The Time Is Now for Awareness

I was asked recently in an interview why it was important to have awareness around eating disorders (EDs).  My initial thought was, “BECAUSE IT IS!” but I quickly realized that was basically the same as when a parent says “because I said so” to a child.  As a therapist who has  been working with clients with eating disorders for over ten years the need for awareness feels obvious to me.  However to the majority of people in the world, eating disorders are a foreign concept. 

For most people, their knowledge of eating disorders comes from a one day class in middle or high school health.  That’s it.  Even when I was seeking a master’s degree in the field of counseling psychology, I had no access to classes specifically on eating disorders.  I again received a one day, maybe a little more, lecture on the topic in a class that covered all diagnoses in the DSM.  And I remember hearing from doctor and dietitian friends that their opportunities to learn about eating disorders are equally limited in their schooling.  It still astounds me that a disorder that impacts someone’s mental, physical, emotional, and social health gets such little attention from the people poised to offer help.

Accordingto research available at
https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/statistics/
9% of the US population will have an eating disorder in their lifetime.  This is higher than the lifetime prevalence of lung cancer according to the NIH, than the average person having twins, or of someone in the US having a teen pregnancy (something that gets plenty of attention in those health classes).  And this doesn’t include the people who won’t be included in research because they don’t get diagnosed because the awareness of their eating disorder is never seen by the people around them.

Awareness is the key for earlier detection and treatment, which is known to contribute to more sustained recovery.  Awareness also allows people to understand that an eating disorder is not just about how someone looks or what food they are eating.  Awareness calls attention to the misleading information we’ve all been fed through a constant stream of diet culture messaging and weight discrimination telling us that being in a bigger body is somehow wrong and our fault.  Increasing awareness around eating disorders means we all can have a better understanding of around how we think about our body, our size, and our food.  Increasing awareness means more people understand how and why an eating disorder really develops; that at it’s core it is an emotional disorder rooted in disconnection this is something we can all relate to at some point in our lives.  Awareness means the shame and secrecy that often surround someone struggling can more easily be brought into the light and they can feel accepted.

​NEDA’s theme for this year’s Eating Disorder Awareness Week is “The Time Is Now” and I could not agree more with them.  It is time for us all to learn about what an eating disorder really is and let go of the old stereotypes and outdated ideas around them.  It is time for us to look critically at how we think and talk about our body and the bodies of other people.  It’s time for us to think about food as nourishment for our body and soul, and movement as a joyful expression of what our boy can do.  It is time for us to let go of the belief that the way we look somehow communicates our worth as a human, and tell diet culture and weight stigma that they are no longer acceptable.


By Erin Birely, LCPC

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