To Your Health

The Standard Disclaimer applies. There is talk about dieting and health and me ranting about the current culture around health. Also, let it be said that I believe that, in the end, what people do for their health is their decision, and should be such. It shouldn’t be determined by some lone blogger writing for nobody in particular on the internets, nor should it be pushed by celebrity doctors or well-meaning relatives. In the end, I believe that what some particular person does for their particular body is the decision of that person and them alone.

As my doctor’s appointment draws closer, I get more and more nervous. Why? I don’t know if I should decline being weighed, if only so that I can get my medical issues, if any, treated, as opposed to being given pamphlets for Weight Watchers.

This bothers me for a bunch of different reasons, one of which is the fact that even if diets tend to epically fail people (yes, diets fail people, people do not fail diets), it’s reccommended anyway. And another reason is the fact that the current idea of health is based entirely on shame and blame. And formulas. Lots of formulas.

As if following this formula or that formula will give you perfect health and an added ten years of life. Too bad those ten years are tacked to the wrong end. And eternal life would just suck if you think about it hard enough.

What I mean by the current idea of health being based on shame and blame is that…the idea that health has nothing to do with the Luck of the Draw (“luck” meaning “things that can’t be controlled or can only be controlled barely. Things like genetics, socioeconomic status, and yes, Just Plain Dumb Luck) and everything to do with self-determination goes hand-in-hand with this…thing for Alternative Medicine. I am of the opinion that Alt. Med. is the secular version of faith healing; the same people who will make fun of religious folk will cling to their favorite herbal remedy, but…..that’s another entry, maybe even for Jordi the Mighty. And I see this with the idea of Healthy Eating and Exercise being treated, not as things that have benefits unto themselves, but as a panacea against all disease. It…bothers me when people treat fat as a disease for this exact reason. It’s correlation. It’s like…prescribing that everyone wear green hats because people with green hats get fewer headaches, or something like that. So that’s my major gripe with “lifestyle medicine” and “wellness medicine”. That it pathologizes things and behaviors that aren’t “approved”, and forces doctors to play babysitter. That “right” and “wrong” are divided into “health” and “unhealth”, and those who have “unhealth” Must Be Shown! The Error! Of their Waaays!!! It…makes me cringe. I have this weird streak in me that says “NO! No one is allowed to interfere with my life under the pretense of helping me!”. I guess it comes from years and years in a religious system that did exactly that–prescribed a lifestyle I was meant to live in order to live forever and be happy. Except that made me so miserable that I considered killing myself at the age of eleven, and was drafting sermons and suicide notes often in the same notebook. And I am not kidding.

And now there is a culture that does this with health. Which is a rather callous way of dealing with people. When an illness or disease is made into someone’s “fault”, it becomes acceptable to make that person or group of people a target. And when something like fat is coded as disease or illness, it becomes okay to target fat persons. And if being fat is a disease state, then treatment is needed. And if being fat is something that needs to be treated, and right the hell now, then it becomes okay to target fat people, specifically, fat children, for treatments and (non-)solutions that would easily be considered unconscionable if done to anyone else ever.

I knew there was a reason why Alternative and Complementary Medicine left such an awful taste in my mouth, but…probably another entry on this.

As for the formulas thing, that’s pretty obvious. There are a batrillion diet plans out there, all with some variation of low-fat/low-carb/high-fiber/high-micronutrient count/calorie-counting combination, all of them claiming to be the One True Way that will lead to permanent weight loss and your (general “you”) key to the kingdom of Thin and Happiness. Except the formula falls apart for some reason, but diets are made solely to fail so that you try the next Formula, hoping that this one will succeed, on and on, into infinity. In fact, the reliance on formulas is why I don’t diet anymore. The reliance on formulas reminds me far too much of my Pentecostal past of trying to do something to fix things.

That is a path that I wish not to walk again.

So, to your health, and yours, and yours, and yours, and even yours way in the back, and mine, no matter what life throws our way.