The article, "Are social pressures the cause of eating disorders," has to be one of the worst - WORST - articles written, not just about eating disorders, but about anything.

I am shuddering right now to think that this so-called staff writer will someday write for a newspaper or something. As a former full-time journalist and current freelance writer, reading it made me want to pull every hair out of my head just to make the pain stop. I couldn't count the many problems; I couldn't even get past the incredibly bad writing.

Did she/he (I couldn't tell by the name) learn at the University of Cliches? The School of Bad Writing? The College of How Many Crappy Sentences Can I Cram In One Piece of Writing? The Academy of I'm Too Lazy To FInd More Than One or Two Sources To Write My Articles? ( I am trying to restrain myself from posting my incredibly snarky comments on the paper's website.)

The article needs to be taken out and shot. Or burned. Or destroyed and never read again.

But here are some of the worst offenses:
"Anorexia is a condition in which one mistakenly believes they are overweight and thus chooses not to eat." (Wow, what insight that doctor has!)
"Anorexia occurs mostly in high school and early college students." (I guess I imagined I developed it at 41. Didn't this tired old myth get buried long ago???)
"Anorexia has many negative health consequences." (No shit. Now would you care to elaborate?)
"Anorexia can eventually cause death." (Again, no shit, Sherlock.)
"An extremely underweight appearance is the biggest sign that someone is anorexic." (I won't even bother with this one.)
"The sooner an individual seeks treatment, the more likely they will be to overcome the illness." (Then I should be completely cured; I started seeing my doctor about a year after developing AN.)
"Those suffering from anorexia are usually fed through a feeding tube or intravenously until they reach a safe weight." (I guess I imagined those food trays, complete with food I was expected to ingest, while at Beaumont when I was dragging around my NG tube pole in February.)
"Food is not a bad thing. In excess it could be, but food is necessary to live." (We have a saying in journalism - just because someone says something, doesn't mean you have to quote them and sometimes you should protect your sources from their own stupidity!)

Carrie, do I win any points? Because I have a damn headache now.

P.S. Regarding the songs; Wiki missed one: "Hotel California" where you can always check in, but never check out (although some argue it's really about cocaine or other drug addiction, but those of us from that time period know it's really about the insane asylum)

P.S.S. Totally unrelated, but I ate a cupcake this morning after Easter service and thought of you. :) I hadn't had one in years, and I have to say it was rather gross (too sweet.) But the frosting was a pretty shade of pink, which then transferred onto my tongue. I needed about a gallon of coffee afterward to get the taste out of my mouth. I'm sure gourmet cupcakes are much better; I think these were from Meijer.

I agree with Angela (above) about the 'horrendousness' of the the article "Are social pressures the cause of eating disorders?"... I also despise the article "Bodies altered in pursuit of beauty" - at least in the context of EDs.

Actually, when reading these articles I wanted to scream and swear at my computer, not that my poor machine is to 'blame'.

When-oh-when will certain journalists (and many others) stop this BS around the aetiology of EDs, and especially anorexia nervosa (AN), which seems to go as follows:

1. Teen/pre-teen girl buys glamour magazine and sees photos of airbrushed skinny model/celebrity.

2. Teen/pre-teen girl decides to go on a diet so that she can look 'pretty' - like an airbrushed skinny model/celebrity (or her childhood Barbie doll).

3. Teen/pre-teen girl's diet eventually makes her look more like airbrushed model/skinny celebrity/Barbie, but she doesn't think she's quite there yet.

4. Teen/pre-teen girl is diagnosed with anorexia nervosa, and says in her first therapy session "all I wanted to to do was to be 'pretty' and to look like a skinny model/celebrity, or my Barbie doll.

5. Teen girl/pre-teen girl is re-fed and given 'body image therapy' in which she is taught to love her body shape and size (and that thanks to Adobe Photoshop, magazine photos are digitally altered). She is also advised to stop looking at 'pro-ana' websites, but 'love your body'/'body confidence' websites.

6. Teen/pre-teen girl decides that anorexia nervosa is not a wise 'lifestyle choice' and is 'cured'.

6. Teen/pre-teen girl concludes that the media causes anorexia nervosa.

YUCK.

Oh, and I forgot to add to the story above:

7. Teen/pre-teen girl's mother sells her story to the media and it is featured in some saddo magazine with the title 'My Barbie Doll Caused My Anorexia'. The article is featured alongside another article titled 'I Breast Fed My Dog'.

Burning books is wrong- it is the stuff of totalitarian regimes and it pollutes the atmosphere. But for those times when the printed word is just too ridiculous, produces too much anger, is dangerous rubbish.... I give you the virtual burning bin. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ul3qzMUMBlM/S7iieU805rI/AAAAAAAAA40/rCUZvTEwq94/s1600/sunday%27s+coming+015.jpg
Mentally place the words in the fire and imagine them burn.

Burning books is wrong. But that is the problem - nobody prints anything anymore; any idiot with a computer and five seconds can write crap like that one article and call it "journalism." The worst thing is that many students probably read his/her stupid piece and now think they know all there is to know about eating disorders, because she quoted a doctor, ya know, and of course that makes it legit.

Sometimes the Internet gives me a real pain.