5 common myths about eating disorders
“Eating disorders only affect young, White, heterosexual, affluent females.”
“Eating disorders are about food and an individual’s obsession with ‘looking good.’”
“Eating disorders can be cured by eating.”
These are myths about eating disorders that the general public has subscribed to over the years thanks to—among other things—media portrayals of these exact situations and types of people. But these are not facts.
Below, I explore some of the common myths about eating disorders and do my best to bust those myths and reveal the truth.
Myth #1: Eating disorders only affect young, White, heterosexual, affluent females
After-school TV specials of the 80s and 90s depicted characters with eating disorders as young, White, female, heterosexual, and often from an upper-middle-class family.
Even today, documentary and reality TV characters with eating disorders tend to fit into this demographic. But the unseen truth is that eating disorders affect people of every age, race, gender, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic status.
Age
Eating disorders not only can develop at any age, but they also can re-emerge at any age. Diagnoses have been made for children as young as 5 years old, and in patients old enough for the Nutrition CARE Act to fight for the inclusion of medical nutrition therapy in Medicare coverage for eating disorders.
Gender & Sexual Orientation
Not only do eating disorders affect all demographics, but they also have been rising in prevalence among men and non-binary individuals during the past decade, and some studies suggest that men with eating disorders have a higher mortality rate than women. The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) reports that 10% of those who present with symptoms of eating disorders are male.
Fifteen percent of gay or bisexual men and 5% of heterosexual men reported having a full or subthreshold eating disorder at some point in their lives, based on a 2007 study from the International Journal of Eating Disorders.
Race & Ethnicity
Like all mental illnesses, eating disorders transcend race and ethnicity, and in some cases are even more prevalent but less recognized.
A few studies from the early ‘10s have revealed that Black teenagers are 50% more likely to exhibit bulimic behavior than White teenagers and that Hispanic adolescents were significantly more likely to suffer from bulimia nervous than their non-Hispanic peers.
This myth has seeped its way into healthcare providers’ subconscious, as well, as patients who do not fit into these categories often face institutional barriers to accessing treatment.
Myth #2: Eating disorders are about food and an individual’s obsession with “looking good”
Unfortunately, eating disorders cannot be neatly classified as a “diet gone wrong,” solvable simply by eating healthy and exercising moderately.
Although the main activity of the disease is in the name (“eating”), this is usually just a symptom of a larger issue that an individual is using food and body image to placate. It is not uncommon for eating disorders to be accompanied or fueled by other psychosocial conditions like depression, anxiety, and/or obsessive-compulsive disorder.
While messages about diets and losing weight may be a factor in the exacerbation of one’s symptoms, the deep-rooted causes and emergence of the disorder and symptoms are often internal. In other words, genes load the gun, and environment pulls the trigger.
Myth #3: People with eating disorders look sick
Is it true that those with anorexia nervosa may exhibit a severely low body weight? Yes.
Is this always the case? Not even close.
Because eating disorders involve all types of behaviors (restricting, overexercising, bingeing, purging, or bingeing without purging, etc.), the appearance of one’s body, the numerical weight that appears on a scale (which can vary depending on which scale you're standing on), and results of common diagnostic tests usually have no bearing on the general health of the individual when it comes to eating disorders.
Eating disorders are psychological illnesses, the causes of which are mostly rooted in what’s going on inside the person’s head. They may use food, body image, exercise, and other behaviors to quell uncomfortable feelings or to find control in a world in which they feel exceedingly out of control.
Myth #4: Eating disorders can be cured by eating
If it were that easy, eating disorders wouldn’t plague the 30 million people around the world.
As mentioned on NEDA’s website, eating disorders are “bio-psycho-social diseases, which means that genetic, biological, environmental, and social elements all play a role.”
Because of these classifications, recovering from an eating disorder requires far more than nutritional therapy. It also requires frequent medical monitoring, psychotherapy, and sometimes psychiatric therapy for medication.
Myth #5: Eating disorders are a choice
If those with eating disorders could wake up one day and simply choose to no longer suffer, I promise they would. I would have, too.
Eating disorders are not a choice and they’re not just a “diet gone too far.” Eating disorders create a second voice inside your head that constantly berates you, dictates what you’re allowed to eat and how much you need to exercise, and will tell you anything necessary to keep you dependent on it.
It takes years to undo the damage that undereating, overexercising, bingeing, and purging have done to the body, and it also takes years to learn how to push the voice out of your head and replace it with a healthier script.
While in the throes of an eating disorder, individuals become attached and dependent on the voice of the disorder and the thought of breaking away from this comfort can seem insurmountable. Sufferers have been brainwashed against trusting their own voices and therefore they must rely on the intruder’s voice. But with therapy, nutritional counseling, medical monitoring, and other methods of treatment, it’s possible to shove the disorder out and make room for a healthier, more authentic voice. Your voice.
Pause & Prompt
What’s one misconception about eating disorders that you wish more people understood?
