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.

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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.