Love Your Body

pieconspiracy:

letstalkabouted:

In the world of eating disorders–and unfortunately in our larger society, as well–the ideal that’s most commonly overvalued is thinness.  To be thin is equated with being good, lovable, moral, attractive, superior, smart and, yes, perfect. This ideal is reinforced by fashion,advertising, celebrity culture, peer pressures, status pressures, work pressures and by the values systems in all too many families.  With so much riding on this single, simple and theoretically attainable goal, it’s small wonder that certain highly persistent perfectionists will strive to achieve and maintain excessive thinness no matter what the price. And, at the other end of the genetic spectrum, perfectionists who are less persistent may develop bulimia or binge eating disorder.

That’s because the excess value we ascribe to the ideal–an excess that often amounts to culturally sanctioned delusion–overrides any and all perceived cost.Health, intimacy, peace, friendship, mental acuity, meaningful work, parenthood, family life–none of these can compete with the stranglehold of the overvalued ideal.

Each variety of eating disorder targets a slightly different ideal. Exercise anorexia (Anorexia Athletica) prizes muscular thinness. Body builders overvalue lean muscular bulk, which can manifest inBigorexia. Orthorexia places a premium on the purity of one’s diet–purity being defined by labels such as vegan, raw, macrobiotic, organic, fat-free or whatever the latest puritan health fad may be.

Whether the overvalued ideal is a “perfect” size, diet, faith or political belief, the undercurrent that drives us toward that ideal is our own inchoate and multifaceted distress. Feeling overwhelmed and helpless makes us more inclined to elevate simplistic ideals in ways that can end up doing us harm.

We all would do well to learn to distinguish between the urgency that causes us to overvalue certain ideals and the ideals themselves, then proceed with care, caution and common sense.