This was a film which felt more like watching Meera’s own journey of discovery about people who self-harm rather than an investigation into the subject matter itself, but as someone who’s a big fan of Meera’s, that was just fine by me, but the fact is, if you were watching this programme in order to get information about self-harm, you may not have got what you wanted out of it.

We did of course hear personal testimony from a number of girls and women who’d self-harmed and why, as well as all the statistics about it, including the fact that men, though less likely to self-harm, do so, but no men featured in the programme.

Meera talked to her friends about why they think self-harming is such a problem in today’s society with one in three young girls reporting that they’ve self-harmed at some point, and their conclusions were the ones that are commonly accepted to be the case; it’s society putting too much pressure on teenagers, it’s schools, it’s parents, it’s fashion magazines, but the fact is, while these may well be issues for some, they are by no means a panacea in terms of explanation of this phenomenon. Read more & comment »

BBC Headroom’s campaign tackling the psychological issues surrounding conditions such as anorexia, bulimia and obesity concludes on screen tonight as Desperately Hungry Housewives shows that it’s not just teenagers who suffer from eating disorders, but increasing numbers of older women, too.

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BBC’s Headroom campaign “to tackle the psychological issues surrounding conditions such as anorexia, bulimia and obesity” began last night with this film about a morbidly obese teenager whose size is putting her life at risk.

“Growing numbers of people in the UK are affected by eating disorders and obesity and we want to draw attention to some of the extraordinarily complex psychological concerns around those disorders” explains Headroom campaign executive Nina Bell.

“The aim of Headroom is to help people find a way through the problems thrown at them in everyday lives, not by suggesting a particular course of action but by helping them to unravel the complexities involved and assisting them to find their own way to better mental health and well-being.”

Very honourable I’m sure but, cynic that I am, I felt that a big part of the programme was simply the shock factor that someone so young could be so large… Had this been an American show, it might well have been called something like, “When Good Kids Go Fat” or similar. Read more & comment »