Comments | miera_c: missed last week

miera_c

missed last week

Aug 17, 2010 23:43

So I didn't talk about "Huge" last week and it's coming up on the end of the season so I must. But first, from Lesley's most recent awesome recap: I know that feeling, as an introvert who tends to prefer one-on-one social interactions to large groups. It is a longing for a special understanding, for an opportunity to connect privately with someone ( Read more... )

huge

Comments 4

abyssinia4077 August 18 2010, 03:52:45 UTC

Also I'm leery of the idea of "overeaters anonymous" and the idea of a 12 step program for food. I know very little of this issue so I won't speculate, but I was rolling my eyes a bit, because it's FOOD.

I had a roommate last year who was Very Actively Involved in that organization. On the one hand, yeah, she was eating regular meals with balanced food groups (well, she had an incredibly limited diet, but it hit the main food groups). On the other hand, I've never seen anyone so obsessed with food - every morning talking to sponsors about exactly what she'd eat that day, carefully measuring and weighing out everything that she was going to consume. It was supposedly the "cure" for an eating disorder but to the rest of us, it just looked like another version of disordered eating.

miera_c August 18 2010, 04:07:00 UTC

It was supposedly the "cure" for an eating disorder but to the rest of us, it just looked like another version of disordered eating.

EXACTLY. I have no real world experience with this organization so I wouldn't presume to judge them based on a tv representation but obsessively worrying about food to the point where you have to ask someone else for permission to eat strikes me as fundamentally no different than consulting a Weight Watchers book like it's the Bible.

I'm pretty sure OA is not for people diagnosed with Binge Eating Disorder, which is a clinical diagnosis for people with ED. It seems more like voluntary submission to a rigid set of controls not unlike Jenny Craig only with slightly different propaganda! Oy.

abyssinia4077 August 18 2010, 04:16:17 UTC

*nods*

I mean, it's based on Alcoholic's Anonymous and similar programs, so the first step is to admit you are powerless to food (no, really, that's the first step) and there's things about seeking help from a higher power and stuff and sponsors and really, just like AA in a lot of ways.

Except. People need to eat food. Arguably, every human being is addicted to food since we'd all die with out. Like your link - the first rule is eat or die. And watching her obsess over food - spend hours on the phone every day, hours in the kitchen, carefully measuring everything - that didn't really look healthy to me. *shrugs* [and, yeah, I highly doubt it's for people with medically diagnosed disorders - though I think it is supposed to be for all types of disordered eating, not just overeating.]

mylittleredgirl August 20 2010, 05:34:41 UTC

Oh, God, the OA. In my strange upbringing I was surrounded by lots of people measuring their food and going to OA, and it was very important to them so I'm sure it's great and whatever, but it was one of many things that made anorexia seem Completely Normal And Adult to me, so I'm not a fan. I gaped at the TV when she said she'd been 5 years abstinent. You know they can't be about to trash OA, because so many people subscribe to it, and I will totally totally grant that a lot of people have unhealthy relationships with food including overeating, but I wish they would say something to clarify here. FOOD IS NOT POISON. IT DOES NOT DESTROY YOUR LIFE. It all makes me want to cry.

Eh... Rand and Wayne aren't exclusively dating, so I'll totally give her a pass. I'd give him a pass too if he were seeing other people. If this was their first kiss and they've only gone out a few times, they can be non-exclusive. That being said... my God, Rand is fucked up. And I defend her because I identify with her in many ways... like when I was ( ... )