Posted by Racer on April 18, 2007, at 15:45:03
In reply to Re: Fashions in self destruction? Or what?, posted by Declan on April 17, 2007, at 23:08:56
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> I don't recall any people with them when I was growing up though. There were heaps of manic psychoses, some schizophrenia, drugs and stuff, and suicide. But there was no self injury.As I recall, you're a couple of years older than I am, and you're kinda right -- we just didn't hear about eating disorders when I was young. But they existed. I knew two girls at the barn who had eating disorders when I was young, although we didn't have a name for it. It was only a few years later that I first started hearing about eating disorders.
There's some debate now about whether there really are more eating disorders now than thirty years ago, or whether the rise in diagnosis is actually based on the eating disorders being more recognized today. From what I've read, though, the incidence of AN, at least, is pretty consistent. Bulimia? I don't know. I know much less about it, but some of the stories I've heard from other women make me think that it may have increased in incidence in the past couple of decades. That's just a guess, though.
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> Take the current straight-edge fashion. Terrible music, no drugs, and self injury (in wait).....when confronted with this in my children, I have just congratulated them on product differentiation, it being so much harder to alienate the older generation these days.I am so sorry, and I hate to admit this, but I had to laugh a little about this. I've wanted to say something like that to some of the kids I've known -- "C'mon, at least come up with something new! I dyed my hair that shade when I was your age, and I can show you pictures of Mohawk/Mohican haircuts dating from the 1950s!" In fact, wasn't there a Pearl Jam song about that? "Kids of today should defend themselves against the 70s. It's not reality. Just someone else's sentimentality." And even that song has to be a good 10 or 15 years old now...
Self injury isn't something I know much about. I do know some people who cut, but I don't know enough about it to tell you if it's truly new -- I certainly never heard about it until maybe a decade ago -- or if it's been out there all along. Dunno. It'll be interesting to see if anyone else joins us in talking about this.
poster:Racer
thread:750853
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/eating/20061124/msgs/751087.html