Eating Disorders and ADHD in Western Culture

Eating Disorders and ADHD diagnoses are mainly a western culture problem. Thoughts?

Western culture is socially motivated to individually conform to societal standards. Meaning since society is constantly changing and people themselves also change, the culture in which people live changes them as they change it. Eating disorders are direct evidence of changes in self-perception and societal demands for the pursuit of physical perfection. Will eating disorders completely go away ever? I do not believe they will. I do believe that they can be minimized. If people chose o disregard the societal demand for stereotypical physical attraction and create their own path or simply try not to attain what others perceive as the perfect image eating disorders will be minimal. Know your body. A problem contributing to the desire to conform to physical attraction/perfection is a sense of belonging. While some enjoy solitude, no one enjoys being lonely. Loneliness and a lack of attachment lead to social conformity. I am overweight by governmental standards (27 years old, 5’11” @215lbs) and by some social standards, but fit is also a state of mind and action. I would not say I have an eating disorder, I would say I have an exercise disorder that is easily overcome with proper time allotted to regular exercise. I am the 3^rd most “overweight” people on our work crew, but I perform as any 18 year old @165lbs. On the job we are constantly moving and I am surprisingly agile and utilize flowing & fluid movement through every task. That is where knowing your body comes in; I know my limits, which are few.

As far as ADHD goes, I have touched on this before. I am probably classified as ADHD, just never diagnosed, and I never care to be. There are many schools of thought on this and many have validity. One school says ADHD always was and with modern medicine we are now able to diagnose and treat it. Another school says that ADHD is non-existent and the “effects” that seem so prevalent are either based genetically in various genome types or are contributed to the hormones we eat in our genetically altered food or the lack of laborious exercise we used to get as an agrarian culture. I think all are applicable. I believe that hyper activity is hardwired in many of us for basic survival. In today’s culture we cannot exert that energy as we once could and have no direct place to channel that energy that is socially acceptable and when it is exerted it appears that we are just a nuisance. Not all aspects of life need a pill to explain them.