Trans v Anorexia

[ConfessionsOfTeenageDramaQueen]

I think I made this comment on someone else's thread but I can't remember so giving it its own now.

(Also, I don't believe I've seen a thread on this already but apologies if there's been one.)

Anorexics, like those who are trans, believe there is something wrong with their body and they want to physically change it.

Psychologically there are also a lot of similarities between anorexia and gender dysphoria, particularly among teenage girls who are uncomfortable with the way their bodies are developing due to puberty. Also there are often (but not always) additional issues of depression, self-harm etc.

Given all of this, why does society do everything possible to stop teenage anorexics from changing their bodies (to the point of tube feeding them against their will) while trans-boys are encouraged to change theirs with hormones and surgery?

I see the two conditions as very much allied. The girls with anorexia when I was at school would no doubt be trans today.

Anorexia kills. Hormone treatment and surgery (probably/hopefully) does not. Does that answer your question?

FWIW I have huge concerns about the use of hormones for trans teens.

Seriously? Anorexia is a mental illness, and no, not it doesn’t necessarily mean that sufferers see something wrong with their body. Left untreated anorexia kills. It isolates and destroys people.

Psychologically there are also a lot of similarities between anorexia and gender dysphoria, particularly among teenage girls who are uncomfortable with the way their bodies are developing due to puberty. Also there are often (but not always) additional issues of depression, self-harm etc.

There are no similarities whatsoever except in the minds of people who have no clear understanding of either or both of those things.

And also, we already know the best treatments for both conditions, due to evidence.

No it doesn't NorthernLurker because it's a false equivalence.

Like this nonsense I saw on Twitter today in which someone compared hormone therapy for trans kids with chemo and insulin.

If you are anorexic and don't seek treatment: your body will shut down will die.

If you are diabetic and don't seek treatment: your body will shut down will die.

If you have cancer and don't seek treatment: your body will shut down will die.

If you are trans and don't seek treatment: your body will continue to function.

(The suicide thing is a red herring - not only have the stats on trans suicide rates been disproven but suicide is not the same as your body involuntarily shutting down).

I don't see the similarities in the way you do. (ex eating disorder specialist)

garam I guess apart from the symptoms I don't know that much about anorexia. I get it's a mental condition and I've heard it referred to as dysphoria. What exactly is body dysphoria. And what's the difference between dysphoria and dysmorphia?

I totally agree that’s nonsense. You were asking why we don’t allow anorexics to change their bodies but do allow trans kids. The reason is because anorexia is rightly seen as lethal. Hormones for trans kids are seen as the exact opposite, helpful not harmful. I don’t agree with that interpretation. I think long term it’s very harmful.

Anorexia kills. Hormone treatment and surgery (probably/hopefully) does not

The leading cause of death in anorexics is suicide, not the starvation itself.
This rings parallels with the suicide ideation amoungst trans.

Aiming to have a hysterectomy and double mastectomy is starving yourself of your future potential.

Interesting Opheliah I didn't know that re anorexia and suicide (although it makes sense).

I think it is very telling that it is overwhelmingly girls being referred to trans clinics these days and I agree with PP above who said many of those they knew who were anorexic would today be trans.

I think there is clearly something that affects many girls going through puberty who become desperately unhappy in their developing bodies and seek to modify them. I think it's tragic and these girls should be supported not encouraged to change their bodies.

*by "supported" I mean offered psychological and emotional support to help them through, not supported in their desire to change their bodies

I know what you are saying but being anorexic is a disease being trans is about identity. The two are completely different x

No I don't see how they're completely different - you're just assigning them different labels ("disease" and "identity").

If someone with anorexia were to say she identifies as a Size 0 who are you to tell her not to modify her body so as to achieve that?

Anorexia can kill in many ways, and cardiac problems are one of the main reasons.

Having met many many many anorexic sufferers, I’d never make some prediction that most would grow up to be trans!!!!!

Many anorexia sufferers are not interested in body image...this idea that they want to just change their body is not accurate. This illness wants to kill them. That is the conclusion to the illness.

I really don't understand what the psychological, medical difference is between gender dysphoria and all the other dysphorias. I've never seen any explanation why the classification has changed. It causes deep distress, medical/psychological treatment is needed to alleviate it. Like other dysphoria there's a mismatch between internal perceptions/feelings and what other people perceive.
It seems to be because of the association with homosexuality which I think is misplaced.

Psychiatrists link anorexia and other eating disorders to control.
People suffering from a lack of control (over their own life or the life around them) often turn to eating disorders because it provides them with a mechanism to control other people's perception of them and their own perception of themselves.

Turning to trans ideology can offer to fulfill a lack of control (over your own life or the life around you) by providing a mechanism to control other people's perception of you and use of language about you when you are not present and control over your own perception of self.

The parallels are quite obvious. This is before you get to the control over physical appearance.

I am autistic and I self harmed as a teenager. I have also struggled with anorexia and bulimia since I was about 12. I really think that if I was 20 or so years younger I’d have ended up being trans as a teenager. What I felt (and still do in a way) was wrong and different and I wanted that feeling to go away. My ds is autistic and I worry so much for him.

I’ve found this a really interesting (and frustrating and sometimes hopeless) topic and was completely unaware of it until reading about it on here. I haven’t posted before as I don’t feel I have enough insight to add anything but there are people out here that are reading these threads and opening their eyes.

@FedUpLetDown Welcome and thanks for posting. As you can probably tell from my posts I think there are huge similarities between all these issues - anorexia, self-harm, depression, trans - and I think that is backed up by the fact that teens presenting with one of those four often have the others too. They are also extremely prevalent in teenage girls.

When I think back to my own teenage years almost every girl I knew between the ages of 12-20 (including myself) went through a period of depression and/or anorexia and/or self-harm.

I just find it fascinating that despite teen girls who believe they are trans overlapping in many ways with those who are depressed, anorexic, or self-harming, societal response is the complete opposite (encouraging rather than discouraging).

I see the common thread as the girl rejecting the woman's body that she is getting and the sexualisation that comes with it. Anorexia: make the body tiny and not curvy so not sexy. Self-harm: attack the body and cover it with unsexy scars. Transition: get an approximation to a man's body and avoid sexualisation.

I was a self-harmer until my 30s and, amongst other body parts, I attacked my (H cup, I hate them being so huge) breasts and thighs. When I was six, I asked my mum if cutting my hair short would make me a boy. Someone I used to know was anorexic and a self-harmer until becoming a transman at around 27 or so.

Growing up female under patriarchy stinks.

Sorry I've probably missed some posts but I think this is a most pertinent thread and some posters sound frankly naive or could they be misinformed (deliberately?) As a born female who was the third girl my dad tried to make me a boy and I didn't come to terms with my femininity or my femaleness until i was 23 years old, this after having very acute anorexia for 6 months on 800 cal/day when i lost a lot of weight obviously but also had waking episodes of immobile spasm during the night. Awake unable to move.To say anorexia is not to do with appearance what planet are you on its been shown that anorexics see themselves as different to realiturn.

Reality

I totally agree with you OP the 2 things have been compared of course but not enough not enough!!!!

I do not know why transgender advocates reject the word disease.
If you are not at ease you have a disease, whether it is a bump on the noggin or a bug bite, or a body image disorder.
Claiming that a transgenders "medical condition" is an identity is ridiculous.
Medical condition is the currently acceptable euphemism for body dysmorphia disorder suffered by some few transitioners.