The Family Perspective
I would be hard pressed to think of a patient whose family life had no direct bearing on the way her disorder developed. Volumes have been written on the role of family dynamics in anorexia and bulimia.
Some patterns that have been identified in certain eating-disordered families include an overemphasis on appearance, social isolation, emotional rigidity, and the inability to resolve conflicts. However, there is no such thing as a “typical” eating-disordered family. The same dynamic that triggers an eating disorder in one person may allow another to thrive. In Chapter Eleven we’ll learn more about the family’s influence on eating disorders, and how family therapy can be a vital component of treatment.
To sociologists, eating disorders result from the extreme value our culture places on thinness. Through advertisements, TV programs, and magazines, thinness has become a kind of social currency, a means of exchange between people. The hidden message: Thin wins.
The other side of the coin: Fat is failure. Chubby children suffer cruel teasing by their schoolmates-teasing that can become the trigger for an eating disorder. Fat people are the targets of jokes and whispered comments. Some find the doors to advancement closed. The cultural pressure to be thin can make feelings of insecurity, self-doubt, or unworthiness much worse.
Other trends stoke the fire. The modern changes in women’s place in society and the lack of models showing how to fulfill those roles add to the problem. A girl whose mother was “just a housewife” may suddenly find herself, at adolescence, expected to become a “superwoman,” adept at juggling career, family, and personal needs. Some women may lack the skills to cope with-or resist-these demands, including the demand that one must be thin. By submitting to these pressures, they hope to show they are worthy, that they can set and reach goals, and that they deserve respect.
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