Marine Snow

A selection of the terms you may find used on this site. For more general mentalist terminology please refer to this post by Teenage Misanthropy, this post at Mental Nurse, or this post at Differently Sane.

AN, Anorexics, Ana: Bone worshippers. Love scales, hate burgers. Some are solar powered. Could be considered the elite of the eating disorder hierarchy. Sensitive to cold and criticism, will run screaming at the sight of lard, must have regular contact with scales to survive.

Backsplash: Unfortunate purging hazard. Throwing up may result in facial spray with Eau de Toilette.

Binge, Binging, Bingeing: The act of inhaling large amounts of food, at light speed, with a complete loss of control. Often involves bingenesia, and large credit card receipts.

Bingenesia: Amnesia following a binge. Known as that “Where the fuck did the food go” phenomenon. Usually accompanied by Purgers Remorse

Binge-buddy: Someone you binge with. A rare and treasured dysfunctional friendship.

Bingefest/Bingeathon: The BIG binge. The great-grand-pappy of food festivals for one.

Binge-mouth: Bulimia breath

Binge-over: Joyous side effect of a night spent binging. Symptoms may include: Mouth Ulcers, acid reflux, skinned knuckles, Bingenesia, collections of dirty crockery.

Binge-whore: One who must binge, and will do pretty much anything to gain access to food.

Borderline Personality Disorder: Label used by psychiatrists if they don’t like you, or can’t work out what is wrong with you. If you are a female, with a mental health problem (especially Bulimia) who self harms, expect this gem to turn up at some point.

Borderline Bingo: Fun new game for all the family

Bulimic, BN, Mia: Bulimia Nervosa. Bathroom hoggers. Best friends with a toilet brush. Able to lie at the speed of light, find a bathroom in the Sahara, and ingest a weeks worth of groceries in an hour. Fears dentists, locked bathroom doors, and laxative overdose.

CMHT: Condescending Mental Hinderance Tosspots, aka Community Mental Health Team.

CMHT Assessment: See Comedy of Errors

Cognitive Dissonance: Bullshit Lies we tell ourselves

Dietician: Minion of the dark lord. Will insist that food is not the devil reincarnate.

DSM-IV: The Psychiatry Cookbook for Human Recipes, available in all good bookshops, in the fiction section. Used to create “diagnonsense”

Diagnonsense: The dialect of the Psychiatrist. Diagnonsense is formed when a Psychiatrist is mixed with the DSM-IV. Once they have reached a diagnonsense, the Psychiatrist then goes on to create a “Label”. They do this using a special mixture of hot air and long words. Labels mean points, and points mean prizes – ie trophies. Trophies make Psychiatrists very happy!

Eating Disorderly: A group of those who have eating disorders. Usually found surreptitiously comparing bottom sizes with others in the group.

Eau de Toilette: Bulimic perfume

ED: The thing we are fighting. Some sufferers choose to separate this behaviour from themselves, and usually refer to it as a male. Mine is a dog. Eddie.

ED-NOS: Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified. Due to the great label famine of 1902, if you aren’t in one of the main categories of ED, but still have wonky ideas about eating, then this is your label.

Fasting: Not eating, can involve juices, and large wadges of sugar free gum.

Floppydong: Unfortunate side effect from some types of psychiatric medication

Gastro-porn: Leafing through cookbooks, or surfing websites for food pictures and drooling over the recipes. Particular trait of anorexics.

Hamster-face: Aftereffect of purging where salivary glands swell up, giving the impression someone is saving some of their binge food for later.

Ignorant Wallies: See CMHT

Journ-a-rexia: A condition afflicting journalists who seem incapable of reporting on eating disorders in a respectful or sensitive manner.

Lax-attacks: Unfortunate side effect of laxative abuse. May result in aggression and violence to gain access to bathroom facilities.

Life: The thing passing us by.

Magic Medicine: Not even if I was desperate

Meds: Oh where to begin…

MHP: Mental Health Professional. Generic term for someone in the mental health field. Someone who doesn’t have to wear the special jacket with the extra long, back fastening sleeves. This does not necessarily mean they shouldn’t.

MP: Meal plan, a common practical joke played on ED sufferers by dietitians, who claim this selection of food is actually to be consumed.

Nevermore: The post-binge vow. “I will never binge again”

Plastic-bag plague: Usually one feature of the binge aftermath, there will be numerous plastic shopping bags in the vicinity.

Pro-ana, pro-anorexia: People that consider an eating disorder to be a lifestyle choice, or an esoteric club. See “Denial”.

Pro-ana website: Forum where pro-ana’s meet up and seek reassurance that they are not suffering from a mental illness. See “Xanga”

Problem: For sharing, see Margins

Psychiatrist, Shrink: Someone qualified in Doctorology but with different letters after their name than your General Physician. Specialise in long words, labels, and giving out pills. Usually have beards (even the women). Very interested in moods, and books. Usually have some form of trophy wall in their office. Do not like to be mocked. Especially about their facial hair, or trophy wall. Disagree with one too often and you are likely to end up with a diagnosis of BPD.

Purging, purging, purge: The next Olympic sport. The act of removing food from the body. Can involve miraculous feats of projectile vomiting, high speed races to the toilet after laxative use, much pissing from diuretics, or hamster-on-a-wheel treadmill behaviour.

Purgers paw, Russells Sign: The calloused knuckles on a Bulimic’s hand, caused from repeatedly rubbing knuckles with teeth when purging

Pylon: Weight gain from incessant binging

Recovery: The state you are in if you are trying to escape the clutches of an eating disorder. A grey area.

Recovered: A hypothetical land, the existence of which is hotly debated amongst the eating disorderly. Inhabited by someone who has managed to bludgeon their ED into submission, sorry remission.

Restricting: Picking a number of calories/food items/fat units and striving to consume less this amount. Can turn a disordered eater into a a binge-whore, or incite restrict-rage.

Restrict-rage: The attitude problem arising when one is attempting to restrict their calorie intake. May involve swearing at inanimate objects, people or mental health professionals.

Therapists: Eternal optimist. Teach the dialect of “Reason”

Thera-pissed: The emotion ED people frequently feel towards therapists when pushed too far.

Therapy: The process of converting a half empty glass into a half-full glass

Thinspiration, Thinspo: Photos used by pro-anorexics to aid denial of their illness. Usually pictures of thin people who bear no resemblance to someone suffering from anorexia.

Utter Bullshit: See Daily Mail, Scientology, Dream Analysis, Spoons, Tasteful Burberry Clothing

Note: Before you throw your dollies out of the political correctness pushchair, this page is a joke, OK? Not all Psychiatrists have beards, and no anorexics are solar powered…yet!