Eating disorders awareness week
This week our partner organisation Bodywhys, runs a series of events to raise awareness about eating disorders and supports available for those affected.
There are a lot of myths about eating disorders, which can hinder people realising they might need some help. It’ll come as no surprise to you that the media doesn’t help, often portraying eating disorders and people who suffer from them in unrealistic ways.
Knowing the truth about eating disorders will help you recognise the signs to get help for yourself or a friend, if necessary.
Some common myths are:
People who are normal or overweight can’t have eating disorders
You don’t have to look like a skeleton to have an eating disorder. Only a small percentage of people reach the state of emaciation so frequently pictured in particular magazines.
There are lots of different types of eating disorders and many of them don’t involve people starving themselves.
Unhealthy eating patterns of any kind, be it, binging, vomiting or taking laxatives are very serious regardless of weight. These behaviours can do severe damage to a person’s body and need to be taken seriously. Read up on the different types of eating disorders.
Only women suffer from eating disorders
Although they’re more common in women it’s estimated 10% of cases of anorexia and bulimia are experienced by men. Cases of binge eating disorder are much more equally divided, with up to 50% of cases occurring in men.
Eating disorders are all about looks
Although people with eating disorders often have poor body image and obsess about food and weight, this is actually not the main focus of the disorder. People can use/abuse food to help them feel more in control of their world and relieve distress. Eating disorders are actually about feeling in control and coping with overwhelming emotions.
Eating disorders are not really that dangerous
Eating disorders all have the risk for resulting in potentially life threatening medical conditions. These risks increase if an eating disorder is not treated in a timely manner.
They can also cause many damaging long term health effects that reduce the quality of life. The sooner someone gets help for their eating disorder the less negative effects it will have on health. Read about recovering from an eating disorder.
20 – 26 February
Bodywhys are running a series of talks this week.
Funwalk
This Saturday, 25 February, Bodywhys have organised a five kilometre walk in the Phoenix Park to celebrate positive body image. It starts at 2 pm near the papal cross. Dress up as much or as little as you like. In case of rain, make sure you bring your most colourful umbrella!
The walk is open to all – if you have any queries or would like to get involved, please contact Fiona at youthdevelopment@bodywhys.ie.
Expert advice
Harroit Parsons from Bodywhys is our featured expert for the month of February answering all your questions about eating disorders.
Hi Marc
Thanks for sharing your story with us. We're really sorry to hear about the trauma you, as a family, have had to go through. If you're still feeling a sense of psychological damage please look after yourself and get support to help you work through the way your feeling - whether that's by talking to someone close, going to your GP or finding a counsellor, or family therapist (depending on whether there is an openness to family therapy).
At ReachOut.com we're not experts in eating disorders and the psychological damage that can result within a person's family so we work closely with Bodywhys - the Eating Disorders Association of Ireland who have details of services and supportive resources on their site.
Take care
Derek
My daughter said to me, I don't know why I'm sick. I don't have any of the perbloms some of these others girls seem to have had. They told me there is always a problem in the family. But, I don't think there has been. She told me this while hospitalized inpatient for her illness. However, after enduring 9 weeks inpatient in a place that spent a lot of time searching' for reasons (luckily they did try to refeed her too), she came away feeling that we weren't' letting her grow up, that we'd smothered her, that we wanted to keep her a baby' and that her ED was caused by her father. I would have laughed if I hadn't felt like crying. I just wanted to keep her alive and safe which I hadn't seemed to be doing a very good job of at home. This was almost 10 years ago now and NONE of these reasons had entered my mind. When I expressed my love by holding or hugging her, it was frowned upon (she was 14 and quite ill and I simply loved her). I just wanted her to know and feel it. I got odd looks and comments for it. I doubt I would have gotten those looks if she'd been in the hospital with cancer. And I felt like she was dying. She'd lost a third of her body weight. She wasn't acting rationally or like herself at all. I was just responding to a very sick child and it wasn't at all helpful to have that natural response in a time of acute stress and crisis made into a pathology. I was very much shut out not allowed to even see her. Had I not been so desperate to get food in her and keep it there, I would have pulled her out of that place in a nano second. But, I have been living with the psychological damage this did our family ever since as I feel my daughter views our relationship (and herself) as not quite the same as it once was, a bit damaged as though we'd done' something to her. It saddens and angers me. No family should ever have to go through this.
Wel done on fantastic work.