Do gyms have responsibilities for people with eating disorders?

Having already left a response to Rony Duncan's original paper I do
not wish to be overindulgent by again contributing my thoughts to this
debate.... However, in my earlier response, in which I described my own
experiences of dangerous exercising with anorexia nervosa, I also
mentioned that my exercise behaviours were OCD-related and not performed
with the objective of losing weight or maintaining a very low weight.

I personally do not view my own history of dangerous exercising as
having anything whatsoever to do with 'the body beautiful'. I have a very
long history of anorexia nervosa and OCD, which are interrelated. My OCD
pre-dated my anorexia nervosa and was present from a very young age. For
some people (like me) anorexia nervosa is NOT related to so-called 'body
image' issues, but to control - principally of anxiety. I have never felt
affected by media images of apparently beautiful people such as thin
models or celebrities. I know from my many interactions with various
others suffering from anorexia nervosa that control, rather than 'body
image' issues are central to their eating disordered behaviours, which
include over-exercising.

We should not forget that anorexia nervosa has been documented for
100s of years, long before it was ever associated with the 'body
beautiful'. I feel there is a danger of this mental illness being de-
medicalised and considered merely as a cultural trend, like 'size zero'.
All individuals are exposed to cultural messages that extol the virtues of
thinness, but the lifetime prevalence of anorexia nervosa in girls/women
is less than 1% of the population.

Competing interests:
None declared