Is "cutting" and anorexia a life style and a persons own choice?

Question: Is "cutting" and anorexia a life style and a persons own choice!?
Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:

They are not choices!. As an ex-cutter, I know I didn't choose to grab a razor blade and begin cutting my skin deep enough to scar myself!. So much shame was involved that I always wore long sleeves!. I remember wearing sweaters to wait tables in the summer just so my customers wouldn't see my arms!. These days I still wear long sleeves often, but I'm aware that it was part of my bipolar and not really me!. I'm getting to where I can put on short sleeves and go into public, which is a huge step!.

Anorexics can't stop losing weight!. They can't see themselves as skeletal even when they are!. All they see is someone who needs to lose more weight!. Looking in a mirror at yourself when you weigh 80 lbs and saying, "That's not thin enough," says to me that there's no choice!. The eyes are seeing something different than what is there!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

they are indeed a person's own choice, but they are also severe ilnesses!. One can choose to get help or not, but to live with such significant problems is a terrible decision!. (nailing one's hand to a wall is also "a person's own choice")Www@QuestionHome@Com

It's a person's own choice!. It is not a life style!. Both are dangerous and bad habits that need to be helped, probably with therapy!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Yes!. And it comes as a result of too much leisure, boredom and negligence toward the
meaning of life!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Neither are a lifestyle!. They are very complex problems, too complex to be lumped together!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

It may seem like that in the beginning, but both of them are illnesses that are like addictions and are very hard to stop!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

If you are asking for approval, then I would have to say "no!."Www@QuestionHome@Com