February 27 - March 5 is Eating Disorders Awareness Week (EDAW) is an annual campaign that aims to raise awareness of eating disorders, spread a message of hope, and help to provide access to treatment for those who need it. According to research, “approximately 20 million females and 10 million males in the US have a clinically significant eating disorder at some point in their lifetime” (Hudson, 2007). Eating disorders are defined by severe and persistent disruptions in eating patterns that are connected to distressing thoughts and feelings. Anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder (BED), avoidant restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID), and other specified feeding or eating disorder (OSFED) are the five types of eating disorders that are classified by the American Psychiatric Association in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, Fifth Edition (DSM-5).
The development of eating disorders is significantly influenced by biological variables, according to genetic research that spans several decades. One person dies every 52 minutes from direct complications related to an eating disorder, which amounts to 10,200 deaths annually (STRIPED, 2020).
As important as it is to educate the public about eating disorders, it is equally crucial to dispel the many myths about eating disorders.
Myth #1: Eating disorders are a choice.
No one chooses to develop an eating disorder. Yet what frequently begins as a sensible strategy to improve health via food, or as a technique of achieving a sense of control in one's life, or as a coping mechanism to manage stressors and trauma, can swiftly spiral out of control and may deteriorate into this potentially fatal condition. Although no one chooses to develop an eating disorder, recovery entails deciding to do the healing work with a treatment team (therapist, registered dietitian, and physician) to abandon eating disorder thoughts and behaviors and replace them with healthy coping strategies. Recovery is not simple or easy, but it is possible.
Myth #2: Eating disorders are just about food and weight.
Eating disorders are complex. There is more to recovering from an eating disorder than just increasing or decreasing caloric intake. Real healing requires understanding the psychological factors (ex: a trauma response) that fuel destructive behaviors and developing new coping mechanisms. Eating disorder behaviors, such as restriction, binging or purging, often provide a sense of comfort from emotional experiences that feel intolerable or feelings that are too intense to bear. Eating disorders often co-occur with other mental health conditions, including depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, and/or mood disorders.
Myth #3: You can tell if someone has an eating disorder based on how thin they are.
One's outward appearance is not a reliable indicator of the presence of an eating disorder. In fact, “less than 6% of people with eating disorders are medically diagnosed as ‘underweight’ (Flament, 2015). An eating disorder is not exclusively diagnosed by body type or weight alone. An eating disorder might affect someone of average or even above-average weight. People who suffer from eating disorders tend to be of a healthy weight. People with eating disorders are often represented in the media as being dangerously thin, however it is impossible to tell if someone has an eating disorder by their appearance alone. These beliefs may contribute to the overall problem and lead those who suffer from an eating disorder to feel ashamed or guilty for not being "sick enough" to receive help.
Myth #4: Binge eating and overeating are the same thing.
Nearly everyone has experienced the unpleasant effects of a “food coma” after eating too much of a favorite dish. Those who suffer from binge eating disorder also tend to overeat, but it's more of a compulsive behavior than a result of a few impulsive decisions. The quantity of food ingested during the time frame of binge eating vs. overeating is another distinguishing feature between the two. Those who binge eat consume considerably more calories than they would in a normal time of overeating because they are prompted by compulsiveness and a loss of self-control. Moreover, those who binge eat are more prone to overeat over a longer period of time (i.e. two hours or more) than those who merely overeat at one meal.
If you are struggling with your relationship with food or your body, there is help for you. Having a mental health professional in addition to a medical specialist is crucial for anyone with an eating disorder. Recovery is real and there is hope for you.
Authored By: Julianna Robinson, LCSW
References:
Deloitte Access Economics. The Social and Economic Cost of Eating Disorders in the United States of America: A Report for the Strategic Training Initiative for the Prevention of Eating Disorders and the Academy for Eating Disorders. June 2020. Available at: https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/striped/report-economic-costs-of-eating-disorders/.
Flament, M., Henderson, K., Buchholz, A., Obeid, N., Nguyen, H., Birmingham, M., Goldfield, G. (2015). Weight Status and DSM-5 Diagnoses of Eating Disorders in Adolescents From the Community. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, Vol. 54, Issue 5, 403-411. https://www.jaacap.org/article/S0890-8567(15)00076-3/fulltext#relatedArticles
Hudson JI, Hiripi E, Pope HG Jr, and Kessler RC. (2007). The prevalence and correlates of eating disorders in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication. Biological Psychiatry, 61(3):348-58. doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2006.03.040.