Surprisingly, eating disorders are not just an issue with food and eating, they are symptoms or results of underlying problems. The controlling of weight and food intake is used as tools to help with problems in a person’s life that ordinarily would seem almost impossible to solve. This is important: both restriction of food and binging, actually provides a way to numb feelings and emotions for a short time, until of course, they need to do it again which is the vicious cycle of the disorders. Others will use it as a sort of comfort (Katzman, D.k. & Pinhas, L., 2005).
Now here are some false truths about the disorders, what people perceive as truth and what is ACTUALLY true (Katzman, D.k. & Pinhas, L., 2005).
F# you can tell by appearance if someone has an eating disorder…
T# Well, not all anorexics are underweight much like how not all bulimics are skinny and not all bingers are overweight. Everyone’s appearances are different, genetics, allows for all individuals to be of a different size and shape. All of these disorders are serious mental and physical health problems, but they are not dependent on size or shape, and not all skinny girls have a weight problem, as this may be simply genetic.
F# People with anorexia do not eat rubbish food, sweets and takeaways…
T# Anorexia is not about the TYPE of food eaten but rather the AMOUNT of food allowed to enter the body, which is balanced or cancelled out for energy use.
F# Anorexics do not binge or purge, bulimics do not restrict…
T# Anorexics do have binges which may result in purging, some will purge even if a binge has not been had. Bulimics restrict food intake, eventually the body starts to crave certain nutrients and a binge will result, thus the binge purge cycle mentioned in the previous blog.
F# People think a person is bulimic only if they vomit or make use of laxatives, diuretics and diet pills as a form of getting rid of food…
T# excessive exercise, fasting, or food restriction (skipping meals) are also forms of bulimic behaviour.
F# boys with eating disorders are gay…
T# although the risk of an eating disorder is higher in homosexuals, both anorexia and bulimia effect straight boys. (I did know a boy, who, on telling him about my problem of occasionally vomiting, he spoke about how he too vomited up meals to keep fit for hockey. He was a jock, an ex-boyfriend of mine, also one of those 3 week ones. I thought he was lying, or just really strange).
Now these next ones I find very important to take note of, not only in terms of the blog, but other readers who know of someone or who are someone who has/had an eating disorder, and possibly need the truth or perhaps an explanation for the ‘methods in madness’.
F# people with eating disorders come from a broken/dysfunctional family…
T# The cause of eating disorders are not entirely known, however teenagers from all types of families have been recorded to have had eating disorders, so family is NOT the cause, family or the support thereof is the solution. If someone has an eating disorder in the family it may make way for a feeling that the family is dysfunctional but this is more of a self-fulfilling prophecy.
F# People with eating disorders, have the intention of hurting their family and friends…
T# observing the effects of an eating disorder on an individual may be extremely pain-full. BUT people with eating disorders do not always do what they do with the intention to hurt those closest to them. In fact, they tend to protect their families from knowing and perhaps feeling the emotional pain that they are going through, this is the secretive nature of the illness.
F# Those who binge or who are always eating are fat and lazy…
T# Binge eating is a serious disorder. It too has to do with emotional pain, and tough circumstances. They express emotional hurt through food, and those that binge eat do need to be treated for the illness. Diets are NOT the treatment.
F# You cant die from an eating disorder…
T# Eating disorders have one of the highest death rates of any psychiatric disorders. Death among teens with disorders goes between 5% and 9% and up to 20% in adults. Bulimics and anorexics are equally vulnerable.
F# Recovering from an eating disorder is like recovering from alcoholism…
T# While they are both coping mechanisms, they do differ in the recovery process. One way to recover from alcoholism is to stop drinking all together, recovering from an eating disorder requires steps to be taken, learning how to eat all kinds of food without compensating or having such a fear and guilt attached to food type. Unlike alcoholism, one with an eating disorder cannot simply stop eating.
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