Diease or not?

Reply 40

bratcat

Sorry, but no. It isn't.

It's so much more complicated than that.

OK, I phrased that badly. I know it's more complex than I made it sound, but I think the point I was trying to make (albeit not very well) is still valid. I was just trying to say that obesity is intrinsically different to anorexia, in that obesity is basically just heaviness/fatness, and doesn't imply any cause for the weight, while anorexia isn't about weight/fatness, but about the cause.

Reply 41

RetiredAccount89

18

covered farm wagon

Maybe compulsive over eating is the different extreme to anorexia. Obesity is the result of it. I don't think obesity is similar to anorexia, because it can be caused by loads of things, not just by eating habits, while anorexia is always about a relationship with food.

thats not quite true. Anorexia as you say it means anorexia nervosa - the archetypical teenage girl desperately trying to slim cos she thinks 6 stone is too fat. But anorexia can be caused by numerous underlying conditions just like obesity.
Fact is though that obesity is much more of a meme disease, or much easier to 'catch'. Much obesity is about lifestyle - like anerxia nervosa is basically a lifestyle. But compare the two, and the will power needed for each, and you quickly realise that for the weak willed, obesity is the easier to 'catch'.

Reply 42

No Future

17

foolfarian

thats not quite true. Anorexia as you say it means anorexia nervosa - the archetypical teenage girl desperately trying to slim cos she thinks 6 stone is too fat. But anorexia can be caused by numerous underlying conditions just like obesity.
Fact is though that obesity is much more of a meme disease, or much easier to 'catch'. Much obesity is about lifestyle - like anerxia nervosa is basically a lifestyle. But compare the two, and the will power needed for each, and you quickly realise that for the weak willed, obesity is the easier to 'catch'.

Well yes, if we're being pedantic about it! Anorexia just means “loss of appetite” so merely anorexia could apply to other situations in which a person does not eat, perhaps after an illness, loss of appetite for some other reason.

Anorexia nervosa means “nervous loss of appetite”, relating to the ED type. Though, the ED isn’t really about a loss of appetite as anorectics are rarely NOT hungry, but avoid food or convince themselves that they are not hungry etc.

Still, I think that obesity is not a disease/disorder as such, but the possible (obesity may not necessarily be caused by a disease/disorder) result or the symptom of a disease/disorder, e.g. thyroid problems, COE or BED, Prader Willi syndrome, inability to exercise due to injury etc. It is (supposedly) classified medically by a bmi over 30, that’s all. AN, on the other hand is a disorder and not a physical state of the body. Yes, admittedly, by DSM standards it is classified by a bmi under 17.5. Though in any case, bmi cannot always indicate accurately, so it is not easy to say that someone has a bmi of x or xx, therefore they are/have xyz.

It seems that you believe obesity (let’s say COE here, as obesity itself is not the disorder, and we want to contrast with AN) is somehow “caught” or easy. Well, with any ED, it is not about will power, it is more a deep-rooted, (in my opinion) almost inexplicable need to use food to numb/hurt/hide/sabotage/comfort (and many more, though not always applicable in all cases) oneself. It is not merely will power that causes somebody to starve themselves, sometimes to death. Do you really think a person WANTS to do what they do to themselves, be it starve, stuff or purge? Using the term “will power” somehow implies that the ED is the conscious choice of the person to carry out. Yes, they may be aware of what they are doing, but it is the ED that controls them. It is not the will of the person to undereat/overeat, but the will of the ED that forces them. In fact, one could argue that EDed people have a lack of will power as some do not have the will to seek treatment.

Aside from EDs, however, yes it is true that it is much easier for (non EDed) people to become obese, rather than emaciated. Of course, for the weak willed, it is easier to overeat and not control oneself.

I'm not sure I made a lot of sense. :cool:

Diease or not?

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