“First world problems”. “Just snap out of it.” “They're just
looking for attention.” “We all have body image issues.” These are common words
and phrases that much of the general population uses when talking about eating
disorders. Many people assume that it’s just a ploy for attention, a silly
problem, or a shallow ambition. Except for those with the (admirable) control
to become emaciated or dangerously thin, eating disorders are often overlooked
and any issue that might be seen by family or friends is quickly discarded
because “she’s not thin enough to have an eating disorder”. Terms like
“wannarexia” describe those who theoretically want to be anorexic, but simply
don't have the willpower to starve themselves to those extremes (something the
majority of the population can’t accomplish because simple biology and our
body’s self preservation deliver a strong urge to eat when we try to starve
it).
But the reality of it is, you don't have to be gaunt to be living in the hell of an eating disorder. An eating disorder is a very real mental illness that affects many girls anywhere from in the grade school years to 50 and 60 year olds. Often, actual physiological changes in the brain occur over time. It is not a simple thing that you can just “choose to fix”. It is the most difficult mental illness to treat, takes the longest to treat, and has the highest death rate of any mental illness.
Many people who do not fulfill the emaciation requirements of anorexia or the bingeing-purging requirements of bulimia are grouped in a diagnosis called EDNOS (Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified). This covers a multitude of problems from binge eating disorder, to mild bulimia and anorexia that doesn't fit all clinical requirements for a full diagnosis, to any combination thereof or anything in between.
For example: I was diagnosed with EDNOS. I ate 700 calories a day and engaged in excessive exercise disorder, but my body did not have the capacity to become anorexic thin, even though my body fat percentage was low enough to qualify me as anorexic and to begin shutting down normal body functions. I was 5’8, 125 pounds, and lived for years as if nothing was wrong. I was told repeatedly I was normal. But behind the scenes I lived as a slave to my disorder.
The scary thing is that EDNOS kills more people than either anorexia or bulimia. Yet it is the disorder no one has ever heard of.
Most people have never truly taken the time to understand eating disorders, so there is a scary social stigma against this particular mental illness. It isn't understood that people don't choose to have a disorder because of a shallow drive to be thin. The disorder is caused by many outside factors, and the drive to be thin is just a side effect.
I was having coffee with a friend the other day and my disorder came up. My friend began to talk about how sad it was that our society puts so much pressure on girls to be thin and that if there wasn't that pressure, anorexia would be solved. I had to step in and say that disorders and disordered thinking would be around either way. The root of the disorder is often not body image, but simply that body image, weight, and calories are something we can control in an out of control life.
We are not shallow silly people who care too much about being thin. We have simply found some way we can quantify things such as success, value, and worth in a crazy hectic world.
I hope you can read my story and understand where so many of us are, have been, and are coming from. Try to read with an open mind and not judge. And hopefully this way we can together begin to reverse the stigma of eating disorders.
But the reality of it is, you don't have to be gaunt to be living in the hell of an eating disorder. An eating disorder is a very real mental illness that affects many girls anywhere from in the grade school years to 50 and 60 year olds. Often, actual physiological changes in the brain occur over time. It is not a simple thing that you can just “choose to fix”. It is the most difficult mental illness to treat, takes the longest to treat, and has the highest death rate of any mental illness.
Many people who do not fulfill the emaciation requirements of anorexia or the bingeing-purging requirements of bulimia are grouped in a diagnosis called EDNOS (Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified). This covers a multitude of problems from binge eating disorder, to mild bulimia and anorexia that doesn't fit all clinical requirements for a full diagnosis, to any combination thereof or anything in between.
For example: I was diagnosed with EDNOS. I ate 700 calories a day and engaged in excessive exercise disorder, but my body did not have the capacity to become anorexic thin, even though my body fat percentage was low enough to qualify me as anorexic and to begin shutting down normal body functions. I was 5’8, 125 pounds, and lived for years as if nothing was wrong. I was told repeatedly I was normal. But behind the scenes I lived as a slave to my disorder.
The scary thing is that EDNOS kills more people than either anorexia or bulimia. Yet it is the disorder no one has ever heard of.
Most people have never truly taken the time to understand eating disorders, so there is a scary social stigma against this particular mental illness. It isn't understood that people don't choose to have a disorder because of a shallow drive to be thin. The disorder is caused by many outside factors, and the drive to be thin is just a side effect.
I was having coffee with a friend the other day and my disorder came up. My friend began to talk about how sad it was that our society puts so much pressure on girls to be thin and that if there wasn't that pressure, anorexia would be solved. I had to step in and say that disorders and disordered thinking would be around either way. The root of the disorder is often not body image, but simply that body image, weight, and calories are something we can control in an out of control life.
We are not shallow silly people who care too much about being thin. We have simply found some way we can quantify things such as success, value, and worth in a crazy hectic world.
I hope you can read my story and understand where so many of us are, have been, and are coming from. Try to read with an open mind and not judge. And hopefully this way we can together begin to reverse the stigma of eating disorders.
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