Re: more on bigorexia

From: Derek Gatherer (d.gatherer@vir.gla.ac.uk)
Date: Mon 09 May 2005 - 12:16:54 GMT

  • Next message: Kate Distin: "Re: more on bigorexia"

    At 12:24 09/05/2005, you wrote:
    >Not sure autism is comparable to anorexia.

    I think one basic difference is that a 'normal' person can suddenly become anorexic, whereas I don't know any examples of somebody becoming autistic. Generally, people are born autistic or escape it. I think the same is true for the milder Asperger's syndrome. If I remember rightly, Aaron Lynch used to try to make a case that drastic dieting was a 'thought contagion' (not got chapter and verse on where that claim is made, but I'll get it if required - it might just have been in a list posting). I'm not sure if that also implies that anorexia is therefore also posited as being a TC too - it might be possible to diet drastically under social pressure without suffering the defect in self-perception that is more or less taken to be necessary for anorexia.

    Current genetic studies indicate a weak disposition:

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=15852319TŠ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=15852310UŠ

    so it might be that the predisposed can tumble over into anorexia if the social conditions are correct.

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