Size Hero To Size Zero “When a man gets up to speak, people listen, then look. When a woman gets up people look, then if they like what they see, they listen." - Pauline Frederick. This defines the struggle women face day in day out with how they look and the scrutiny they face if they are too fat. An average size 10 becomes morbidly obese; a (to any normal human being) very small size 6 re-models (pardon the PUN) to being looked on as carrying a bit of excess; a perfectly acceptable size 14 doesn’t even get sniffed at. To get a better look at the problem you have to find the root of it. The media- enticing the mind, influencing the weak and controlling the masses. Thousands of articles claim size 0 as the ‘hot celeb #lifestyle’ or ‘the ideal summer body’, persuading the general public into appalling diet regime or celery and water. People insist following this impossibly inane way of losing weight however, and persist in ignoring the profound evidence of what is consistently in the papers, where young girls have found themselves in dire and desperate positions of inability to accept the way they look, despite being in a very unhealthy situation already and persist in starving their bodies of food. There is a definite need for these sorts of people to take on board the philosophy of Mowgli and Baloo of The Jungle Book, and seek the ‘bare (food) necessities of #life’. How is it that so many young girls fall prey to this vicious and controlling addiction that they feel is necessary for them to be accepted in today’s society? Who is it that has the right to decide what size you have to be to be like this? These questions become irrelevant when the prejudice is shown towards the victims of the size 0 addiction, when the real guilty parties of keeping this awful way of #life alive, are those with the power of the word and the nation at their fingertips. Call the media what you like but the way they’ve led so many young people into this devastating and unforgiving, mental illness is abysmal; ruining lives of those involved and those who have to watch it unfold. However there is always a choice! You can say what you want about the media and its influences, but ultimately, although some may feel they absolutely had to, to fit in, there is always that element of not having to do it to the extremes some people go to. The media do not forcibly grab the hand of anyone participating in the diet, but has caved in and is now reaching for the nearest Mars Duo or packet of Thai Sweet Chilli Sensations TO SHARE, and thrust it as far away from this food source as possible. No, the underlying decision in how far to take this diet, or indeed whether to do I at all, lies with the dieter. It ceases to amaze me why anyone, especially with the knowledge of the (to put it lightly) side effects attached to the size 0 diet, would want to live off a teaspoon of porridge for breakfast; a slice of cucumber for lunch and an unsalted dried, flavourless, fat-less, somehow emotionless- basically anything-less peanut for dinner, just to feel a satisfaction with yourself that will never actually come to you of being slimmer, so you keep doing it while still not looking like the ‘living skeleton’ you so badly want to be, therefore repeating the cycle until someone tells you, you are on the verge of ascending, what Led Zeppelin so famously called, the ‘stairway to heaven’. Thus finally realising you may need to get your head straight, and start eating this thing called food.

Emetaphobia And Other Such Phobias I thought about starting this post with a quirky, out of the blue type of #quote or statement, then realised there is nothing fun or comedic about the subject i am about to talk to you about especially as it affects more people than you think. Emetaphobia. Before reading this post i bet you had not the faintest idea of its being. A mere speck on the horizon of nothingness, passing you by day in day out. It's meaning and it's cause just another blade of grass as it blends in with the many fields upon fields of other things you are yet to discover. It's uncovering is paramount to the sufferers that live day in day out in it's shadow, casting itself over people's lives like some sort of 'higher power' or god like presence, made especially worse when you hear the exact same response from the next naive, unknowing person you tell of it's inhabitants inside you. The thought of embarrassment drives people insane; they seek acceptance and understanding to fuel their cure, but no one truly understands but themselves. Emetaphobia - an estimated 6,000,000 people in the UK have it but it still goes down as one of the most common but unknown phobias in society. It's meaning? Those with it face a fear of vomiting or seeing others being sick. They may also fear the feeling of being out of control while they are being sick or fear of being sick in public which can trigger avoidance behaviours. The usual reaction from those that have never suffered is to 'poo poo' it as: "well no one likes to be sick". To push this aside and not give it a look in is ignorant. Unless one's #life has experienced such worry of sick and ill health and others alike (arachnophobia - fear of spiders; Melissophobia - fear of bees etc), then you should not judge! As comical and as farcical as this may seem such effects of having this phobia are very un-domineering over the human body. Such situations of discomfort regarding Emetaphobia may involve:

• Women with emetophobia may avoid starting a family, due to the fear of the sickness that pregnancy it can often cause.
• Avoiding family holidays or business trips which may involve flying, because of the possibility of feeling sick while flying.
• The person might avoid certain types of food.
• An emetophobic might avoid alcoholic drinks.
• The person may feel the need to avoid the doctors surgery or hospitals, because of the fear of seeing other people who might be ill or may be sick at any time.
• The person might not be able to have pets around the house, in case they get sick.
• The suffer might have an obsession with cleanliness, and might avoid restaurants because the cleanliness of the kitchen cannot be guaranteed.
• Emetophobes often avoid putting themselves in any situation that has a rotating or undulating physical movement, such as on a boat or roller-coaster.
• Someone suffering from emetophobia may panic or feel excessively anxious if someone else in their household is ill, in fear of contracting the illness themselves. In severe cases, the emetophobic may refuse to eat for the duration of the other persons illness.
• The person might avoid reading books, magazine articles, television programmes or films where they might see or read about someone being sick.
• For the younger generation, they may not attend, or attend less regularly, school/college/university, for fear of vomiting publicly resulting in embarrassment. *

As you can see Emetaphobia isn't something to be sniffed at and most certainly should not be taken lightly. Emetaphobia effect people in a variety of different ways, numerously more than what is written above (that is just a brief over-view). It's a controlling and unforgivable phobia sometimes, in extreme cases, completely trapping people in their homes for fear of public humiliating circumstances being sick could cause. Those that have never experienced it before could not possible imagine the anxiety these people will go through day in day out. Loss of sleep and appetite follows even the most minor Emetaphobe, resulting in bad health and lack of energy. To highlight the extent of how little people know about this matter, i decided to conduct my own mini experiment into whether people knew what Emetaphobia was. I asked 8 of my closest friends whether they knew anything about it and if so, what? I received all 8 texts back where NO ONE knew a thing about what it was. This is fair enough and i'd like to point out that throughout this post i'm not attacking people for not knowing what it is, im merely expressing how important it is for this phobia to be publicised; more openly recognnised and more acceptance. There are a variety of phobias that effect people from even performing their day to day activities, from going outside to even walking or facing dust. These phobias should also not be looked over and i hope everyone reading this joins me in accepting these worries and troubles that are - whether people like it or not - out there. Some may find these phobias a bit dubious in existence and possibly feel a bit unbelieving, but there is no denying the power these phobias, and the control they consume the victim with. Such less common but just as #life effecting are: Anuptaphobia (fear of forever being single or marrying the wrong person); Aurophobia (fear of loneliness or isolation - THIS IS NOT CLAUSTROPHOBIA!); Olfactophobia (fear of smells). A full list of phobias will be posted as a link at the bottom of this post. At first, i admit, i was speculate myself, however after much research on a selection of a few of the more unheard of ones, i found that there are numerous forums and helplines for these genuine and serious phobias. Some MAY be less serious than others but to that specific person that has it, its rules their #life and effects the decisions they make. Emetaphobia especially (as this is what this post is mainly aimed at) and others alike it, i plead of you - if you are ever faced with someone that has one - to take into account the stress, worry and restriction these people face constantly, and accept that these sorts of things are out there. The psychology of the human brain is a complex labyrinth of individual differences. No two people are are the same. There is no such thing as a 'normal' person; everyone has their own unique, divergent issues and worries. The key to overcoming these is the acceptance of the kind and considerate people reading this. Just because something may be a minority, doesn't mean it is minor. "The art of acceptance is the art of making someone who has just done you a small favour, wish that he might have done you a greater one" - Martin Luther King Jr Phobia List - http://phobialist.com/ *Reference from http://www.avonhypnotherapy.co.uk/emetophobia.htm

Accept Me Why? Why do you feel the need to push, probe and prod all the way until the point of breaking? Why be so stubborn in your ways in this democracy of hypocracy, in this climate of change and this ability of choice, why proceed in your old fashioned, cultural impossibilities? Why follow the masses and bathe and bask in the eyes of some 'higher power', some 'greater being'- 'the guy in the sky'; follow their every whim, their every 'so called' biddiing all your #life, until there is no #life left? If you are restricted all your #life, what would be the point in living? Why tie your hands with his strands of hair, with his piercing eyes watchig over you? Why force this upon your kin and force them to live a cultural #life so opposite and so distant to the one they are succumbed in day by day, making their choices so hopeless and so futile, there can only be one way out. Who puts their child through this much just to prove a point? Who feels the need to impose beliefs on ones upbringing and not let them choose their own paths? I do not expect anyone reading this to understand unless you have experienced this themselves, but the one thing i do want to express is the freedom in choice. Not just in the legislative sense, but in the mental, the phycial, the spiritial and the young way of #life. To love someone is to accept them. You clearly do not love this person if you are undermining, attenuating and debilitating them after every little (and by little i mean petty little, i mean 40-year old childish little, i mean condescending to a level off immaturity that speaks no bounds, little) thing the person in focus does. As i sit here, anonymously typing away, thinking of the future and what it is to behold for the situation i find myself in. I wonder. I wonder a lot. Of all sorts of things, but mostly about this. Howwever, however many times YOU dig, YOU knock US down, YOU attempt to ruin what WE have, i can tell you i will not give up. I will not be stooping to your level of preposterous beliefs you impose so 'willy nilly' upon whoever you associate with. I will inaugurate this relationship and overpower this force of family that overseas and controls everything she does. You will recognise change as a good thing and acceptance as a blessing. As the late George Orwell wrote 'happiness can only exist in accptance'. It is that acceptance that fuells our happiness and in my mind happiness is that what we all seek. As a distant, silent plea: please dont persist in your quest to break us or to ruin what we have. Please find it somewhere in your well-travelled, knowledgable mind set to let US as a couple in with open arms. I accept this is hard to do (but not imposible), so why dont you do the same? If we are both to accept each other, surely this can be the start of a happy later #life. I love you.