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 am too tired to read through all the responses now but I myself identify as trans masc and suffered anorexia quite badly after puberty so wanted to share my thoughts.

Your question is something I have considered myself. I am only 'out' to a few people and am fully pre- transition.

I have also wondered if anorexia was caused by dysphoria or vice verse actually. It is something I am still trying to figure out.

However, in answer to your question, I think I can offer this:

Both are medical conditions ( in my opinion) and therefore have different treatments. The ideal of an anorexic is an unhealthy one and it eventually leads to death in severe cases if left untreated. Therefore, the cure is to feed the person and to provide therapy so that they can have a health relationship with food and their body. ( This is not easy and the memories of being force fed are horrible).

In my opinion, transition will be the cure for my dysphoria. If left untreated, a persons mental health can deteriorate so much that it leads to suicide. The cure here is to socially transition and/or medically. The ideal of a transman is far less harmful than starving yourself quite literally to death, in my opinion. Like all medical treatments, there are side effects to HRT, just as there were for the antidepressants I was prescribed to help battle my anorexia.

So, they are treated differently because they are different. Something a lot of people don't realise is that anorexia, for many people, is equally about body image as it is control. It therefore is quite different to gender dysphoria and similar in other ways.

I'm sorry that this is long but I really feel the need to share because this is exactly who I am and I feel that people who have dealt with both of these things can give a good insight.

Please bear in mind that this is a very sensitive topic for me, maybe I shouldn't post but I think my voice is important. I am fully recovered from my ED but the memories still haunt me and gender dysphoria is ruining my life.

I would also like to add a few hints after reading through the posts

1. The other trans people I know who are still depressed after transition are depressed bacuse of the hard time they get for being trans

2. I plan to get therapy ( not gender therapy) for my dysphoria before I decide to medically transition. I am, therefore, in some way treating/ treated both conditions ( I personally view my own dysphoria as a mental condition) in very similar ways. Recovery for anorexia is largely therapy based.

I do not know if denial of self and self denial are rooted in exactly the same thing but I think it quite clear that they are both mental illnesses and it is a terrible shame that the medical profession are derelict in their duty.

smile15

We are aware that one of the side effects of the drugs is depression.
Perhaps you did not know this.

I appreciate your honesty Smile15. I think this is a huge topic and probably not something we can discuss here on a forum. It’s interesting to hear people’s point of views. And I think that’s key - there are many points of view and we don’t know what the long term solution is yet. Hopefully we don’t damage too many people as it plays out and gets more understood.

I think therapy first rather than directly to drugs and surgery is an excellent idea.

O ffs I've heard it all now.

I swear these threads are making feminists look bonkers.

You can make those sweeping generalizations about people on AIBU, melodybirds, but on FWR it will get you a strike.

What they have in common, eating disorders and gender dysphoria, is that the desire to self harm is a symptom.

Most injuries caused by male violence - especially sexual & psychological abuse like scapegoating and gaslighting - cause the target(usually girls) to develop self harming coping mechanisms to alleviate the somatic distress of being used & abused horrendously (battered & erased) in different ways

It seems that mental suffering is acted out on the body as not being able to accept the body. The mental self-hatred or lack of self-acceptance is manifested as an inability to embrace your physicality.

I would also see a link with plastic surgery. My DH who is a doctor was telling me that statistics show that patients with anxiety and depression chose plastic surgery and at least with breast surgery the mental issues are not relieved with surgery but actually get worse.

They're both about disgust and distress at the body. In Victorian times leisured young ladies would take to their beds and "go into a decline". I've read that they died from a combination of malnutrition and taking morphia.

They're both about disgust and distress at the body

It's the male abusers' disowned and projected disgust that the girls/women are carrying out by proxy - the male abuser's disowned hatred of women - they don't just see women as benign objects but as whipping "boys" - these sadists get pleasure at abusing others and also there's the sexual sadists who enjoy hurting and appropriating women sexually.

Those acts and thoughts of evil are conditioned into their targets - who have to find some way of dealing with profound pain and distress these introjected abusers cause. If there were no male abuser there would be no symptoms of self hatred in girls and women - the cure is obvious except to men who protect other men.

What as happened in this thread is that most people have made the usual mistake of equating Anorexia with only body image and while that is clearly a component and the social pressure and unrealistic body image can and is often a factor to only focus on that is not addressing the issue. Some posters have also mentioned abuse and trauma and it is often this that can lead to young people wanting to gain control in an aspect of there lives and food is one thing that can be controlled. How someone forms this maledaptive relationship with what they put in there body is complex, though the treatment is not just to address issues with body image but Is also around addressing this maladaptive coping strategy and is very much dealt with in a physical as well as a psychological way. So the argument that it should be treated with therapy first is misleading. Eatting disorders is not my area of experience but sadly over the years I have needed to refer people to there service and it is often a life long condition that when even effectively treated requires the person to constantly stay with the programme.

National Centre for Eating Disorders

Helpline: 0845 838 2040

eating-disorders.org.uk

For anyone who like another poster on this thread is suffering from an eatting disorder. There is help out there.

What as happened in this thread is that most people have made the usual mistake of equating Anorexia with only body image

No, we didn't.

Nope!

Sorry that was my understanding of the op's post

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

I also went on to say others have correctly highlighted other issues that are also important but by all means just say no.

Go well.

I will take angerys advise here

"Also remember that it's impossible to have a reasonable discussion with an unreasonable person, ie. it's not you that's the problem."

Have a lovely day all

Nah.

No I wasn't

What as happened in this thread is that most people have made the usual mistake of equating Anorexia with only body image

No they haven’t. Body image is only one part of it. Social pressure/environment is hugely important in anorexia and in many other similar disorders that result in self harm.

I think that’s been acknowledged on this thread. What’s also been spoken about on multiple other threads is the concept of rejection of gender as a complex issue involving social contagion (the school where ten girls declared they were trans at once for example) social pressure, and coexisting conditions

There is clearly a massive problem in young people with societal expectations, support, anxiety, autistic traits and the way our society oversexualises young people. All these together are a toxic mix.

To say an anorexic just thinks they’re fat is barely scratching the surface of what anorexia is.
To assume that someone is ‘born in the wrong body’ ignores the societal and psychological issues surrounding the condition.

Maladaptive coping strategy - whatever the root cause- may be what links the two conditions, and other forms of self-harm - unless you believe that transgender people have been born in the wrong body (which I don't).
Speaking as a mother of a young transgender adult. Who has ASD, chronic anxiety, has self-harmed in the past. The psychiatrist who diagnosed the ASD says many of the young people she sees with eating disorders and/or gender difficulties have ASD (often undiagnosed in girls).

Thanks AAK