I have been following an email discussion between eating disorder professionals, and the issue came up when Therapist A referred to those with anorexia as having an "unusual ability" to go without eating. Therapist B said that this is more of a disability than a skill; people with AN are afraid to eat, not unusually skilled at starving themselves.
Therapist B has a point. A lot of how people think of anorexia in popular culture (besides fetishizing thinness, which is another story) is that people with anorexia are, like, super skilled at not eating. It explains why people have told me they wished they could have "a little" anorexia, or asked me for diet tips. We can learn skills from others. We can spend time with talented people and hope that it rubs off. We can study with the best teachers and practice and...
Food restriction is a behavior. That's just a fact. But is it a skill or ability?
There's definitely a biological component to this "skill," but research has shown similar things for musicians and athletes. That doesn't mean that Mozart wasn't talented because of some genetic blessings.
Where things get muddled is this: so many people engage in deliberate food restriction on a daily basis. I'm not talking about people with food allergies (though this is true for them), but about all the people who are dieting or trying to lose weight. From the outside, a strict diet looks an awful lot like anorexia. In western cultures, people with eating disorders and dieters often use similar terms to describe their thoughts and feelings about food and weight.
Some people are really good at dieting. Others aren't. I would hazard a guess that someone with anorexia would be really good at dieting.
But anorexia isn't a diet. It can look like a diet, but it fundamentally isn't. It's like saying that someone who is manic is really good at being energetic or that someone with OCD is really good at cleaning the house. They might be, but it's not because of some sort of inherent skill. It's part of the illness.
Often, when an eating disorder starts, it does appear that sufferers have an improved ability to restrict their diet (for whatever reason). They can override hunger cues. But as time goes on...as the illness deepens...that skill doesn't go away, but it ceases to be the main reason or motivation for ongoing food restriction. That "natural skill" morphs into an illness.
What do you think? Share your thoughts in the comments.
Therapist B has a point. A lot of how people think of anorexia in popular culture (besides fetishizing thinness, which is another story) is that people with anorexia are, like, super skilled at not eating. It explains why people have told me they wished they could have "a little" anorexia, or asked me for diet tips. We can learn skills from others. We can spend time with talented people and hope that it rubs off. We can study with the best teachers and practice and...
Food restriction is a behavior. That's just a fact. But is it a skill or ability?
There's definitely a biological component to this "skill," but research has shown similar things for musicians and athletes. That doesn't mean that Mozart wasn't talented because of some genetic blessings.
Where things get muddled is this: so many people engage in deliberate food restriction on a daily basis. I'm not talking about people with food allergies (though this is true for them), but about all the people who are dieting or trying to lose weight. From the outside, a strict diet looks an awful lot like anorexia. In western cultures, people with eating disorders and dieters often use similar terms to describe their thoughts and feelings about food and weight.
Some people are really good at dieting. Others aren't. I would hazard a guess that someone with anorexia would be really good at dieting.
But anorexia isn't a diet. It can look like a diet, but it fundamentally isn't. It's like saying that someone who is manic is really good at being energetic or that someone with OCD is really good at cleaning the house. They might be, but it's not because of some sort of inherent skill. It's part of the illness.
Often, when an eating disorder starts, it does appear that sufferers have an improved ability to restrict their diet (for whatever reason). They can override hunger cues. But as time goes on...as the illness deepens...that skill doesn't go away, but it ceases to be the main reason or motivation for ongoing food restriction. That "natural skill" morphs into an illness.
What do you think? Share your thoughts in the comments.