Some great stuff here Carrie :)

I particularly like the research paper on iatrogenic maintaining factors in AN :)

I also like 'The Revenge of Comic Sans' :D I like Comic Sans and find it aesthetically pleasing - although I don't find it as an 'authoritative' font as Arial.

The film by C and M Productions is very good :)

On the spread of disordered eating via social networks: I agree with you that this is disordered eating and not eating disorder. A lot has been made of Anne Becker's research on the influence of the media on eating behaviours and body image. I don't think that anyone would dispute that many teen (and pre-teen) girls ogle bikini-clad Beverley Hills 90210 babes and wish they looked like them. This might cause them to change their eating behaviour and to develop patterns of disordered eating, but it is well established that the majority of teen girls do NOT have clinical eating disorders. Other, more important factors play a role in the development of clinical EDs, such as personality, constitutional anxiety, tendency towards OCD, cognitive functioning, emotional processing and regulation etc. And, of course, we know that EDs have existed for centuries; i.e. long before TV and the internet.

On cognitive-behavioural body image therapy... don't get me started. In summary, I don't dispute that some people with EDs have disturbed body image, but I don't think that the therapeutic answer is to get all your kit off and gaze continuously at your semi-naked body in the mirror. I personally feel that it's more therapeutic to take all emphasis AWAY from the body and focus on something else. Avoid 'rubbing salt in wounds'..

Gah, I feel for the journalist in the first link. Effexor seems truly special in terms of the huge range of awful side effects that can be attributed to it. Humph.

I almost cried over the open letter to Mr Tong. I've already blogged about the stupid man myself so I won't go into an epic rant here, but managed anorexia indeed. If that were possible the illness wouldn't kill so many people decades before their time.

I got a bit huffy over the study into iatrogenic factors. Not being I don't think they have a point - they certainly do - but because I have no experience of UK services coming anywhere close to coddling patients so much that they are afraid to recover. Usually they refeed up to a medically safe but ridiculously low BMI of 15 and then leave them to get sicker again. Lack of treatment keeps people sick just as much, if not more, than overly supportive treatment. I really hope the majority of services which are underfunded and less well equipped compared to the ones benefitting from being the focus of research studies involving Janet Treasure don't use this as an excuse to scale back support even further.

Not because I don't think they have a point, not not being! One day I will learn to proofread my comments.

On the iatrogenic harm article... I've refused in-patient treatment every time it's been attempted. I'm currently, after decades, finally seeing things for what they are and working with an experienced dietitian to give "recovery" a shot. I follow her portion requirements to such a rigid degree, that she says I'm still being unhealthy (too controlling, perfectionistic, etc.). She tried to offer some options for exchanging- miss one portion in this category, make up for it in that category, etc- she said people don't eat exactly the same thing and in exactly the same amount every single day. Apparently, being so rigid is not "normal." (Fuck normal. I'm so sick of hearing the word "normal.") So I took my food log home and tried to be more flexible.

Can you guess what happened? I took to heart the "you can miss one portion here" part and
"forgot" the "but make up for it there" part. Then I started missing portions in all categories- b/c, after all, people don't eat the same amount every day- that's not "normal"- so I will be a "normal person" who just happens to be eating less right now. Within 2 weeks I plummeted to the point that I was shaking and cramping up from major dehydration. (Merry Christmas to me!)

Sooo when I showed up at the dietitian's office next time, she chucked the flexibility shit and told me to meet exact requirements again.

Does that mean she is enabling/encouraging my disordered issues of inflexibility and perfectionism? Is this "recovery" bullshit going to screw my head up just as much or more than before then? (Or am I just looking for an excuse to back out of it- always a possibility.) I'm certainly not undertaking all this nightmarish work just to redefine myself as STILL ABNORMAL and dysfunctional.

hm - I definitely say fuck normal! Try for 'alive'. You can get to 'living' later. I think just making a habit out eating is a great place to start. And if that means strict boundaries, who cares. That's what makes you comfortable, and that's waht makes eating possible, so go with what works. You can improve on that when you are ready.
But who gives a crap about 'normal'!! How boring to be average!!

True- I guess I'm not so frustrated at not being normal- but being "disordered" is a whole different story- it took me forever to even admit to that- and to hear that all the work I'm doing now might be just as disordered feels like a blow and makes me want to throw in the towel. But, Ally, you're right- I need to go for being alive right now, not being non-disordered- I've got a lot of reasons to live. Thanks for the encouragement.

thanks for all this, carrie. i think you could make a blog just on your ability to find the gems from the online world!

as a side note, i've just been prescribed effexor. is this a really bad idea? is anyone else taking it? has anyone had good results?

Kate - I had an extremely bad experience with effexor, but it is like any other antidepressant in that it seems to have different effects on different people. Some gain weight, some lose weight, some find their mood is better, some become suicidal and self destructive. I ended up manic and hospitalised, which was fun! The only one thing that can be said about everyone on effexor is that you should never miss a dose and never come off it cold turkey, because the withdrawal is the worst there is. If you're desperate for something to help with depression it's probably worth a go, but be careful.