At the age of 12, I was told by an adult I knew that it wasn’t surprising I had developed an eating disorder. And despite the audacity in that statement alone, I couldn't stop thinking about what it was that would make someone think such a thing about me. I had never shown any signs of an eating disorder as a child, and it was an uncommon mental illness in our family, so what was the implication behind this statement?  But then it clicked. I fit the mold. I fit the mold our society and media has created around the term eating disorder. I am a white, affluent, privileged girl and therefore there is this belief that eating disorders are an issue mainly someone like me would face, especially considering I dealt with Anorexia. This realization compelled me to begin reflecting on this skewed mindset, and as I did, I began to see the biggest issues regarding the world of eating disorders. I realized that through the influence of the media, misconceptions are created surrounding eating disorders that not only promote extremely harmful and detrimental stigmas, but overall fabricate a shameful mindset around the disease.   

The misconceptions around the illness boil down to the one word that pops into our heads when we talk about eating disorders: Anorexic. It's a term I’ve heard and seen thrown around to categorize the roughly 30 million Americans, and 9 percent of the worldwide population that struggle with some form of eating disorder (ANAD). But in reality, only a minority fraction of the eating disorder population actually suffers from Anorexia. In fact, the most common and prevalent eating disorder people face today is Binge Eating Disorder, as the number of people who report struggling with it triple the amount of those who suffer from Anorexia and Bulimia combined (NEDA).   

As someone who has struggled with anorexia, I too, fell under the impression that anorexia was the most prominent eating disorder type, and hearing this statistic inspired me to understand what had led me to this belief. I came to the realization that if anything, it most directly stemmed from the portrayal of eating disorders in our modern day media. Eating disorders, as prevalent as they are, are fairly difficult to depict in the media without negatively influencing those who struggle with them in a triggering way. Regardless, our mainstream media and film industry have taken numerous jabs at covering this topic, but have succeeded in only inaccurately portraying and representing this disease. The film industry in particular with its attempts, has created roughly 20 films in the last 40 years that have followed a protagonist who suffers from an eating disorder (Haart). The issue with the films, not only being the immensely upsetting content within them, was in the 20 produced, the main character was most often always a white, privileged girl who chiefly struggled with anorexia, occasionally bulimia. And while some could argue the films may be out of date, we see these patterns in our day to day social media as well. Our acknowledgement of eating disorders only comes into play as a result of the glamorization of an unrealistic body type, and the lengths people are willing to go to achieve it. Unfortunately however, the body type we strive for revolves around the desire to be thin, and this only really draws attention to anorexia, as weight loss is a common symptom and it coincides with our diet-fixated society. Eating disorder portrayal in film and social media may not be the exact solution due to the upsetting nature of a visual depiction, however acknowledging the different types of disorders 9% of our worldwide population faces is a crucial step in helping to address this widespread concern, as so far all encompassing representation has been nothing short of absent. 

Underrepresentation itself is also merely one of the problems regarding how we acknowledge eating disorders. People that grapple with the devastating reality of an eating disorder must also bear the additional stress and challenges of consequential stigma. The idea of eating disorders being a white, privileged girl disease, leads to severe invalidation and trivialization of the mental illness and as a result of this, there is a commonly held view surrounding eating disorders that implies the illness to be a choice or some form of lifestyle. This desensitizes the harsh reality of one's experience, as eating disorders are a psychological disease that cause significant mental, emotional, and social distress. Eating disorders are not a choice, as the emotional and physical torment that comes along with them has a lasting, and often fatal effect. 10,200 deaths each year, or one death every 52 minutes, is the direct result of an eating disorder, and to continue the narrative that those lives lost were caused by choice of illness, highlights the demeaning and degrading mindset that's been constructed around eating disorders (ANAD). Our perception of eating disorders being seen as “diets gone wrong” also highlights another component of falsities: the suggestion that eating disorders are primarily weight disorders. The presumption of calling them weight disorders, disregards the mental components that are the real foundation and determining factors for the disease. If anything, weight change is merely a symptom, and our assumptions that weight loss is a necessary condition for a diagnosis could not be farther from the truth, considering only 6 percent of the total eating disorder population is clinically diagnosed as underweight (ANAD), and not all eating disorders have weight loss as a common symptom. Weight is most definitely not a determining factor in how severe one’s eating disorder is, and the invalidation of eating disorders will only worsen as we continue to believe and perpetuate these stigmas.

Ultimately, I can’t really blame the adult who made that statement about me. It stemmed from a lack of knowledge and a wrong impression altogether, but it’s also a perspective I know I would have, had I not gone through what I did. So the next time you see the word anorexic thrown around casually, or even the topic being neglected as a whole, remember lots of people around us, more than we may ever know, struggle with this mental illness, and it’s crucial that we don't undermine their experience, as I know from a personal level feeling supported and validated is extremely valuable when suffering from such an isolating disease. It’s hard to talk about such a heavy topic, and because the eating disorder culture has such a diminishing view around it, it’s no wonder there is such hesitancy to seek comfort even in our closest friends. That’s why what’s most important is that we are willing to change our frame of mind and deconstruct what we’ve come to believe, because if anything, eating disorders are just one aspect of the entire mental health conversation, and it’s critical that we don’t devalue any overarching mental illness in hopes of someday normalizing this rather taboo topic.  

Bibliography

"Haart, Miriam. (2020). Eating Disorders: As Seen on TV. An Analysis of Eating

     Disorder Representation in the Media.. 10.1080/10640266.2011.584806."

     Research Gate. Abstract.

UMich News. news.umich.edu/

     eating-disorders-underdiagnosed-untreated-in-men-minorities/.

ANAD. anad.org/eating-disorders-statistics/.

NEDA. www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/statistics-research-eating-disorders.

     South Carolina Department of Mental Health. www.state.sc.us/dmh/anorexia/

     statistics.htm.