I know they’re poison, the term I came up with when I threw out several hundred Dolly, Cleo, Cosmo magazines last year in treatment was “so toxic it was making me even more sick”. But they still manage to buy themselves from newsagencies and still manage to make their way onto my bedside table. haha.

Faking It was very liberating, but there’s only one of it! If it was a monthly publication, maybe I would be telling a different story.

Thanks!

regarding Ralph, in the past I have taken the entire stack of Ralph and put them on the floor underneath the shelf. It feels good to do. And Ella, you already know this i’m sure, but the trashy mags are poison! I know how they make me feel and it’s awful. I too sometimes want to be super thin and in the past I wanted plastic surgery. If you haven’t already read it, I highly recommend you obtain a copy of women’s forum australia’s “Faking It” research paper. It is produced to look like a magazine – indeed it mocks the women’s mags – but it is actually a proper research paper full of good information. If you’re like me, you will feel a little bit more “free” when you’re done with it.

Thanks for posting your thoughts, like Danielle I do enjoy reading different opinions.

Hope I haven’t upset you with my comments on the title. It just irritates me when people say “Starving for attention” or “Starving for answers”. It really simplifies what is so unbeleviably complex. If it was that easy we all would have recovered by now!

I think it’s also important to remember that TV shows, magazines, etc. will only produce what sells. If middle-aged-overweight-models sold, that would be all we would see (and then we’d have groups up in arms about how this supported our obesity epidemic – which many dieticians have told me is a load of bull anyway). If we watch these shows, if we buy these magazines, we are supporting this industry – so just like I cover up the Ralph and FHM magazines with parenting magazines in supermarkets, I try to not buy magazines which support these types of things. Although I have to admit that I still do – but that’s more ED related, because I’m not even sure I want to read those magazines!

As a sufferer I love to be a part of this conversation. No question is a stupid question. And, during one of my treatments, talking to someone who had gone through the journey helped give me so much insight into my own illness.

PS – I just want to congratulate you Danni for having Kids Helpline in the Links toolbar. Perhaps you could add lifeline in too? http://www.lifeline.com.au they can offer some really fantastic support and have a much more extensive area-specific data base of support services!

I take full responsibility for the title “starving for attention” as I added it to Nikki’s post. I was trying to make a point about society and the media idealizing “ultra thin” and glorifying this unhealthy look. It seems only women who conform to a super slim body shape get the Tv roles, modelling contracts, celeb status…the fame.

I apologise if you found the title insulting. I did not intend to dismiss the complex issues surrounding eating disorders.

I love having you as part of this conversation!

Having images like those girls on our TV screens are potential triggers for those WITH the illness. Not only that, but according to Michel Levine (he’s a lecturer and ED specialist from the US and I heard him at The Bronte Centre Conference last year) and he’s said that images like that are potentially triggers for eating disorders IF the genetic and other environmental are so that the person is at risk for developing eating disorders.

Reading this reminded me of ANTM which was on TV a few months ago. They did “anorexia model” and “bulimia model”. The anorexia model was standing on scales with a tape measure around her waist. The bulimia model was sitting on the toilet eating a cream cake. It’s these stereotypes which makes it harder for those of us with this illness to get and accept treatment. I found ANTM pretty insulting.

That aside – I think the title “Starving for attention” is a bit insulting. As is the idea of the guys doing an intervention…if they do genuinely have eating disorders, their starvation diet is far more complicated than “starving for attention” and an intervention from the guys on set is not going to help much, until they’ve got a dietician, psychologist and GP supporting them. Eating disorders take a multidisciplinary team to treat and subsequently recover from.

“Because this look is killing us – literally.” That quote is really a reality check. I found out recently that a friend of mine from my old treatment centre passed away from her eating disorder. She was 15 years old.

I read in some trashy magazine which I shouldn’t have read that now Hollywood is over the size 0 – they’re into 00. ANYTHING SIZE 0 IS FOR INFANTS!

So, I think I’ve come to the end of my excessively long and ranty post. Basically, if they have eating disorders, they need treatment and help because they look unwell (although I feel it’s important to throw in that someone can be chronically ill and on their death bed with an eating disorder and look normal) and things like that shouldn’t be on our TV screens.

It also seems that both the original females, Kelly and Brenda, have not aged since their first appearance in the 90’s. As many of the fans return to watch the series, new fans included, the idea that “thin is in” and you can “look young forever” are reinforced which is both disheartening and infuriating.