Eating Disorders Awareness - Part 1: How not to do it

Now Eating Disorders Awareness Week has passed, it is no less important that we keep banging the drum of awareness. Eating Disorders don't only affect the sufferer (and their support network) for one week of the year, and awareness needs to be for every day too.

But for all the amazing awareness campaigners, advocates and organisations doing brilliant things, there is a fair share of "Awareness" that risks doing more harm than good. I'll try to put a selection on thig blog, it's not an exhaustive list though, and if in doubt, please check out the BEAT Guidelines (Eating Disorder Media Guidelines - Beat (beateatingdisorders.org.uk)

1. "Before" or "Sick" Photos

A common one from a lot of the media, but sadly a growing number of advocates, especially on Instagram. This involves showing a "before" picture, usually of someone severely underweight, followed by an "after" photo, often of them in fitness gear. The media also uses it a lot for "impact" and to get clicks from people as it is visually striking.

Pictures like this do not help raise awareness, actually they can do the opposite. They can perpetuate a stigma that eating disorders are all about being underweight, when actually it is only about 7% of sufferers. Images like this can also be incredibly triggering to people who are struggling, especially as eating disorders can be competitive illnesses.

They may get clicks and reactions, but they do not help raise awareness or work through the stigma.

2. Using Specific Weight/Numbers

How often do we see "Their weight plummeted to just XX Stone", or "They died with a BMI of only XX".

Similar to the issues with "Sick" photos, this only perpetuates stigma about eating disorders. The stigma that they are only people who are underweight as well as stigma that only people who are underweight are at high risk from eating disorders. 

The truth is that anyone, of any body size can suffer, eating disorders are incredibly diverse, and being underweight is just one of many risk factors.

3. Only interviewing/platforming young, white, cisgender women with Anorexia

This is common in the media. Raising awareness with no diversity is not awareness, it is stigma.

We need to see more diversity, this includes diversity of:

  • Body size
  • Gender
  • Diagnosis
  • Ethnicity
  • Age
  • Religion
  • Social Class
4. Using the word "Eating Disorder" when you mean "Anorexia", or talking about Anorexia like it's the only eating disorder

Anorexia is one eating disorder diagnosis, and actually is the least common of the "well known" eating disorders (Anorexia, Bulimia, Binge Eating Disorders).

Using the word "Eating Disorder" interchangeably with "Anorexia" once again only adds to the stigma and misunderstanding that Anorexia is the *Only* eating disorder that's important or serious enough to deserve awareness.

5. Double Standards

How often do we see articles about Eating Disorders, their dangers and the huge rise in suffering, followed by an advert for Slimming World, Noom or any other bulls...t diet plan, or an article on the "Ob*sity Epidemic"?

It undoes all the great work on raising awareness by sideswiping everyone with a barrage of weight stigma and fatphobia.

6. MORE Double Standards

"CELEBRITY XX's amazing weight loss journey" is another way they gaslight eating disorders.

I have seen amazing articles about eating disorders, weight stigma and how we need to adopt a HAES approach, followed by a headline like this, and thousands of comments congratulating them on "looking amazing".

It goes against everything we are trying to do to help people and wider society.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

There are (sadly) lots more than just these too, the media (and Social Media) is a barrage of hypocrisy, stigma, ignorance and misunderstanding.

What else would you add to the list? Please add your thoughts to the comments. My next blog will be focused on how things could be better to raise awareness in the right way.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

  Why I’m done with healthcare This hasn’t been easy to write, as I’m sure it might feel uncomfortable to read for many. I understand this and please know this is my own personal decision, and I would never want to discourage anyone else from seeking support or medical care. Your life and care should be totally up to you to decide, and you 100% deserve support if you want it.   After spending over half my life trying, my parents going through hell, and being let down time after time, I’ve made the decision to write an Advanced Decision, essentially refusing most life-sustaining care should my body start to give up. To understand where I am at today, you’ve first got to go back to when I was 11 years old, over 15 years ago… Moving to Secondary School and having some severe bowel issues compounded to trigger a pretty severe eating disorder, and even more severe (undiagnosed Autistic) meltdown & overwhelm. Since that day, I and my family have fought, fought some mor...
Read more

Loved Ones Suffer Too

Image
When we talk about eating disorders, most of the time the attention is solely focused on the sufferer, the one with the eating disorder, the debilitating symptoms, the physical, emotional, social and financial damage that it can cause the individual who is struggling. As a sufferer myself, I have seen this first hand, and it's always made me feel a bit uneasy, because I see this as only half of the true story. The other half is my family. I have seen 14 years of my parents, my brother, everyone I love and who loves me, suffering too - but barely getting a mention other than to look for a "cause" to my eating disorder. My parents have had to face guilt and feeling like they could have done something differently to prevent my suffering, they've had to face stigma from other parents, from wider society, and even from eating disorders services. They have had to face 14 years of seeing their son struggling... I cannot imagine how hard that must be. My brother has suffered ...
Read more

Stomas, Bowel Issues and Eating Disorders - The Balancing Act

Image
There is no doubt, living with an Eating Disorder is hard. Your mind using any excuse to revert to the disordered behaviours that maintain the illness. What can make it even harder is living with other chronic health issues at the same time. The constant balancing act of trying to manage both in the best way possible without ever really getting it right. Two of these issues for me is living with my Stoma and Chronic Bowel Issues. For those who aren't fully aware, I will be doing lots on Stomas in the near future. But here I want to focus on the effects of it, and my wider bowel issues, and how that can really impact my eating disorder. My stoma was needed because of chronic constipation and a bowel prolapse, something I had before my eating disorder, but the ED has exacerbated the issue, and caused me to do irreparable damage to my digestive system. Digestive issues are known complications of eating disorders too. My stoma affects my life in a lot of ways: It means I have to i...
Read more