16-06-2014, 13:52
I have been on both sides of the very shitty spectrum and it sucks.
When I was a kid I was overweight to the point where my pediatrician put me on a diet. My dad was also overweight as a kid, but ended up becoming a green belt in karate or something and managed to lose the weight. However, since he was married with three kids and karate was out of the picture he had basically become "manorexic" to keep the weight off and was/is very fat-phobic. I can still remember standing in my panties while the doctor talked about my "issue" and how if I "started watching what I ate" he would guess that I'd be around 5 foot 5 and 150 pounds by 18. My spirit was crushed, but not as bad as it was on the nights that followed when my dad would look at me and say "are you sure you want to eat that?" At 8 years old I looked in the mirror and saw myself as fat and worthless. 8 YEARS OLD.
By 17 I had hit 5 foot 8 and I had an undiagnosed heart condition. I stayed at 120 pounds... I couldn't gain weight. I went on a trip to Nepal with a group of several churches to work in a medical camp. That's when my condition was at it's worse and I suddenly went unconscious one day while we were in line to get food. When I came to they set me in a chair and a bunch of people were fanning me. I can still remember the room spinning and still feeling foggy when the pastor of the group leaned over and said "well that's how it is with an eating disorder". I was absolutely heart broken. His daughter-in-law was more worried about the fact that I was thinner than her (and even thinner at that point from all the rice and hiking) that rather than worry about me she was busy talking about this eating disorder that I supposedly had. My mom took me back to our room and the pastor later came back and apologized, but the damage was done at that point.
And what's funny is that when I actually WAS anorexic not many people said anything about it.
What I am saying by this long rambly post is that it hurts coming from BOTH SIDES. Did I want to hurl an insult right back at the girl who called me anorexic? Absolutely. All that would have done is fan the fire in a culture where women are constantly pitted up against each other rather than fighting for what matters... love and acceptance. Society is to blame.
When I was a kid I was overweight to the point where my pediatrician put me on a diet. My dad was also overweight as a kid, but ended up becoming a green belt in karate or something and managed to lose the weight. However, since he was married with three kids and karate was out of the picture he had basically become "manorexic" to keep the weight off and was/is very fat-phobic. I can still remember standing in my panties while the doctor talked about my "issue" and how if I "started watching what I ate" he would guess that I'd be around 5 foot 5 and 150 pounds by 18. My spirit was crushed, but not as bad as it was on the nights that followed when my dad would look at me and say "are you sure you want to eat that?" At 8 years old I looked in the mirror and saw myself as fat and worthless. 8 YEARS OLD.
By 17 I had hit 5 foot 8 and I had an undiagnosed heart condition. I stayed at 120 pounds... I couldn't gain weight. I went on a trip to Nepal with a group of several churches to work in a medical camp. That's when my condition was at it's worse and I suddenly went unconscious one day while we were in line to get food. When I came to they set me in a chair and a bunch of people were fanning me. I can still remember the room spinning and still feeling foggy when the pastor of the group leaned over and said "well that's how it is with an eating disorder". I was absolutely heart broken. His daughter-in-law was more worried about the fact that I was thinner than her (and even thinner at that point from all the rice and hiking) that rather than worry about me she was busy talking about this eating disorder that I supposedly had. My mom took me back to our room and the pastor later came back and apologized, but the damage was done at that point.
And what's funny is that when I actually WAS anorexic not many people said anything about it.
What I am saying by this long rambly post is that it hurts coming from BOTH SIDES. Did I want to hurl an insult right back at the girl who called me anorexic? Absolutely. All that would have done is fan the fire in a culture where women are constantly pitted up against each other rather than fighting for what matters... love and acceptance. Society is to blame.