Quote: The misconception I had all along is that this was something she "chose" to do to cope with her negative emotions
This is a really common misconception, the product of bad psychotherapy, and unfortunately still prevalent.
D and I saw an episode of Oprah last week on EDs, and we were both so mad we could spit. Some poor woman was on there, she was anorexic and had been struggling with it for a long time, and the therapist basically told the husband he should leave her for the kids sake (implying that her behavior was voluntary). Now really - if she was dying of cancer, how inappropriate would that be, to tell him to leave her for the kids sake because she was "choosing" to die from cancer? How could anyone look at an 80 lb. woman and think this was just some "choice" she was making?
And the sad part was, this was not a woman in terrible denial. She wasn't one of those anorexics who just say "I look great this way and nothing anyone does will get me to change". She clearly wanted help!!!!
