It's chaos at the leading edge!

I had a really interesting interview yesterday and I was doing the "pointless incessant barking" about the chaos in terms and definitions in the eating disorder world. I thought she'd be able to sympathize.

She said something that thrilled me, and cleared my head:

That this incoherence over terms is a sign of being at the leading edge of a paradigm shift.

Here I am frustrated and I should be glad there IS a paradigm shift afoot.

Talk about re-framing!

Thank you, Riki!

Comments

  1. Hi Laura,

    Im reading about some very exciting things online right now. Its exciting for me because I am connecting the dots between all of the different symptoms I have exhibited in my life.

    Basically I have wondered for a while now how autism connects to anorexia. Well I realized today as I was doing research that autism and anorexia symptoms are mostly traced back to the same area of the brain linking anorexia and autism. Well this got me thinking about other conditions I have had symptoms of in my life such as ADHD, trichotillomania Tourettes OCD and many many more. I have recognized that Autism runs on my mothers side of the family, and wow there are alot of points I would like to make here however here is the primary one

    I learned that Fragile X female carriers often exhibit symptoms of cognitive disorders, emotional disorders, as well as many other side effects.

    I also found that Fragile X is related to Tourettes, and Im guessing if I do more research that I will find that many of the cognitive disorders so many suffer from are completely related to fragile x or being a fragile x carrier.

    What do you know about Fragile X? I read an article that said the Maudsley method was not just about including the family in the recovery process but also about understanding the genetic predisposition and Im guessing that Fragile X is that element that is being researched but I could be wrong?

    Anyway I am going to do my own research and blog about it because I am very excited to learn more and understand more about myself as it makes me feel so much better as I learn and understand.

    Much Love

    D

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  2. thank you for posting my comment...im wondering though if you might email me about your thoughts if you dont mind. Am I way off in thinking fragile x is linked to eating disorders?

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  3. Chalice,

    Sorry for the delay! Scattered days around here with school out.

    Fragile X, as I understand it, is a very specific issue. There is a genetic test for it (unlike autism or AN at this point) - I know a child who was tested and Fragile X was excluded definitively.

    What is interesting about what you're exploring, to me, is that there seem to be several pathways to the same symptoms and many symptoms seem to share a pathway but exhibit uniquely by that individual.

    I find that once we open our thinking to see that behaviors and thoughts can be controlled by non-conscious factors, and factors that are purely biological and not experiential, it can help us understand those that ARE based on experience or influenced by experience as well.

    As you well know, my peeve is that most people assume that all thoughts and behaviors are reflections of experience and conscious. Severe symptoms = severe environmental influences. Problems with others = problematic others. Food issues = food issues.

    My argument is that it is far more complex and less obvious. I'm asking for us to neither assume that a person's perception is based on biology or environment but rather to remain agnostic on why while pressing forward on how to help.

    Maudsley, btw, is a very specific method for refeeding and restoring normal adolescent relations and development. It is unique in the aspect of seeing the malnourishment and the illness as the problem, not the patient or the family. But the method does not have a specific belief about causation or anything about genetics at all.

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  4. Laura,

    Thank you! I love that you said-

    "My argument is that it is far more complex and less obvious. I'm asking for us to neither assume that a person's perception is based on biology or environment but rather to remain agnostic on why while pressing forward on how to help."

    Beautiful, I love it.

    I'll be researching the maudsley method more and am currently planning to meet with my aunt to discuss the maudlsey method because i realize that i cannot do this on my own and I want to focus on recovery.

    I just like the fact that so much more research is being done now on the many complex conditions especially eating disorders since within my lifetime there have been so many misconceptions.

    Be Well

    D

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  5. I agree: so much hope in all that is being learned and now applied.

    I also have great hope in your current journey, JC. I'm sitting here cheering for you so hard.

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