Why on earth would I want to pose nude for a group of photographers? I'm not a psychologist or an authority on body image. I'm a 50-year-old woman who has suffered with anorexia and body dysmorphic disorder since I was 7 years old. I've tried therapy and support groups over the past 15 years. Although they have helped tremendously and brought awareness about this disease, I seem to slip back into self-body-hatred periodically. Sometimes it lasts for a few days, sometimes a few months. The time period doesn't matter. What does matter is, even at my age I still struggle with my body. How many women do the same thing? Does it ever end? For a lot of us, the disease begins in early childhood. For some, it happens in pre-pubescence when our young bodies are in a metamorphose stage from child to adult. The psychological damage done to girls is appalling, both as the result of media hype and the unrealistic expectations that society places on women, and through untreated childhood abuse - verbal, physical, emotional and sexual, to which I am no stranger on all counts.
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5 Eating Disorder Stereotypes Worth Rethinking (Original article by Julia Black) Sufferers of eating disorders are often met with victim-blaming, cattiness, or awkward silence. Many people tend to assume that eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia are rooted in vanity and self-absorption, but some interesting new studies are beginning to suggest that eating disorders may be a more complex phenomenon than we'd previously thought. Eating disorders may not be one-size-fits-all, and the factors causing them aren't always what you'd expect. Here are five myths worth rethinking. |