Exploring the Disempowerment in Healthcare: Care, Boredom, and Eating Disorders
TL/DR –
The article discusses the problem of healthcare becoming disempowering and potentially boring, specifically in the context of mental health and eating disorders. It highlights how drab, bureaucratic healthcare settings may fail to engage individuals who don’t want to exchange their perceived ‘interesting’ experiences with their disorders for a ‘duller’ life that is, in theory, safer or better. The author points out that problematic habits often start innocuously and may appeal to highly conscientious individuals but, over time, these habits can become ingrained and potentially harmful, suggesting that the antidote may lie in personalized methods and actions to discover oneself outside of these coping mechanisms.
Healthcare’s Disempowering Drawbacks: Part 2
Building from the opening discussion on how care can lead to unintentional disempowerment, we now turn to another perspective, courtesy of anthropologist Neil Armstrong: care can be incredibly dull.
In healthcare’s bureaucratic reality, monotony prevails. Armstrong suggests this dullness can deter individuals from care, as the alternative of mental health struggles might seem more engaging in comparison, even if it is harmful.
Consider eating disorders, for instance. These conditions may initially seem exciting due to their riskiness, but soon turn monotonous, dangerously cloaked under the guise of normalcy. The dullness of these disorders may be more apparent when compared to other mental health conditions like bipolar disorder or schizophrenia.
Mundane modern life can lead to boredom, often prompting individuals to find excitement in risky behaviours, such as starving themselves, over-exercising, or using psychoactive substances. These actions may be attempts to inject some ‘risky pleasure’, providing a momentary relief to an otherwise colorless world.
Living in a world that pushes us towards uniformity and mediocrity, yet is also fraught with uncontrollable dangers such as climate change and wars, might make these self-induced risks appear controllable and therefore more appealing.
Typically, these problematic habits start harmlessly but can escalate quickly and become deeply ingrained. They are especially attractive to highly conscientious individuals who may find the intense sensations of hunger and satiety more desirable than the mild undulations of normal meals and appetites.
The issue of monotony in care also ties into the unintentionally coercive characteristic of caregiving, as individuals may resist prescribed help due to a perceived loss of personal agency. In other words, they might choose to control their own risky behavior rather than surrender to the perceived authority of healthcare professionals.
These behaviors also influence identity formation, particularly in the context of self-image. The monotony and predictability of an eating disorder can make it seem a safer choice, especially when presented with alternatives that don’t appear tailored to individual needs.
Unfortunately, this prevents individuals from discovering who they can be without their reactive coping mechanisms, blocking the path to healthier habits. Likewise, treatments for eating disorders often fail to provide long-term solutions, with many experiencing rapid relapse after treatment.
In the next part of this series, we will explore potential solutions to this impasse.
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