B-eat: Airbrushed pictures and eating disorders

[EnoughIsEnough]

Radio 1 just played a clip from a spokesperson for b-eat, the eating disorders charity, giving their views on airbrushed pictures in the media.

The main gist of the clip was that the cause of eating disorders is the way in which young people are bombarded with photoshopped images. People see these images, then get eating disorders because they want to look like *insert celebrity here*.

Am I the only person who isn't convinced by this?

Yes, seeing pictures of unattainable figures doesn't exactly improve self esteem, and yes, *insert celebrity here* looks very thin...but actually, that isn't why I have an eating disorder.

I don't binge and purge because I'm not as thin as many of the celebrities shown by the media. I binge and purge because I have no other way of coping with issues which are far more deeply ingrained in my personality than things like weight.

I'm probably being petty, but it honestly drives me mad because although these people are trying to raise awareness of eating disorders, they're actually depicting sufferers as shallow, superficial idiots, who are too stupid to realise that some pictures aren't necessarily totally accurate.

Perhaps this would have been better off in "rant and rave"!! :P

[something-blue]

Ive always, always, always been deadly annoyed when someone said that the body image that is portrayed by *whoever* *the media* makes more people get an eating disorder...and for me its still true. I never wanted to and still dont want to look like any celebrity/model/whatever.

But I know now that a lot of people slip into an eating disorder via dieting (like...they start to diet and that combined with other issued turns into an eating disorder, not just a diet by itself) and i think there the images that children/young women see about how their bodies *should* look are quite important. I mean, seriously, children should not be thinking they are fat and start a diet at the age of 12. Thats nothing but disgusting. So yeah, I think if someone sees their body as something they hate no matter if its because of abuse, bullying, or pressure to look one way or another then its easier for someone to "slip" into an eating disorder and channel all their problems into "if i looked like this bad things wouldnt happening/id be happy" instead of resolving them. like a child who has always been happy with the way they looked and had healthy role-models is less likely to even start fasting or crash dieting or something else stupid that can make them end up here ...idk if that even made sense.. :)

[AyAyCaptain]

Amen to this. I've read blogs that say we're just superficial, and blah blah blah. I've never related my eating disorder to any skinny little photoshopped model.
Even when I came out and told my family a few years ago, they were so focued on making sure I knew I "wasn't supposed to look like that, that's not real"
But it is real.
I feel like I'd be this way regardless of what I see in magazines. I know the media has some influence on how we see ourselves, yes.
Maybe, I wouldn't of gotten an ed so young, or devolped one so quickly.. It does trigger a little bit..but it's not the cause!

I feel no one understands. It's about our own bodies, not models and media.

and Also, I feel like no one gets, at least for me, purging is not the issue. Purging is to undo the damage done by a crazy binge. I'm this way because I just loooove roting my teeth out with stomach acid.. and have to eat 5,000 calories to have something to binge. That's bullshit. It's that I can't control myself, stuff up my emotions, and then have to get rid of it.
I'm not going to die from purging, If I die from bulimia, It's because I'm going to explode.
blah. the hardest part about this is getting anyone else to understand.. my whole life.
It's like I speak another language.



and, end rant.

[Massive-Molly]

Yes! I can't even begin to tell you how mad I get when people say the media causes eating disorders, or when people tell me I "don't have to have an eating disorder because all those pictures in the magazine are airbrushed, anyway" (someone has said that to me before) It makes me SO MAD.

Hello, it's not about looking like a celebrity! It's about coping with emotional pain.

[EnoughIsEnough]

I'm not going to die from purging, If I die from bulimia, It's because I'm going to explode.

This is exactly how I feel. Purging doesn't feel like the problem; that's just the necessary aftermath. It's the binging that'd get the best of me. I sometimes wonder if there are two types of bulimics: binge eaters who purge, and purgers who binge. I'd be the former. It makes me feel like I'm not actually bulimic - like I don't deserve the diagnosis. I'm just greedy and purge because I have to...if that makes sense at all...

[Massive-Molly]

This is exactly how I feel. Purging doesn't feel like the problem; that's just the necessary aftermath. It's the binging that'd get the best of me. I sometimes wonder if there are two types of bulimics: binge eaters who purge, and purgers who binge. I'd be the former. It makes me feel like I'm not actually bulimic - like I don't deserve the diagnosis. I'm just greedy and purge because I have to...if that makes sense at all...

I feel like this too. My diagnosis is bulimia, but I feel like it should have been BED... and I just happen to purge it.