Anti-bullying signal-boost.

[gaudior]

People have been talking about bullying lately. Dan Savage's It Gets Better Project has drawn attention to the suicides of gay teenagers, and has inspired the Make It Better Project, to give youth and concerned adults the tools they need to stop bullying in the schools. (I strongly recommend MIBP's Take Action page, which has such useful links as information about The Safe Schools Improvement Act (H.R. 2262/S. 3739) and how you can support it). And both homasse and seishonagon linked to an insightful and useful article by Kate Harding, On Good Kids and Total Assholes.

I'm glad people are talking about this so much-- it's making me think about my own childhood, and how much I accepted kids making fun of me, ostracizing me, and generally making me miserable as "just the way things are." That understanding of the universe and my place in it had long-lasting effects, and I am delighted and grateful that people now are talking seriously about how to stop bullying.

(I may at some point make a larger post, but at the moment, I wanted to signal-boost. Yay, signal-boosting.)

--R

Comments

[nightengalesknd.livejournal.com]

One issue is that health consequences related to size are determined on a population level, and then applied on a personal level.

Yes, weight is linked to hypertension, type 2 diabetes and heart disease on a population level. But that doesn't mean that every person with a certain weight/BMI is at increased personal risk, nor that every person with a "normal" weight is at minimal risk for those conditions.

And I agree with basically the therapist's approach you outline. There are many presenting problems which are unrelated to weight at all, and in those cases, there's probably no reason to bring weight up at all (yet many doctors will.) And there are presenting problems where health behaviors are likely a factor, in which case it may be beneficial to address these behaviors rather than the actual weight number itself. If someone has high cholesterol, recommending a low cholesterol diet and increased exercise will address the existing health problem without mentioning the weight directly.

As a pediatrician, I try to promote healthy eating and healthy behaviors in general to all my patients, rather than just lecture those whose charts tell me are "overweight."

As a side note, there is an awful lot of fat phobia and ridicule of fatness which takes place behind the scenes in medical circles, removed from actual discussions of actual health.

[seishonagon.livejournal.com]

Also, I know a number of overweight people who, to give an actual recent example, have trouble being treated for a sinus infection. They go to the doctor, say "I think I have a sinus infection," and the doctor refuses to even examine them, or examines them but doesn't do anything about the sinus infection (so, no antibiotics prescribed), but just gives the person advice on losing weight. Someone I know nearly died because of this, because she had to get pneumonia before the doctor would actually engage with the problem that was bringing her to the doctor in the first place. This kind of thing happens to overweight people all the time. Often not in so extreme circumstances, but I've known so many people who have this problem that it can't just be a problem with people I know.

Also, while people should be encouraged to maintain a healthy lifestyle, that won't help everyone who is overweight. It will help most, and that encouragement is vital whether it will help the person lose weight or not, but it's not just about weight. There are also plenty of people who are overweight for other reasons, such as already-existing medical conditions that they don't necessarily have the ability to affect directly, or as a side-effect of other medications (I know I have gained a fair amount of weight - almost 40 pounds - since I started taking certain medications, at the same time that I've been getting more exercise and eating healthier, and blood tests show that my cholesterol level is lower than it was when I weighed less). But people assume that I'm overweight because I'm lazy, or because I eat nothing but fried food, or whatnot. And I also get a lot of assumptions that my health problems are based on my weight, rather than, say, the chronic viral infection I have.

[gaudior.livejournal.com]

This sounds like part of the larger general problem of patients having trouble getting doctors to listen to them. And especially with chronic illnesses, where doctors may find the work less satisfying because they can't do anything to fix it-- saying the problem is caused by the patient's "lifestyle choices" means that it's not the doctor who's incapable of fixing this illness. Not all doctors do that, but I do think it's a serious problem when some do.

[ryenna.livejournal.com]

I can personally attest to your first point. I've never liked going to see doctors but when I was getting hives over about half my body and couldn't figure out the source on my own I finally made an appointment in hopes that I could get a referral to an allergist.

Instead my full body hives (legs, arms and front and back of my torso) were dismissed as "just itchy" and that "the real problem is [my] weight" and I got a lecture on my weight and eating habits. Which the doctor didn't bother asking me about and got totally wrong. I left the office feeling like I wasn't worth treating and that clearly anything wrong with me was connected to my weight and therefore my fault and I shouldn't waste a doctor's time with it. That helps no one and from what I can tell, it's sadly common.

(The hives turned out to be caused by a polyester blanket, and I've now got a new doctor who is really awesome.)

[occultatio.livejournal.com]

But that doesn't mean that every person with a certain weight/BMI is at increased personal risk

Actually, yes it does: your claim here is factually incorrect. Being overweight doesn't mean those people have those problems, but it absolutely means that they are at increased risk of getting them. That's what it means to say that "weight is linked to hypertension etc."

rather than just lecture those whose charts tell me are "overweight."

Nobody in these comments has suggested this route. There's a major difference between "informing" someone, even if it's not something they want to hear, and "lecturing" them.