Should I be posting about the very real dangers of anorexia and bulimia? Should I devote most of my blog to exploring the physical and psychological dangers of these two frightening eating disorders? Neither anorexia nor bulimia have ever been part of my personal experience, despite the fact that my first "diet" (when I was around 16) involved a liquid fast once a week and utter food vigilance on the other six days of the week--a behaviour that went on for several months and which could conceivably have led to anorexia, though it didn't.
Here's why I'm asking the question:
Once in awhile, I'm drawn to reading blogs and articles on anorexia and have watched a number of documentaries on youtube dealing with this disorder.
A few months ago, I came across the blog of an anorexic woman who is passionately concerned about the dangers of obesity. She intends to start a new blog with the word "obesity" in the title. The "theoretical" posts in her current blog all deal with fighting obesity though she does also talk about her own struggles with anorexia (although she refuses to term herself an anorexic, preferring to describe the problem using the more amorphous term, "eating disorder"). She writes for a weight loss audience.
She's clearly a bright woman, and definitely has her heart in the right place, but I have to say that her anti-obesity crusade disturbs me, especially given the havoc anorexia has wreaked on her own health.
I have refrained from even gently questioning her motivations, but it is my right to express an opinion here, which I'm doing as diplomatically as possible. I guess it's time for me to stop reading her blog. It's way too sad and strikes me as fundamentally wrong on so many levels.
And in answer to my own question: why not? It's a free world. However, I think if I were to do so, it would be more of an exercise in "there but for the grace of God go I" than anything else. I prefer to talk about what I know from the inside and leave anorexia to the professionals who treat it and those who suffer from it.