this is only my opinion, but i thought it important enough to warrant a discussion on our open and honest support group. i know that we've had multiple topics and discussions about shows like "intervention". i have mixed feelings about these shows. while i think they have the potential to be helpful and eye-opening to the public, they also can be misleading and/or triggering in some regards.

i was watching tv tonight , and suddenly realized something. the new TLC show "my strange addiction" had come on. i wasn't trying to watch it, the tv was just on for background noise as i was writing. i glanced at the tv and saw a woman with pica eating chalk, followed by a man who runs compulsively, and again followed by a woman who is absolutely addicted to laxitives. i realized that between this, "heavy", what's eating you?", and "intervention", it may just be too much.

i am the first to admit that i have been moved and helped as a viewer by these shows in the past. when i first began researching, praying about, and really actively dealing with my EDNOS, i was so deeply moved by an episode of "intervention" about a young man who was chemically addicted to food, that i looked him up on myspace and e-mailed him. at the time, i had told no one of the seriousness of my eating disorder because i was still making sense of it myself. i knew no one who actively struggled with binge eating, let alone anyone who had been to in patient treatment. i felt all alone. it was incredible to see josh thompson be so open. for the first time, i felt like i might actually be able to recover. seeing josh's story gave me hope. "what's eating you?" has also been helpful at times. it helps to see that others struggle as well. it's also been helpful for me to see people who suffer severely from ED's because it motivates me to keep moving toward recovery. however, there have been times i've had to shut "what's eating you?" off because it has triggered ED thoughts.

while these shows can be helpful, it feels lately like these shows are "flooding" our culture. at what point do these stop being helpful and educational, and start exploiting people's very serious mental health issues? sure, all these tv shows seem to provide therapy or at least some form of treatment for the people they feature, but what happens after the cameras stop rolling? it seems that these shows want to portray "quick fixes" for these people. it also seems that the more severe your problem, the more it is "milked" by these shows. a woman on"what's eating you?" had struggled with anorexia since her teens. at the time the show aired, she was 30. at one point, she had reached her lowest weight of 54 pounds. although she had physically recovered and was maintaining a healthy weight when the show aired, she still actively struggled with counting calories, weighing herself, and the mental and emotional issues connected to her ED. yet, the show seemed overly focused on how thin she used to be and an issue she had with her mom. is it my imagination, or are these shows making spectacles of eating disorders? please be honest in your responses. thank you for reading and responding.