Let’s Get Real About Eating Disorder Myths and Truths
Let’s Get Real About Eating Disorder Myths and Truths
Knowledge is key to creating change. Especially knowledge regarding a topic that is so frequently plagued by misconceptions, myths, and false stereotypes. Eating disorders are too often misunderstood because of the complexity of the disease and the struggle being a mental battle, a battle that cannot directly be seen. So, my goal today is to break down the complexity of this disease by identifying key myths that tear down individuals with eating disorders and dispel these myths with eye opening truths in order to bring clarity, understanding, and knowledge to the subject of eating disorders. This week can bring an incredible amount of change, so what better way to start than increasing our knowledge on the central focus of this week?
Let’s begin the week by dispelling some common myths surrounding eating disorders.
Myth 1: Eating disorders are a choice.
Truth 1: Eating disorders are NOT a choice. Eating disorders develop from biological, social, and environmental components that are out of the control of the individual. There is no decision involved with whether a person develops an eating disorder. Eating disorders are a medical condition and should be treated as such. Medical conditions are not a choice, therefore, eating disorders are not a choice.
Myth 2: Eating disorders are a vanity disease.
Truth 2: Eating disorders are NOT a disease based on the desire for perfecting one’s own appearance. Eating disorders scope much, much deeper than perfecting outer appearance, and the underlying struggles within an individual very rarely have to do with the strive for beauty, rather the body and food are used as ways to manipulate the environment to cope with inner battles.
Myth 3: Eating disorders are just a diet gone wrong.
Truth 3: Eating disorders take a variety of forms and are not just characterized by dieting. Anorexia, bulimia, binge eating disorder, and a variety of additional eating disorders are all characterized by a variety of behaviors that have a much greater severity than a typical dieting pattern. Restriction, bingeing, purging, over-exercise, laxative abuse, orthorexia, body checking, self harm, OCD tendencies, the list goes on and on, demonstrating that eating disorders are much more severe than just a diet gone wrong.
Myth 4: Eating disorders are just about the food.
Truth 4: Oftentimes, eating disorders have very little to do with the actual food. Eating disorders have many underlying factors that drive the individual to engage in behaviors relating to food, and food is only used as a coping mechanism to mirror the underlying battles that an individual is internally struggling with. A desire for control, seeking a way to express emotions, protection from failure, and a variety of other internal struggles manifest through the manipulation of food and the body.
Myth 5: Eating disorders just affect teen girls.
Truth 5: Eating disorders can affect anyone, both males and females, young children, adolescents, adults, and the elderly, of any ethnicity, background, or culture. Unfortunately, during my journey with an eating disorder, I have met individuals representing each of the above listed categories, proving that eating disorders are not solely a “white, teen girl” disease.
Myth 6: A person must be extremely underweight to have an eating disorder.
Truth 6: Weight is NOT the sole indicator of whether an individual has an eating disorder. Those struggling with an eating disorder can be underweight, normal weight, or overweight, depending on the behaviors that are struggled with and various biological, social, and environmental factors. Weight and size are not accurate indicators of the amount of internal struggle an individual is battling with, and it is extremely unfair to use weight and size as the only indicators of the severity of an eating disorder.
Myth 7: Once a person reaches his or her goal weight, he or she is cured from the eating disorder.
Truth 7: Physical restoration is only one part of eating disorder recovery. Full recovery includes BOTH physical restoration and mental restoration, and many times, physical restoration occurs far in advance of mental restoration. An individual must cope with the physical changes that occur, and this is an extremely difficult part of the recovery process. Mental restoration requires time, patience, strength, dedication, and practice. And mental restoration is essential for full recovery.
Myth 8: Recovery from an eating disorder usually is not possible.
Truth 8: Recovery from an eating disorder is one hundred percent, absolutely, completely, fully possible. No matter how impossible it may seem to escape the depths of the eating disorder, recovery is always possible. Recovery is everything but easy and requires an incredible amount of patience, dedication, strength, and courage, however, recovery is fully possible and fully beautiful, freeing, and worth every ounce of fighting for your life.
Myths feed misunderstanding. Myths feed stigmas. Myths feed eating disorders. So, let’s get real and use the truth to feed understanding, to feed recovery, and to feed a world free from eating disorders.
SIDE NOTE: Because I am hoping to spread as much knowledge as possible this week, I will be using external resources to enhance my own viewpoints and experiences with eating disorders. I have developed my own spin on the information that I have found in order to make my blog posts this week as real as possible.
Sources used for this post:
https://www.allianceforeatingdisorders.com/portal/debunking-eating-disorder-myths
https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/busting-myths-about-eating-disorders
