Content warning: This post has content related to eating disorders.

Come As You Are

Dismantling the Myth that Eating Disorders Only Affect One Type of Person

This week (February 25th – March 3rd, 2019) is National Eating Disorders Awareness week in the United States. The National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) is hosting a week-long eating disorders awareness campaign. The NEDA website provides a variety of ways you can get involved. You can browse their website for information about eating disorders, take a pledge to reject diet culture, get screened for an eating disorder, and contact the helpline. This year, their theme is “Come As You Are,” a message of inclusivity that is very important to me. No matter your body size, race, socioeconomic status, ability, sexual orientation, age, and gender identity, you deserve to come forward, share your story, recognize the validity of your experiences, and receive potentially life-saving support. Together, we can dismantle diet culture and improve our relationships with our bodies and with food. Let’s use this week to come together as a diverse community and promote body compassion!

Eating disorders affect people of any ability, age, body size, gender identification, race, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic status.

Eating disorders can affect anyone! It is a common misperception that only able-bodied, thin, cis-gender, white, heterosexual, affluent girls and young women suffer from eating disorders. Although people with these privileges may have greater access to treatment, they are not the only people suffering. No matter how you identify, if you are struggling with your relationships with food or your body, you deserve stigma-free support on your recovery journey in the body that you have now. So, come as you are, reach out, learn about eating disorders, take advantage of any resources that are accessible to you. As I mentioned above, if you don’t know where to start, check out the National Eating Disorders Association’s website: nationaleatingdisorders.org.

Image description: text that reads “Eating disorders affect people of any ability, age, body size, gender identification, race, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic status.”

Eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of any mental illness

Eating disorders are deadly mental illnesses that must be taken very seriously. Eating disorders aren’t caused by vanity, and they are not a choice. Get professional support from a treatment team if you suspect you are struggling with an eating disorder. Recovery is possible.

Image text: According to the Eating Recovery Center (ERC), eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of any mental illness. Nearly one person dies from an eating disorder every 60 minutes.

Approximately one in four people suffering from eating disorders are boys or men

Eating disorders are NOT a girl’s disorder. People of all genders, including boys and men, suffer from eating disorders. The stereotype that eating disorders only afflict girls and women harms people of other genders. It reduces the likelihood that their disorder will be recognized, triggers shame, and prevents them from seeking potentially life-saving treatment.

Image description: text – “Approximately one in four people suffering from eating disorders are boys or men.”

Most people suffering from eating disorders are NOT “underweight”

The myth that eating disorders only affect people in thin bodies is dangerous. It prevents people in “straight-size” or larger bodies from being properly diagnosed and treated. It is common for people with binge eating disorder (BED) and bulimia to be in larger bodies. It is also common for people with anorexia (misnamed atypical anorexia) to live in larger bodies. People struggling with “atypical anorexia” are often praised for, or even prescribed, their eating disorder behaviors. We need to be more aware of the prevalence of eating disorders among people who are not visibly severely underweight. People in larger bodies are facing weight stigma and fatphobia on top of their disorders. Eating disorders are deadly, and all people deserve support along their recovery journeys.

Image description: text – “Most people suffering from eating disorders are NOT “underweight.””

Most people who develop binge eating disorder have been prescribed diets

DO NO HARM. Health care providers are required to do no harm, but most treatment professionals are not heavily trained in eating disorder prevention and treatment. When doctors prescribe diets to people in larger bodies, it causes harm. Restriction almost always causes biological survival responses that can counteract starvation with binge eating.

Image description: text that reads “Eating disorders affect people of any ability, age, body size, gender identification, race, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic status.

Binge Eating Disorder is much more prevalent than Anorexia and Bulimia

BED is underrecognized among people suffering from eating disorders. It is the most prevalent eating disorder, but when most people think of eating disorders, they mistakenly just envision emaciated bodies.

Image text: “According to ERC, Binge Eating Disorder is much more prevalent than Anorexia and Bulimia.”

25% of children have dieted by age seven

We are almost all born intuitive eaters. The influence of diet-culture and fatphobia can negatively affect very young children, though. When we or our wider culture police our children’s food, they are less likely to stay attuned to their hunger, satiety, and satisfaction cues. They become more likely to suffer from eating disorders and other harmful health outcomes. If you are looking for a positive feeding model, check out some of Ellyn Satter’s work on Division of Responsibilities. As adults, for our posterity, we need to model positive relationships with food and our bodies, promote the Health at Every Size perspective (which focuses on health behaviors, not body size), fight fatphobia, and rebel against diet culture.

Image text: “According to ERC, 25% of children have dieted by age seven.

Fifty to eighty percent of risk factors for eating disorders are genetic and heritable

If you or your loved one struggle with an eating disorder, IT IS NOT YOUR FAULT. Eating disorders are not caused by vanity, poor parenting, fatphobic partners, or the media’s perpetuation of the thin ideal. Up to 80% of the risk factors for eating disorders are genetic! Fatphobia, weight stigma, the beauty industry, the diet industry, and the new “wellness” industry may trigger someone who is already genetically predisposed.

Image description: “According to ERC, 50-80% of risk factors for eating disorders are genetic and heritable.”

Have Hope: Recovery IS Possible

With the support of a professional treatment team, full recovery from eating disorders is possible for everyone. Unfortunately, however, most people with eating disorders do not seek treatment. This is largely due to stigma, as well as stereotypes and cost. We must do a better job reducing stigma and stereotypes (including those about who they affect), and we need to fight for all people to have affordable access to mental health care.

According to ERC, over 70% of people suffering from eating disorders will not seek treatment.

So together, let’s raise awareness, dispel the myths, fight stigmas, and help ALL people, in all bodies, receive access to potentially life-saving treatment to overcome their eating disorders and live a fulfilling life.

Most of the statistics in this post came from the Eating Recovery Center, the eating disorders treatment center that helped save my life.

If you are struggling with an eating disorder, please reach out to the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) Helpline. Call (800) 931-2237, or use the “Click to Chat” option. If you are experiencing a crisis, call 911, or text “NEDA” to 741741.


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