Re: Here's an example (edit)

Hi Steve,

Let me say first off, AWESOME research!  Thanks. 

I can see your point of being a moderator and standing idly by while others are encouraging someone who has obvious signs of an ED.  Maybe it would be best if the poster is confronted outright if we think that might be the case.  At least other members who might not have thought about the ED issue would become aware of the possible danger of encouraging that poster.  It’s also possible that the said poster would give up due to being called out.  

I really don’t know the answer to this dilemma, the thing is a person with an ED really doesn’t have to even get advice, all they have to do is read through old posts and learn from doing that.  I wish more members would come here and tell their feelings on this subject, but for me I’m not going to give advice if I think they might have an ED.  

I would say that people who suffer from low self-esteem and are overweight might or might not have an ED, that’s the tricky part about figuring it out but I have a tendency to think if they state something like “my boyfriend is going to leave me if I don’t lose weight”, that indicates to me they have no self worth or are equating their worth with what they look like, they might possibly have an ED.  I have worked with many people with low self-esteem and haven’t run into one yet that suffers from an ED or if they did I didn’t know it, like you said they are really good at hiding it, but I’ve never had one that wanted to lose weight either even though some were heavy.

At the end of the day I think it would be better to offend someone by asking than to be contributing to that persons ED.  We could ask for more information and if it’s not given then ask them if they have an ED but that wouldn’t really work either because they could lie, but it's better to be safe than sorry.   I think each of us has to do what we feel comfortable with.  Hopefully more members will respond here.

Willow