It is February, which means it is time for us to recognize National Eating Disorder Awareness month, some only do a week, but I feel that this cause deserves at least a month of getting people's attention. I plan on writing as many blogs as I can during this time to raise awareness of this serious epidemic, sharing facts, and even my own personal battle that nearly took my life.
There are so many myths that people still believe about eating disorders, so I've decided to devote this post to debunking a lot of the myths out there that are making it harder to raise awareness about how deadly eating disorders are. Without properly educating the community we will continue to go in circles as we fight to get proper treatment coverage for those suffering from all different types of eating disorders.
Myth 1: You can tell if a person has an eating disorder simply by looking at their appearance.
Fact: Eating disorders come in all shapes an sizes, a person could be underweight, normal weight, or even overweight and still be suffering a life threatening eating disorder. Just because a person may seem okay on the outside doesn't mean that malnutrition is not destroying them on the inside. The number on the scale does not always give an accurate description of what is going on inside, like the stress that malnutrition puts on a person's heart. I almost lost my life at a 'stable' weight because once I was no longer severely underweight everyone thought things were okay and my electrolytes were in really bad shape. STOP THIS THINKING THAT IF A PERSON IS NOT EMACIATED THEY MUST NOT BE THAT SICK!
Myth 2: Eating disorders are a teenage girl disease, specifically rich, white girl disease.
Fact: It is true that around 95% of eating disorders develop between the ages of 12 and 25. While most cases are girls roughly 10-15% of those diagnosed with eating disorders are male. There has also been more and more cases of individuals coming forward struggling from eating disorders who are in their middle ages, a lot of these are women who were ashamed to come forward because they believed the myth that only young girls struggle with eating disorders. Eating disorders do not discriminate between sex, age, race, and esp income. If only 'rich' individuals were suffering from eating disorders there wouldn't be so many people that are dying because they can't afford the treatment they so desperately need.
Myth 3: Eating disorders are about food and being thin.
Fact: IT IS NOT ABOUT THE FOOD!!!!! If I could scream that from the mountain tops I would. In my case, I used my anorexia to deal with a lot of troubles I was having at home. I blamed my weight and food for my mom's drinking and my dad not really being around. Instead of dealing with my feelings I starved them away. When I was restricting I couldn't think of anything except food and calories, and it didn't matter what else was going on in life. If a guy broke up with me I starved, if I got a B I starved, if my mom got drunk I starved, if the sun came up I starved...it was my way of dealing with feelings, controlling my own pain. Everyone has a different reason, but none of them are about food or being thin, those are the symptoms to an underlying problem.
Myth 4: People with eating disorders try to use their disease to punish those who care about them.
Fact: As much as parents and loved ones try to blame themselves for a person's eating disorder it isn't their fault. It is a biological problem that some have a predisposition to. We are not trying to punish you by not eating or by purging, we simply lack the coping skills to handle life without turning to our eating disorders. I never wanted to hurt my family and I hated myself for causing them any pain, but I couldn't help it. My anorexia became a compulsion in my head making the person I was go somewhere else and I would become a walking, talking eating disorder. My whole world revolved around food and calories, and I would say awful things to my family and friends who tried to encourage me or force me to follow a meal plan. I wasn't doing this to punish them, my ED was digging it's heels in doing anything it could to stop people from trying to separate us. I believed that I had to have my ED to survive, it was the only protection I had from the outside world. The only person I ever tried to punish was me, not my family.
Myth 5: Purging simply means throwing up.
Fact: Purging can be any action used to 'get rid' of the calories that a person has consumed. Purging can be vomiting up everything that was consumed, taking excessive amounts of laxatives and/or diuretics to clear your system, and purging can also be exercising excessively trying to burn off all the calories that a person has consumed. I use to spend hours on a treadmill running off even the smallest amount of intake.
Myth 6: Purging isn't that dangerous.
Fact: Purging is extremely dangerous and can be fatal. Throwing up excessively can lead to severe dehydration, depleting the body of the electrolytes it needs so desperately to function like potassium. When a person's potassium gets dangerously low they run the risk of heart attack and even cardiac arrest. There have been so many lives lost when someone goes to bed after a purging episode, they seem fine, and come morning they are found with their heart given out. There are also risks of vomiting after a binge like rupturing your stomach, which if not treated immediately will lead to death. People who vomit on a regular basis often deal with severe dental problems from erosion, small tears in their esophagus, low blood pressure, and dangerous electrolyte imbalances that can lead to heart attack or worse.
Myth 7: Not that many people actually die from eating disorders.
Fact: Anorexia has the highest mortality rate for any other mental illness. More and more people are dying everyday from eating disorders because they do not have access to the treatment they so desperately need. A person doesn't have to be emaciated to go to bed one night and never wake up again, and without proper treatment the epidemic is going to keep getting worse, and younger and younger kids are going to die from eating disorders that could be prevented if they were offered the proper help. With adequate treatment, meaning the treatment center keeps the patient as long as they see fit to help the person find recovery, not when the insurance company who had never even seen the patient decides after two weeks that they are ready to be moved to out patient there is a sixty percent chance that a person can find a lasting recovery. Without treatment the number of deaths due to all eating disorders, not just anorexia or bulimia are going to continue to rise. This is not counting the people who fight and fight unable to get treatment and eventually take their own lives in an effort to stop their suffering.
These are just a few of many myths that people often believe about eating disorders. If we don't start making changes things are only going to get worse. Children as young as six years old are being hospitalized and force fed because they believe they are too fat. I couldn't imagine developing my anorexia at just six years old, you are suppose to be running around outside, playing make believe, not worrying about what you eat or what a scale says. When people hear the world eating disorder they immediately go to a severely emaciated anorexic and that is because the media has put it out there like that. Not all anorexics look like they are going to blow away in a strong wind, and you can't always spot a sufferer with just your eyes. People with eating disorders are very good at hiding, protecting their disease, and often professional help is the only way to combat these illnesses.
This is the first of many eating disorder centered blog posts that will come this month and I pray that they make a difference to someone because I'm tired of losing my friends to these awful illnesses. I nearly lost my battle almost eight years ago, and everyday I still have to make the choice to keep fighting. We have to be the change we want to see, and the only way things are going to get better is if we scream out as loud as we can and as long as we can. It is time to stop this, it is time to make it possible for people to get the help they need, to make the insurance companies recognize eating disorders as serious and life threatening illnesses that need to be treated just like a drug addict needs to go to rehab. Please don't be silent.
