Mrs Helicopter Writes

On Sunday this weekend, The Telegraph published an interview with Joan Bakewell in which she pondered if Anorexia Nervosa , endemic amongst young girls today, was purely narcissistic. It was an ill informed statement at best but I think quite representative of what a lot of the older generation think of their younger counterparts. And it’s dangerous. She has since apologised , retracted and explained that she didn’t know her comments would be published. I still feel that even with an apology, her thought process needs some addressing. Let’s get one thing clear from the start. Anorexia is NOT narcissistic. A narcissicist is a very specific personality trait and nothing to do with having a mental illness. A severe mental illness, which IS what Anorexia is. And it has a high death toll. It has the highest mortality rate of any mental illness.   It’s not about appearance, it’s about control. Controlling what goes in your mouth very often as result of not being able to co