I am writing to respond to Andrew Carpenter's article, ""Prevention needed to combat anorexia."" I certainly appreciate Carpenter's concern with the health of his peers and I commend him for criticizing the unattainable beauty standards our society perpetuates. However, I felt that by making reference to the weight room at the SERF and the ""hottest"" women on campus, Carpenter still suggests that our main goal as young adults is to look good. In an article concerning struggles with body image, this notion of what is ""hot"" and what isn't seems misplaced and inappropriate.
I must point out that what young people suffering from
anorexia need is not tips on how to lose weight in a healthy way,
or assertions that muscular and fit people are the most
attractive—what they need is effective counseling (perhaps
supplemented by a prescription for antidepressants). Anorexia is
not just an issue of a distorted body image. It is largely a
disease of obsessive compulsive behaviors that have been directed
towards food and weight. Substituting weight training and healthy
eating habits only provides a different outlet for these obsessive
tendencies, thereby running the risk of unhealthy amounts of
exercise (anorexia athletica). Being so inherently linked with OCD
and clinical depression, which are usually the result of atypical
brain chemistry, anorexia should be assessed and treated similarly:
with counseling and drug therapy.
Furthermore, anorexia is often a way in which people in
an otherwise chaotic environment exercise control over some area of
their life. Examine a random collection of people suffering from
eating disorders and I bet you'll find a whole slew of issues in
their lives that they hold little to no control over, such as a
parental divorce, a death in the family, a difficult school
schedule, or, as is the case with many adolescents, a hormonal
change.
Thus, though the depictions of ""beautiful"" men and
women in the media certainly may play a role in the development of
eating disorders among men and women, this assertion is dangerously
close to the incorrect assumption that eating disorders are
diseases of vanity. In order to effectively prevent and treat
eating disorders, we must remember they are
very often associated with clinical depression and self-control,
and not just a result of distorted ideas of body image. As a former
sufferer of an eating disorder, I should know.
—Alyssa Lochen
