That people have self-administered starving behaviours throughout history and in all cultures is not disputed. What is disputed is the idea that socio-cultural memetics might actually
change the expression of an underlying biological condition, rather
than herald unrelated and distinct conditions (i.e. fasting saints have
nothing in common with today's anorexic seeking to be super thin).
Many of those Chinese anorexics of the 1980s began self-administering starvation by saying that they wanted to help the family save money. Is that the reason they were compelled to starve? No. But was it a comprehensible meme for themselves and their loved ones in which they could frame that horrible anxious feeling that they simply must not eat? Yes.
The anxiety or compulsion to restrict doesn't go. We know that the neural underpinnings remain even in remission (which is why there is really no such thing as "recovery" in a cure sense). The neurotransmitters that misfire within the amygdala continue to do their thing after you restore your weight, but they are quieter. And that means you don't feel the same intensity of anxiety as you do when you are in a flare of the condition, but it can still be there in the background.
The adapted-to-flee famine hypothesis (AFFH) proposed that individuals who were able to ignore their hunger and energetically move, the ancestors of today’s anorexia patient, could have scouted ahead for better lands for the tribe (7). For them, self-deception about body image, fat stores, and about how depleted their bodies really were, could have provided the optimism to travel. Personality traits of conscientiousness and self-control could also have kept someone going even on desperate journeys with little hope of success.
http://youreatopia.squarespace.com/relapse/post/1757955
Many of those Chinese anorexics of the 1980s began self-administering starvation by saying that they wanted to help the family save money. Is that the reason they were compelled to starve? No. But was it a comprehensible meme for themselves and their loved ones in which they could frame that horrible anxious feeling that they simply must not eat? Yes.
The anxiety or compulsion to restrict doesn't go. We know that the neural underpinnings remain even in remission (which is why there is really no such thing as "recovery" in a cure sense). The neurotransmitters that misfire within the amygdala continue to do their thing after you restore your weight, but they are quieter. And that means you don't feel the same intensity of anxiety as you do when you are in a flare of the condition, but it can still be there in the background.
The adapted-to-flee famine hypothesis (AFFH) proposed that individuals who were able to ignore their hunger and energetically move, the ancestors of today’s anorexia patient, could have scouted ahead for better lands for the tribe (7). For them, self-deception about body image, fat stores, and about how depleted their bodies really were, could have provided the optimism to travel. Personality traits of conscientiousness and self-control could also have kept someone going even on desperate journeys with little hope of success.
http://youreatopia.squarespace.com/relapse/post/1757955
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