Is being fat..

[Rutherford The Brave]

Is being fat a form of self harm? Elaborate. (excessive, binge eating) not being fat, but the act of fattening ones self.

[Death]

If someone continously eats knowing what they've doing, and if you consider being fat harmful in this sense (which I wouldn't disagree with), then I would probably say that it is self-harm since you are making yourself fat when you could choose to eat sensibly.

I am not saying, however, that it is always your fault if you're fat. Sometimes people may have conditions or diseases that may cause fatness or obesity. Some children may be brought up to eat a lot of bad things and they don't know any different.

[BuryYourFlame]

If the motivation/intention is to physically hurt oneself, then yes.

[Mr. Smithers]

Most overweight people have metabolism levels that make them gain weight more than others.

But yes you do have a point. I can think of many people who eat their problems away.

[BeautifulDisaster]

Just like someone can starve themselves and become malnourished and underweight, someone can overeat and become overweight to harm themselves.

[CaptainObvious]

I tend to think that for many people it's more indifference than active self harm. Insofar as it is doing harm to oneself to overeat I suppose you could argue that it is - and the addictive mechanisms exist with regard to food to make a compelling argument for it - but I would think the two are a little bit different in at least the mechanism of addiction-forming reward they create, and therefore ought to be distinguished.

[INFERNO]

I'm a bit tied on this one because if one over-eats to comfort themselves, then although they may be harming themselves, the harm may not be intentional. It's like a spiral: they overeat, gain weight, have some emotional or other issue for which they want comfort from, they overeat, gain weight, have some emotional issue and so forth. Eventually, they may realize they're obesity or over-weightness and that plays into the emotional issues but it doesn't stop them, it only adds.

To me, I generally view self-harm as purposely harming oneself with the goal of harming oneself but for over-eating, it seems to be a by-product and not the actual intent.

[Sapphire]

I can see why some would class being fat (ignoring why someone is fat) as self harm.
But I believe that this usage of the term self harm should be the broad usage - the one which encompasses smoking, drinking alcohol etc. What is commonly referred to as self harm is more accurately termed self injury and this should not encompass being fat.
I stand by this because while it has a negative impact on our health, being fat isn't a method of intentionally causing ourselves immediate harm (like with cutting, punching, burning etc).

[Jamie]

Is being fat a form of self harm? Elaborate. (excessive, binge eating) not being fat, but the act of fattening ones self.

No. It isn't a form of self harm. Over-eating is a form of Eating Disorder. Those who gain weight to such an extent to where they make themselves overweight/obese are often for other reasons than to try and harm themselves.

[BeautifulDisaster]

You say it so definitively, it doesn't go for everyone. ^^

[CaptainObvious]

Overeating to the point of obesity certainly harms a person and often also gives them pleasure, and so in that sense it's similar to self harm. But there's a fundamental difference, in my eyes:

Self harm is purposely injuring yourself to start the physical process of endorphin release to mediate pain. Overeating does not work on the same principles of injury-related endorphin release, and so isn't "self harm". It might be harmful, but it's not self-harm.

[Cosmic]

Technically yes, it is self harm, because being fat is harmful to yourself. But it's by no means necessarily intentional harm, so going by what we define "self harm" as, which is generally inflicted intentionally, arguably no, it is not.

[BeautifulDisaster]

That's not actually true, there are many methods of self harm that does not release endorphins.
Self harm is not by definition "releasing endorphins".

[Sapphire]

Overeating to the point of obesity certainly harms a person and often also gives them pleasure, and so in that sense it's similar to self harm. But there's a fundamental difference, in my eyes:

Self harm is purposely injuring yourself to start the physical process of endorphin release to mediate pain. Overeating does not work on the same principles of injury-related endorphin release, and so isn't "self harm". It might be harmful, but it's not self-harm.
Actually, you'll find that the common use of the term "self harm" is not the most accurate.

The most accurate definition of self harm is any act that causes harm to oneself. It includes things like smoking and drinking alcohol that cause harm but not immediately and not as the primary intention. So, being overweight can be included under this term.

What we commonly call self harm is better described as self injury. This is because the primary intention is to cause immediate physical injury/harm to oneself.

[overcome.]

I see it as disrespect to your body. I'd never want to offend anybody who is overweight, I know overweight people and they're friends of mine. If they complain about wanting to lose weight but carry on eating/drinking crap, then I have no mercy what so ever. It's their own fault that they don't have the self respect, determination and will power to change themselves when they want to.

When they hide behind the "it runs in the family" or "I can't lose weight, I've been on ____ diet, _____ diet and this exercise program, nothing works" lines, that's crap also. Genetics are often defied, so I won't pity you for being overweight, you have to strive for something and actually make positive changes to get there.

If somebody is overweight yet adament they wish to lose weight and try different methods, I'd never decline a chance to help them out. It's all about them helping themselves, or at least making an effort. No, I don't believe it to be self harm, if it is, it's the tastiest method of self harming around.

[Triceratops]

I think most people who overeat do it out of comfort - without having any intention of harming themselves. I'd say overweight people who rapidly overeat are careless and disrespectful towards their bodies, without attempting to cause severe harm.

There's a difference between someone with a genuine binge-eating disorder, to someone who just consumes a very large amount of calories in their food and drink. However, both of these types of people have such a lack of control in what they do, but they don't actually do this on purpose.

It's like anorexia and bulimia, people hold the assumption that these eating disorders are both forms of self-harm as well. With these eating disorders, there is no intentional harm involved, initially. People with a binge eating disorder don't intend on hurting themselves, either. Anorexia and bulimia are all about gaining "control", whereas with problems such as binge eating - or binge drinking - there's that complete loss of control over what that person is doing. These people don't actually want to harm themselves, but they just so happen to be causing a lot of damage to their health. Some people don't even realise they're doing harm to themselves when they overeat, whereas someone who - for example - slits their wrists has an awareness of the fact that they're physically hurting themselves.

Overall, I would, indeed, say overeating is a harmful coping mechanism; but it definitely wouldn't fall into the same "self-harm" category as burning or cutting yourself would do.

[DayBreakArt]

Exactly as said above. People that over eat don't do it to intentionally hurt themselves so, as said, it is harmful although it wouldn't be classified as "self harm".