Triggering (ED): Kenneth Tong Promoting Anorexia

[Foreveralways]

Wow! I can't believe he doing that and girls believe him. Wow some of the people in this world would do anything to look like a supermodel. When people edit them in the computer to make them look like that.

[Brandon]

Originally Posted by dr2005

I'm steering clear of this from now on, but I will clear up one thing:



Obesity is a medical condition with a wide range of physical components and consequences, but it is not possessive of any criteria which make it a mental illness. In particular there is no evidence of being consistently associated with a psychological or behavoural syndrome - in short, it can often have physical symptoms only. It can be a symptom of certain mental illnesses such as binge eating disorder, but being a symptom of a mental illness and being a mental illness from the outset are very different things, and as such obesity was considered and rejected for DSM-V. I would recommend reading the following on this point:

• http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/jo...al-health-myth
• http://www.psych.org/MainMenu/Resear...oupReport.aspx
• http://articles.cnn.com/2010-06-01/h...2?_s=PM:HEALTH

This is very solid evidence. Probably the first legitimate evidence that's been thrown at me, so we're on the right path. I also read my article thoroughly and it threw around the "psychological" a lot, but I was under the impression that it would talk about obesity being a mental illness. It did argue that if America wants to solve the obesity problem, we need to add a fat tax (like tobacco tax) and stop promoting fast food through commercials and such. So it did support most of my viewpoints, but it didn't talk about the one that mattered the most in your argument. Therefore, yes...obesity is not a mental illness. It may have symptoms of a mental illness, but that doesn't make it a mental illness. Perhaps it can, but there hasn't been any proof to suggest that obesity is. But I'll still make myself perfectly clear that this doesn't really alter any of my viewpoints. Sure, it's a mental illness, but it can be treated and therefore not impossible. But I'm the type of person who doesn't hold people back from people doing something stupid (unless we're talking about little children who don't know better).

[Megan1]

That website is sick and that guy needs serious help!

I know you guys are saying "if it hurts you, just don't read it".....But I know from experience that when you have an eating disorder, you will look at that stuff because you WANT that. You can't see that it is hurting you, you think that it is helping you because you will look better. You WANT someone to tell you that it's okay to starve yourself. You WANT someone who will help you to loose weight. You WANT someone who will support you working out and starving yourself. You don't want help, you don't see that those things are hurting you. It is a mental disease. Saying that anorexics have a choice whether or not to look at those sites is like saying that drug addicts have a choice whether or not to do drugs- yes they do, but it's an addiction that they have trouble controling. Of course they technically COULD stop, but it's not that easy. Those websites don't usually cause anorexia, but they will make it worse or even re-trigger it after recovery.

I firmly believe that anorexia is sometimes (if not always) connected to an obsessive complusive disorder. For me, aside from wanting to loose weight and feel pretty, it came to a point where any time I ate something other than soup broth, vegetables, and seeds, I felt dirty having the food in me- just because I had something it me and my body contained something other than just itself. Like some people are ocd about having things out of place in their houses, I was ocd about my body- I felt dirty having anyting in it. I hated food because it actually contained more than just water. The thought that food was inside of me made me feel dirty. It comes to a point for some people where it is more about not knowing how to control in your mind the difference between eating too much and not eating enough. When it comes to food, an anorexic has little to no logic. When I had an eating disorder, I literally COULDN'T make myself eat right, because my brain was so ocd that I obsessed about "if this food is unhealthy, than this food is too, and this one, and this one" until absolutely every food was ruled out. For example, here is how my brain worked: if donuts are fattening, so is pizza because it has the same amount of callories and fat. If pizza is unhealthy, so is pasta because they are both just carbs, sauce, and cheese. If pasta is unhealthy, most dinner meals are too. So I should just have cereal for dinner every night. But then again, if ice cream is fattening, what is the difference between that and milk? So I'll just have soup broth and vegetables every day.

So that's exactly what I did for quite a while- soup broth and vegetables every night.

And when someone encourages you starving yourself or calls you fat or anything like that, it makes the disease ten times worse. You need to show anorexics tough love by trying to force them to eat- but also beating the mental eating disorder by focusing on inner beauty and not needing to impress others.

The worst part about that guy's twitter page was when he said that he went to church and God "told him" to keep doing what he is doing...yet then said that there is no such thing as inner beauty, which is completely oposite of what God's word says. The bible says that God doesn't care what people look like on the outside.

And then there are the people who are saying "anorexia is just as bad as obesity". I understand that both are unhealthy, but I have to say (just my opinion) that I think being obese would be better. I don't mean that it would be healthier or anything, but better as far as.....I don't know, this is more of a personal opinion than anything.....it's hard to explain. I'd rather be obese and know that I don't have trouble eating and am not focusing on what I look like on the outside. I'd rather be obese and only caring about inner beauty, than anorexic and caring about how I look on the outside. But that's probably a biased opinion because I am recovered from anorexia (only stage 3, not very extreme) and would rather have almost any other problem than be there again.

[Tara.]

Originally Posted by Megan1

And then there are the people who are saying "anorexia is just as bad as obesity". I understand that both are unhealthy, but I have to say (just my opinion) that I think being obese would be better. I don't mean that it would be healthier or anything, but better as far as.....I don't know, this is more of a personal opinion than anything.....it's hard to explain. I'd rather be obese and know that I don't have trouble eating and am not focusing on what I look like on the outside. I'd rather be obese and only caring about inner beauty, than anorexic and caring about how I look on the outside. But that's probably a biased opinion because I am recovered from anorexia (only stage 3, not very extreme) and would rather have almost any other problem than be there again.

Wtf
Since when do fat people not care about how they look?

[InTheFlood]

Okay so he's just released a statement on twitter saying it was a hoax and an experiment.

http://www.twitlonger.com/show/82t0bf

[Megan1]

Originally Posted by Spider*man(girl)

Wtf
Since when do fat people not care about how they look?

Well, everybody cares about how they look to some extent. But anorexia is usually based on caring about how you look. Sure obese people care about their looks like the rest of the world does, but for people with anorexia, caring about your looks becomes your life.

I guess when I said "only caring about inner beauty", I was talking more about myself. Since I got rid of my eating disorder last year, I have gained weight. I'm not obese, I'm the perfect weight for my height actually.....but I'm just saying that I'd rahter be heavier and not starving myself to look better.

[Megan1]

Originally Posted by InTheFlood

Okay so he's just released a statement on twitter saying it was a hoax and an experiment.

http://www.twitlonger.com/show/82t0bf

I'm glad that he doesn't really have those horrible opinions and that he is going to donate to help charities for eating disorders. I just hope that nobody was hurt/triggered/relapsed from this.

[Marguerite]

Originally Posted by Brandon

it is more acceptable to be obese than anorexic.

I would disagree with that.

I see where you're coming from. We are told Anorexia is a terrible disease and that having it is BAD BAD BAD. We are also told that we must love people in every shape and size, and not to judge because someone is overweight. That just makes them 'curvy' or a 'real woman'.

Both are true in a sense. Anorexia IS a terrible disease, and we shouldn't judge people because they are overweight.

The thing is, just because we are supposed to recognize anorexia as evil and accept those who are obese for who they are, doesn't mean we do it.

An Anorexic person, while facing a boat load of personal problems and mental health issues is usually more likely to be accepted by general society. They are less likely to be taunted or laughed at.

Put it this way: Being 'stick thing' is admirable. Being 'ugly and fat' is not.

It's the end game vs the journey to get there. Nobody is saying 'get fat, be obese'. Nobody is trying to be fat. It's just that everyone is saying 'stay inside, watch this' or 'eat this, supersize that' or 'play sport on the playstation, not outside!'

On the other end of it, nobody (bar nutties like this guy of course) is saying 'don't eat!' or 'throw up your food!'. They are saying 'be a size zero! It's the only way to be beautiful!'

It's a wonder their are so many healthy people in a culture that tells us to consume, consume, consume, but being fat is disgusting and that if you're not thin you're just a pathetic, ugly nobody.

[Brandon]

Originally Posted by Marguerite

I would disagree with that.

I see where you're coming from. We are told Anorexia is a terrible disease and that having it is BAD BAD BAD. We are also told that we must love people in every shape and size, and not to judge because someone is overweight. That just makes them 'curvy' or a 'real woman'.

Both are true in a sense. Anorexia IS a terrible disease, and we shouldn't judge people because they are overweight.

The thing is, just because we are supposed to recognize anorexia as evil and accept those who are obese for who they are, doesn't mean we do it.

An Anorexic person, while facing a boat load of personal problems and mental health issues is usually more likely to be accepted by general society. They are less likely to be taunted or laughed at.

Put it this way: Being 'stick thing' is admirable. Being 'ugly and fat' is not.

It's the end game vs the journey to get there. Nobody is saying 'get fat, be obese'. Nobody is trying to be fat. It's just that everyone is saying 'stay inside, watch this' or 'eat this, supersize that' or 'play sport on the playstation, not outside!'

On the other end of it, nobody (bar nutties like this guy of course) is saying 'don't eat!' or 'throw up your food!'. They are saying 'be a size zero! It's the only way to be beautiful!'

It's a wonder their are so many healthy people in a culture that tells us to consume, consume, consume, but being fat is disgusting and that if you're not thin you're just a pathetic, ugly nobody.

I've actually heard quite different when it comes to being a "stick thing." None of my friends admire "stick people" because we have this mentality that if we want to have sex with a woman who looks like a stick, we could just have sex with a dead body. I have never seen or heard someone admiring stick people who aren't suffering with anorexia themselves. But that could just be a personal opinion. I would understand admiring people who are "thin" in general but not specifically people who are too thin to the point that they could be snapped in half like twigs.

[Snufkin]

I'm glad it was a hoax, and in the end, he kinda made a good point about the media. He's making donations, money from an online auction going to charity as well, I suppose if we can hope nothing too bad came of it, it'll all work out in the end. I don't believe that nobody was affected though, so he may've done a lot more harm than good.

[FlyingTrue]

Originally Posted by InTheFlood

Okay so he's just released a statement on twitter saying it was a hoax and an experiment.

http://www.twitlonger.com/show/82t0bf

Wow! That is all I could say.

[losing touch.]

hmm.. well his little 'experiment' upset a lot of people. at least he's donating money to beat.. still seems like a stupid thing to do but hey he's obviously desperate for attention.

[Kumagoro]

I don't think the fact that it was just a hoax makes it OK for him to do it. If people were taking him seriously then it could have done a lot of harm already. Anorexia is curable but it doesn't go away just like that. It's not like a sufferer can think "Oh it's OK, it was just a hoax, I don't have to starve myself".

An interesting investigation, but hardly ethical. I'm still compelled to ask why he thought it was a good idea. :/