To think trans is the new anorexia?

[SouperMario]

Controversial but I just read this piece and cannot help agreeing with a lot of it. Both forms of body dysmorphia, both social contagions.

https://unherd.com/2023/04/is-trans-the-new-anorexia/

Just because something offends you, doesn't mean it's not true. Social contagion is very real, particularly among teenage girls - ask any teacher!

Why does everyone take so much offence at everything? No one can have a discussion anymore without people shouting that no one understands, it's some sort of phobic, or offensive etc etc.

Depressing isn't it.

Trans is the new Goth.

Goths used to be cool.

Of course it's real. If it wasn't, we wouldn't have so many protections in place.

Single sex schools were breeding grounds for anorexia, self harming and now seem to be cultivating trans issues. Throw autistic tendencies into the mix and you've got the Mermaids Charity new HQ. The overwhelming proportion of trans identifying girls also being autistic is worrying.

A group of people talking nonsense about a disorder they don't understand and hadn't experienced just doesn't sound like a remotely clever or meaningful conversation.

The "journalist" who wrote this article obviously has zero understanding of eating disorders, and neither do most of the posters who seem to think they've just read a brilliant piece of insight.

You need to have insight to provide insight.

So you want people to have opinions and be able to discuss, as long as their opinion isn't that they think it's offensive?

So essentially you don't want a discussion.. you just want to be able to say whatever it is on your mind and if someone expresses they don't like it you pull the "can't even have a conversation" card instead.

No that's not what this is. That's not the point of it. The point is a lot of these people/ girls DONT have eating disorders. Not proper ones. They WANT to have them and actively try and choose to be anorexic. This is the issue. People with REAL (non social contagion type) disorders are not included in this article. You (and others) are misunderstanding the demographics being discussed.
You can't say only people who have experienced real eating disorders can discuss all types of eating disorders. Psychologists/therapists etc then surely wouldn't be able to help anyone if they hadn't experienced it themselves??
(Disclaimer. I am not saying people with a social contagion type of anorexia don't really have an issue. They do. But the treatment should be geared towards other mental health issues not just the anorexia.)
I don't always explain myself very well i know. But honestly this trend these days of agreeing with everything someone says (anorexia, trans, anxiety) without any questions, and no one being allowed to help or discuss it unless they've had the same issue themselves is just crazy. No wonder teenagers can't cope.
"Oh you say you are an anorexic non binary self harmer with severe anxiety? Coincidentally just like the other 6 of your friendship group?" Yup nothing weird going on there at all. It must all be totally true and a big coincidence.

The people saying that they've had eating disorders and how social contagion is rubbish and no one would do that because its so awful so it's so offensive are totally ignoring the people who admit they did it as teens! I tried it myself! But failed BECAUSE I didn't have an eating disorder. But I actively tried to pretend I did/make myself have one. So how can something be offensive if its true?

Most people I know who thought they had anorexia did have severe disordered eating & body dysmorphia. Disordered eating habits are not the same as an eating disorder, but there can be a very slippery road there.

It's harmful to say it's for attention, it's opinions like these that made my parents say the same thing to me before it became way too late. I wasn't doing it for attention I was very sick. People discussing it like it's a trend have obviously never experienced lifelong effects of an ED. How do you know who or how many people are "faking it", doing it for attention or whatever? You don't. So why die on the hill of pushing the idea that it's true.

I don't think there's a problem with discussing, but most posters aren't interested to discuss and they shut down people who have first hand experience using the usual MN "everyone gets so offended these days".

I would expect in a discussion a contribution from someone directly from the group spoken about would be valued, not dismissed.

Which part is true?

Both the article and posters are trying to infer some kind of conclusion that applies to most people. Making it out like faking anorexia is some big trend when you can't actually quantify if it's true is both silly and offensive.

Neither of us can be sure of what the true proportion of people "doing it for attention" is so maybe instead we can focus on making sure we don't dismiss people with EDs as pretenders.

I don't think every case should be dismissed as attention seeking. Definitely not. But do you not think its weird when a friendship group of say 8 girls ALL get an eating disorder at the same time? Same with a whole group coming out as trans? Theres even been cases of whole groups getting tourettes/tics. Obviously they all need help in some respect, but I really don't think the entire group of friends all have a disorder so severe happening coincidentally. So yes these coincidences should be discussed and look for reasons why. Not just dismissed as offensive and only people who have eating disorders allowed to discuss it.

Everyone I have known (and that’s quite a few people) with anorexia have gone to enormous lengths to hide it. So I think the first paragraph of her article is rubbish.

I think the title is bombastic. And I haven't read the article, but yes, there's a school of thought that some trans people have body/gender dysmophia. Like any mental health condition, including anorexia, this can be the result of trauma, systemic social issues, personal hardships etc.

One option for treatment, that is being pushed more and more now is undergoing hormonal treatment or having operations.

Others have intensive therapy and find they can cope with other support systems.

There are others who transition who don't have dysmophia, who didn't previously question their gender but who wish to be treated as the opposite sex.

It’s absolute bullshit and shows complete ignorance re anorexia.

My Dd has been battling it for 3 years and been hospitalised countless times. It is never a badge of honour, she has run away and tried to take her own life when admission was imminent.

I gave up reading when I got to “Freeman describes a rivalry between anorexia ward residents over who’s been “tubed” — the gold standard of really having made it as an anorexic, because the very last medical resort is force-feeding. “ Utter bullshit and outrageous. Most are tubed when admitted as FBT means one mouthful not eaten means meal supplements which are vile and when you’re faced with your biggest nightmare ie 3 meals, 3 snacks and 3 puddings of not very nice food it’s incredibly hard to manage. Like many tubing has given my Dd ptsd. Young girls being held down by security guards to have a tube shoved down their nose causing bleeding, pain and distress is not “ making it as an anorexic” it’s sheer bloody terror and distress.

The author clearly knows zilch about anorexia and neither of you op. What a vile article.😡

Anorexia involves a huge amount of deceit with hiding food and the condition. Sufferers hide good, purge, waterload when weighed…

The treatment is FBT( f asmilyctgerspy sbd donetjbes individual)and psychiatry is often involved. The causes get looked at.It is now linked to Autism for a variety of reasons. It can be a control thing, coping mechanism and often neurodiverse kids do gravitate towards each other. Neurodiverse kids are impacted more by toxic social media which highly drives eating disorders.

I have heard the parallels before, there's definitely an element of social contagion. Entire friendship groups all suddenly identifying as trans within the space of a week when the statistics suggest less than 0.5% of the population have gender dysphoria. Young children being encouraged into transitioning by their peers and parents. It's definitely seen as cool and progressive to have a brave and inspirational trans child.

I think a big part of the comparison I've heard before is more within the way we affirm the ideology and the treatments. If someone comes up to you and says they're overweight and desperately need to lose weight but you can see they're actually dangerously underweight, you'd get them medical help and support. You wouldn't just affirm their delusion and agree with them that they're too fat and need to lose weight, you'd recognise that they had a mental health problem of some kind and are unable to view the reality.
Whereas now whenever people say they identify as a different gender or a bunny or wolves or fairies or stars ETC, we for some reason are celebrating and affirming it rather than recognising that they have a mental disorder and getting them help.
The statistics don't even seem to suggest that suicide rates etc drop after an individual has transitioned. We're not treating the actual underlying problem.
... I definitely went off topic at some point ...

https://herviewfromhome.com/dove-cost-of-beauty-campaign/

There is nothing prestigious about Anorexia. It wrecks lives, takes years away from sufferers and kills. Sufferers aren’t doing it for attention and want to get better. They want to live. It’s so easy for it to take hold and so hard to break free. The video below sums it up beautifully.

No because anorexia is a debilitating illness that can kill. Trans people on the other hand can live happy, healthy , fulfilling lives. Or they could if the world weren’t full of ignorant arseholes like you.

So sick of the trans debate being dragged into everything.

Tandora

Totally agree

Of course you are being unreasonable. My daughter literally nearly died from anorexia. Hospitalised, sectioned, tube fed, as sick as you can possibly be. Nothing is “the new anorexia”. Sadly this life threatening disease will likely remain a leading cause of premature death for young people. How you write about it is actually quite upsetting.

I agree with the parallels pp have made between self harm, anorexia and now trans. All 3 are purely psychological conditions and of course are socially influenced, as they do not exist in some parts of the world (non-western parts). You certainly don’t get people in Ethiopia starving themselves or ‘feeling like’ the opposite sex ffs. Hopefully in 10 years time the ‘trend’ would have moved on from teenage girls, although will no doubt sadly be replaced by something else.

(Of course there will always be people in our society who self harm, have an ED or have gender dysmorphia, but the vast majority of teenagers who have these are doing so as part of mass hysteria and grow out of it, rather than being the ‘real deal’ imo)

And your evidence for this is….

Thanks for reducing my DD’s pain to mass hysteria.😡 I’ve sat on paeds wards countless times and seen the pain endured by struggling teens. It’s heartbreaking. Life is incredibly hard now and young people are struggling with things we never have before. I had anorexia in the 80s, I can see first hand how much harder being a teen and battling anorexia is now.

Trans people have existed throughout history across all cultures.