Happy National Eating Disorder Awareness Week!
There is a lot of misinformation and lack of knowledge about eating disorders, which is part of why they continue to be prominent in our society. Eating disorders are vast, mental illnesses that can look very different for each person. According to the National Eating Disorder Association, NEDA, 20 million women and 10 million men in America suffer from an eating disorder at some point in their lives.
Let’s begin with the basics. What many people struggle to comprehend about EDs is that they rarely have to do with what someone looks like on the outside, and have very much to do with what’s going on in their minds.
There is a wide range of eating disorders (EDs), including the most well known anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge-eating disorder. Anorexia nervosa has the highest death rate of all mental illnesses, killing one person every 62 minutes. Other EDs include pica, rumination disorder, and orthorexia, which mental health professionals refer to as OSFEDs (other specified feeding or eating disorders). No one knows for certain what causes eating disorders, but many officials report it to be a mix of biological, psychological, and sociocultural factors.
I am writing this, as someone living with and in recovery of my eating disorder, wishing to spread awareness and understanding about this extremely underrepresented, but incredibly deadly and increasing mental illness. In the digital age, more and more young people, especially women, are being given damaging and triggering disinformation based on algorithms. In the early months of my ED, I remember going to my Instagram explore page and seeing graphics about “good” and “bad” foods, along with many fitness influencers promoting weight loss in an unrealistic and unhealthy manner. Social media has created an influx of unrealistic body images and an expectation to conform to a certain look. 69% of teenage girls reported that celebrities in the media influenced their idea of the “perfect” body.
But it’s not just on social media, it’s real-life too. It’s comments about someone’s food intake, their exercise habits, or the clothes they choose to wear. Fatphobia and the fear of gaining weight are very prevalent, especially on college campuses. The number of times I’ve heard people say they’ll do “anything” not to gain the “Freshman 15” is alarming. I recognize the difference between healthy weight loss and unhealthy weight loss, but for many who suffer from an ED, the idea of weight loss can be very triggering. In my personal experience, I had wanted to lose weight and it led to restriction during the day, then binging later in the night – which is a very common cycle for many EDs.
I urge you not to comment on the morality of food, the amount of food someone else is eating, and how their bodies may or may not have changed. Eating disorders are complicated illnesses, fraught with fear, guilt, shame, loneliness, and so many other emotional factors. Living with an ED can make the simple, enjoyable things in life seem like daunting tasks, such as eating out with your friends or sitting down at the dinner table with your family. Short term impacts of an eating disorder can include weakness, fatigue, anemia, poor circulation, a constant feeling of being cold, a loss of period – the list goes on. The long term effects can be psychological and physical, making it difficult to re-establish a positive relationship with your body and food. Personally, I have trouble shopping first hand because I feel as though my body never fits the same size in various stores, causing me to over-analyze my body and how it may or may not have changed over the past 20 minutes. During the first semester, I found the dining halls incredibly triggering and still find it to be a hard place to navigate as someone with an ED, even in recovery.
The reality of living with an ED is so widely unknown, meanwhile, research is highly limited with an average amount of 93 cents spent per affected person.
So what can you do?
Change your conversations. Stop speaking proudly of only “having iced coffee today” or “not even being hungry.” Stop insinuating that just because someone eats, they need to exercise. Encourage discussion about the impact of diet culture, “wellness” culture, and the most recent trend of being “that girl.” Support those around you who have opened up about eating disorders, or simply struggling with their relationship with food or body image.
Remind yourself that food has no morality, everyone’s genetic makeup is vastly different, and your needs vary from others in your life. These little changes can make someone around you feel so much safer, and can also prevent this silent epidemic from continuing to plague so many.