WOMEN, RAPE AND SURVIVING

Overcoming obstacles to your success in life.

I was reading a book when I got some real insights into obesity, self-destructive behaviors and eating disorders. The following is a quote from the book by Noah St John.

“Women, since the beginning of human history, have been taught that their worth comes from their physical bodies. While it is totally politically incorrect to say this, the fact remains that women, for most of the history of civilization, were treated like possessions to be sold and acquired for the purposes of marriage and procreation.

Make no mistake about it: A woman’s worth does not come from her body! However, since the beginning of time, female human beings have been told or taught—implicitly and explicitly—that their worth stems from their physical bodies.

So, let’s say you have a human being who has been told since the beginning of time that her worth comes from her physical body (even though it isn’t true, it’s what she’s been taught). Let’s further say that this person develops really low self-esteem and a very low sense of self-worth. So now you have a person who’s been told that
her worth comes from her physical body . . . and you add to that a very low sense of self-worth . . .

Doesn’t it make sense that that person will punish that part of herself that she was told her worth comes from—namely, her physical body? And if you are going to unconsciously punish your physical body, doesn’t it make sense that you are going to starve yourself of food” …. The Secret Code of Success: 7 Hidden Steps to More Wealth and Happiness


or stuff yourself with food?

This latter is particularly true of women who have been raped.

Demonstrated forcibly that their only value is their body, women, by stuffing themselves with food and becoming obese greatly reduce their physical attractiveness to men and secondly, being obese is also a form of self-punishment and a desire to destroy themselves. Obesity will kill you… and women who are obese (particularly if they were victims of rape or sexual abuse) can be horribly self-destructive.

Some rape victims will turn to drugs or alcohol or gambling. All of which are a form of self-destruction. Yet others will turn to food.

Some women will starve themselves into death while others will eat themselves into unattractiveness and death.

I have a friend who is obese and was a rape victim. Her behavior is characterized by self-destructive behavior. She used to be bulimic but now just compulsively overeats. Something she finds she can not control. It is unconscious.. she just starts craving food particularly when her stress levels rise. She gets really really hungry and no matter how much she eats she does not get a sense of being filled and no longer hungry.

Her health suffers and she is beginning to develop symptoms of coronary artery and heart disease. She gets palpitations, irregular heart beats and chest pain as well a slight breathlessness. She is slowly killing herself and she knows this but can't seem to stop herself.

I put her onto this book by Noah St John, which has a wonderful section in it on eating disorders but it has the answers. I will keep you up to date with her as she uses Noah's techniques to changing her life.


Cyndee

The Secret Code of Success: 7 Hidden Steps to More Wealth and Happiness