Eating Disorder Myths...
A friend of mine emailed me recently in regards to an article he read about Eating Disorders on DiscoveryNews.com
The article discusses the misunderstanding that Eating
Disorders root from the media images of emaciated models. R.A. Botta, who is the
writer of the 1999 study, “Television Images and Adolescent Girls’ Body Image
Disturbance” states that the media doesn’t make one Anorexic. Anorexia is a
psychological disorder that is found to be a genetic disposition from birth.
The reason I bring this up is I think it’s quite poignant that my friend
and others would be surprised to hear that Anorexia and other Eating Disorders are not
rooted from our medias expectations on the human figure, but really are
psychological. What bothers me is that I have found people outside of the Eating Disorder field to
refer to Eating
Disorders as a “phase” or “vanity” and “self absorption.” Those statements
themselves are myths.
- Eating Disorder Myths
Eating Disorders are
intricate and deep rooted Psychological disorders. Anyone who has worked in the
field or has experienced an Eating Disorder
themselves can attest to that.
I think the best way to describe it is the
difference between an Anorexic and woman who diets is that the Anorexic has no
threshold with dieting and starving. Women who are not Anorexic will diet, but
then get hungry, blow their diet and just eat. An anorexic will keep going even
after she is told how ill she is, how brittle her bones are and how close she is
to a heart attack….she has no self-preservation...which makes it a mental
illness.
I remember this study that polled 10,000 women about body image
and dieting. They asked the women "If I gave you a pill that guaranteed you
would be skinny, but taking the pill had a side affect of you possibly dying
would you take it?"...10% of those women said, "Yes." That 10% is the group of
Anorexics/Bulimic/Eating
Disordered women. Willing to die to be thin is an illness.
If you
still aren’t convinced take a read at the article from DicoveryNews.com yourself
by clicking here.
Education is the key to destroying these myths that block the women who are
truly sick with this disease from getting help while they wait for this “phase”
to pass and end up dying. Blog soon! Irvina
