Maggie's Farm

BD invited me to comment on an old Schneiderman post about eating disorders. (Good comment there from our friend AVI)

He is talking about the subject of what we term "symptom choice." Of course, we do not generally mean that people set out to select a symptom, but we do mean that, except for those with serious brain disorders, the mind has only a set number of outlets for inner turmoil. Some of them are dysfunctional and some are not.

Many factors: cultural, personality-based, familial, genetic, etc. feed into the symptom "choice" of neurotics. I would say that eating disorders (which I view as a sort of obsessive-compulsive symptom) partake of all of the above. However, toying with an eating disorder because of fashion does not create a serious or persistent eating disorder. It's not like heroin.