Are Friends Influencing Your Eating Disorder?
Diet Blog posted an article on a study’s findings published recently in the New England Journal of Medicine that shows a direct relationship between obesity in ourselves and our close familial and social ties. In the same article, it’s mentioned that girls who talk about their problems at length with friends may be more likely to suffer from depression and anxiety symptoms.
Playing devil’s advocate and being argumentative are my passions - yes, there is a difference as many a frustrated debater has said to me.
So I’d like to know, of those people who suffer from eating disorders, at what rates are their close social ties and family also dealing with their own symptoms?
The relationship between family members and eating disorders has been speculated and researched in the past few years extensively. In one article, an expert sums it up nicely:
But relatives of individuals with eating disorders are at seven to 12 times higher risk than relatives of individuals without eating disorders. The familiality of anorexia nervosa is the highest; they tend to have the densest family history[.]
So ask yourself, if you’re currently an eating disorder sufferer or are recovered, how many people do you know closely, be it in your family or friends, that have their own histories? Is this an example of modeling the behaviours or enabling them?
July 27th, 2007 at 10:15 pm
The results of this study sound quite logical. We create our beliefs and ways of living our life mostly on how other - respected and looked upon - people live theirs.
August 2nd, 2007 at 9:28 pm
[...] continues at Terra Atrill brought to you by Depression and Clinical [...]
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