https://eatingdisordersanonymous.org
Prompts inspired by the EDA Fully Recovered pamphlet
https://eatingdisordersanonymous.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/EDA-Fully-Recovered.pdf
What full recovery means to me
Recovering in a society that encourages eating disordered behavior
How full recovery is possible in EDA
Things that keep us from full recovery
Patience with trusting the process. It’s not an overnight matter.
I’m going to talk about aspects of recovering from disordered eating and disordered thinking in a society that encourages disordered eating and disordered thinking.
When you live in a society that has been conditioned to believe that Fat Is The Worst Thing A Person Can Be--a society filled with people so pig-headed and deficient in critical thinking skills that they fail to realize that everyone, including the medical system, has been brainwashed by advertising--it can be difficult if not impossible to develop saner behaviors around food, exercise, and the way we view ourselves.
Let’s look at the way a patient is treated when going to the doctor’s office. Rather than the medical assistant or nurse starting out by asking the patient how they are doing and what brings them in today, the first step is to tell the patient to step on the scale. This reinforces the idea that the patient’s weight is the most important aspect of their health and, indeed, of their entire being.
Rather than being a neutral measurement, weight is a contentious issue. Ergo, the patient feels attacked from the moment they step into the treatment area.
Being put on the defensive causes the patient’s blood pressure to rise. If the patient also experiences medical anxiety, their blood pressure may be elevated just from thinking about the appointment. Ergo, the patient may present with a temporary blood pressure elevation that is then interpreted as chronic hypertension and they may be put on a medication that they don’t necessarily need.
If medical staff has been trained to treat larger patients with disdain, said patients will be reluctant to seek treatment unless they are confronted with a health crisis. This leads to false data concerning the overall health of larger patients, making it appear that all larger patients are unhealthy.
Health problems being conflated with laziness or obstinance further degrades the relationship between the medical provider and the patient.
Ragen Chastain has published two in-depth articles about larger patients and false high blood pressure measurements.
These articles include critical information such as the fact that most clinics do not have properly sized cuffs for larger patients. Placing the cuff lower on the patient’s arm can lead to false high readings. Also, automatic blood pressure cuffs may not work properly for larger patients.
One of my son’s EMS instructors wisely said, TREAT THE PATIENT, NOT THE CHART.
When medical providers finally start following that advice, better health outcomes will be the result.
Ornery Owl Has Spoken
This foolishness has Ornery Owl’s feathers ruffled
Helpful Resources
The Anti-Diet
Body Positivity deck
The Fuck It Diet
Health at Every Size
Intuitive Eating book
Making Peace with Food deck
I will earn a small commission for products purchased through the above links.
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