I watched Alivia's new intro to season 2, and I am concerned and confused. For a moment I was hopeful when she said that the being harsh on herself wasn't sustainable, which is great messaging for anyone suffering with debilitating mental health problems. I mean, if we could all will ourselves into great health we wouldn't need doctors and there would be no disease in the world! There certainly wouldn't be a need for dieticians, recovery groups, therapists, etc.
However, Alivia then spoke about how the issue is that we didn't see how she was "too soft" on herself at the beginning. She seems completely unaware that she was likely having brutally harsh thoughts behind these "soft" ones: you cannot speak of treating yourself like garbage, and then claim that you were being kind to yourself. People don't have low self-esteem because they're "too nice" and "too soft" on themselves. Yet the solution for Alivia, according to this intro, was to simply integrate being "a flower" and "steel", and thus becoming a "flower with steel on the inside." I'm intrigued as to what this means but also concerned that it could well be the original ED-esque messaging tied up in a new bow that could be very triggering; self-parenting and self-love don't really go well with terms like "being made of steel". Also, Alivia chose to emphasise Goggins and that PT's strict diet regime in her first version, so I don't see how she can change that truth (as an aside, that PT makes me cringe every time I see him on YT - Obesetobeast did a great breakdown of why he's not necessarily great).
This is all purely speculative, of course, and I have no idea what Alivia's thoughts are. I am not a therapist. I say all this because I have long-term recovery from mental health issues, and part of staying well for me is trying my best to see and breakdown these sorts of messages so I don't become unconsciously triggered. I don't have an ED but, like most women, find that diet industry messaging triggers unhelpful thought patterns.
I was wondering if it was wrong of me to comment about Alivia on this forum as she seems quite fragile in a lot of ways, and I don't want to post things that could harm her. However, I know that she is attracting a lot of followers with EDs who might need to look for safe spaces that are highlighting some of the disordered, triggering messages in her content. Looking at this forum, it's clear that this the case. I also forget that Alivia is older than she looks - she sometimes looks like a teenager - and I think that's why there aren't many active forums or discussions about her content. Holding an adult content creator accountable is very different to holding a minor accountable. I really hope that as season 2 unfolds, members on here can have helpful discussions that can provide some support
.