So what gives? These girls we talk about didn't suddenly wake up one day and decide that they really want a port, a feeding tube, and a wheelchair for no reason. I guarantee the lion's share of them start off with physical symptoms caused by anxiety, depression, aging/growing/developing, disordered eating, or what have you, that show up during their scary tumultuous adolescent years. They see on social media and in "news" sites like The Mighty that other people with their symptoms get these radical interventions, asspats, and don't have to work or be an adult, and that it often takes them years of doctors telling them its in their heads before they're "correctly" diagnosed. When their doctor instead suggests they stop drinking energy drinks, get a good night's sleep, take an SSRI, and try meditating, it triggers this cycle where they want to prove they're as sick as they claim to be. So many of them are totally transparent about this, saying things like "he doesn't think I'm sick enough for a feeding tube? Well I'll just have to keep losing weight until I'm sick enough for him!" as if that is a completely rational sentiment because to them it is: they're suffering, they think they need this treatment, therefore starving themselves for a few weeks to hasten the problem is no big deal. Others of them have real eating disorders that come with manipulative behavior to protect the disorder as a symptom and therefore getting diagnosed with a rare stomach condition that causes them to be unable to eat through no fault of their own is very attractive. But 10 years ago no one was getting these interventions because it wasn't yet plastered all over social media.
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