Anorexia helps to survive

copyright Alice ODILON: 1982 / self portrait.

I’ve suffered from anorexia from the age of 7.
Honestly without anorexia, I wouldn’t be here anymore, as this illness kept me alive instead  of regressing to a quicker death.

It was a sort of survival behaviour and not a lifestyle as it said in a number of anti-ana magazines.

The question is not to denounce anorexia as a crime, but to denounce the reasons of anorexia (Child abuse, woman abuse, violence against women, domestic violence, parental conflicts, witnessing of declining health of relatives because of alcohol, drugs, prostitution, sexual slavery, incurable diseases….

All people suffering from anorexia have been victims of a lack of love from one of their parents, of violence in different ways, indifference, abuse, emotional abuse, rape, torture, schizophrenia of  mother or  father, loneliness, perversion of adults, contact with death of loved ones,  emotional shock….

Many anorexic people speak about their pain and fear they had to deal with in childhood, and about the only solution being to reject any feelings, emotions, just to keep breathing in silence.

Anorexia masks the horror of certain home lives.

Anorexia helps one to forget the feeling of failure, of sadness, of distress, low self-esteem caused by abuse or lack of love.

The extreme perceptiveness of anorexic people is calmed down by the illness.

Then the pain can be controlled, in order to stay alive.

We can compare this resilience to other addictions, obsessions, compulsions, or excessive psychological dependence, such as: drug addiction (e.g. alcoholism), crime, domestic slavery, money, work addiction, problem gambling, computer addiction, nicotine addiction, plastic surgery addiction, etc.

Anorexia rescues persons in danger of extreme psychological sufferings,  as alcohol helps to avoid feeling fear, or long misery….

Copyright Alice ODILON 1985 “Ma Belle Morte”.

Playing dead was the only way to stay alive.

www.aliceodilon.com

An alcoholic person doesn’t drink to be an alcoholic but to keep going in the hell of reality.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defence_mechanism

We have to think about the suffering of many people unable to deal with the merciless,  unkind, unforgiving human society.

We have to change this heartless society.

Alice ODILON