and appearance in general, showing his narcissistic and superficial self in an even more obvious way. Another reason he states is that she will cost less money, meaning you can bring her to nice, expensive restaurants and only spend a minimal amount. This is because she will only order dishes such as a side salad, or whatever communal food you order, so sometimes you can even finish off her plate if you would like. This unfortunately encourages the disease, instead of trying to help the person you are dating to be happier and healthier and to value her for who she is and not only what she looks like.

                Another advantage according to Truthmosis is a girl’s low self-esteem. He considers it a good thing that she will be vulnerable and thinks too many women have a high level of confidence for no reason. He mistakenly believes these women will apologize more readily and will be modest, craving nothing more than your approval. And since this article states that eating disorders are only for the wealthy, he assumes that these girls have their own money, which will enable them to pay for things or buy you gifts. Truthmosis ends this article by saying that girls with eating disorders will also be better in bed, because according to the author, girls considered “crazy” make better partners in bed.

                Petitions have been written and people have more than shared their opinions about this outrageous article. Eating disorders, in any form, are a serious mental illnesses and affect the person as well as those around them, negatively. Nothing about their suffering is positive or fun. These diseases are not to be made fun of but are to be helped and healed. Authors like this make it harder to see the danger of these illnesses and instead turn them into a joke or dating game. It is sad that such uninformed negative opinions exist and even worse, that they give people distorted inaccurate information. Such irresponsible opinions can be taken seriously by mentally ill patients and can have a negative effect on ones struggling with this disease.

Article Source: http://www.returnofkings.com/21313/5-reasons-to-date-a-girl-with-an-eating-disorder

 

 

Channeling Emotion Accurately: A look into alexithymia

http://www.damninteresting.com/the-emotional-bankruptcy-of-alexithymia/

Study
It is consciously clear in the human mind where each of us stand in terms of traditional intelligence. Facts, logic, and comprehension are all things humans are primed to learn. Emotional intelligence, however, rarely receives the same attention. According to Dr. Ross Buck of Psychology Today, understanding and communicating one's emotions can be just as critical.

The term alexithymia is defined as "a lack of effective vocabulary for recognizing and labeling feelings and desires." Dr. Buck engineered a study that looked at the components behind this trait, involving a two sided emotion-perception approach. The "sender" of the emotion would be shown a series of color slides that were coded as "familiar-people, scenic, unpleasant, and unusual," and the "receiver" would watch these emotions play out in the sender on a screen and would press a button at points they thought were meaningful (a clear expression of emotion). At these meaningful points in the sender's portion, physiological measures were noted in the sender such as skin conductance deflections, heart rate, and blood pressure. Through these measures, the findings revolved around amount of emotional display, accuracy of emotion communication, and physiological arousal.

As expected, senders with low emotional display activity tended to struggle with overall emotion communication. The physiological response was high, however, in these senders, perhaps indicating a nervous, "tensing up" effect. Adversely, senders with high emotional display activity showed strength in overall emotion communication and minimal physiological arousal.

However, Dr. Buck goes on to explain that, in clinical trials, too much emotional display may in fact be counter-intuitive. For those who may be over-emotional or have behavioral problems, accurate emotions may be difficult to formulate when given certain cues. These people may over-think or just overreact to these stimuli, resulting in faulty emotion communication. Below is Dr. Buck's scale describing alexithymia:  


http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/spontaneous-emotion/201006/emotional-expression-emotional-communication-and-alexithymia

There are those who have under-expressive emotional display activity (the left side of the graph) who also have high nerves and tense physiological tendencies, this portion of the graph characterizes those with hypoexpressive alexithymia.
There are those who have over-expressive emotional display activity (the right side of the graph) who tend to have lower physiological tendencies, this portion characterizes those with hyperexpressive alexithymia.
The middle portion of the graph (the top of the bell curve) show those who hold balance. Their emotional expression is neither too much nor too little and their response is average in regards to physiology. This is the desired demographic because with this balance, there is accurate emotional communication and perception which, consequently, means their emotional intelligence is very strong.

Reaction
As difficult as it may be to look at emotion objectively, this study came to an accurate conclusion. Conveying emotion is a subtle art. Some people get their point across accurately through a combination of verbal communication, facial expressions, body language, and other nonverbal cues; a constant balancing act that takes years to master. Some people struggle with it. As Dr. Buck describes, some may just have problems communicating emotion because of their lack of emotion itself. Others have problems communicating because they just have too much to express. Like a log jam at the lumber mill, there are only so many emotions that can be go out at once. For one to express accurate emotions that are congruent to what the sender is feeling, Dr. Buck talks about balance.

A lot in the field of psychology comes down to the terms: balance, stability, and moderation. Emotion is no different. A strong emotional understanding comes with moderate expression and communication. The definition of "moderate" depends largely on the individual's personal preferences and environment (making "subjective" another key psychological term). This uniform emotional equation is not meant to diagnose. Alexithymia is classified as a personality trait, not a disorder, but its role in relationships and marriage cannot be ignored. In any intimate relationship where emotion communication is crucial, alexithymia poses a problem. Without the ability to accurately express one's emotions, an interpersonal relationship will suffer and may result in both partners feeling isolated.

-Ryan Scanlon

Works Used:

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/spontaneous-emotion/201006/emotional-expression-emotional-communication-and-alexithymia