Eating Disorder Awareness: What You Can Do

I didn’t know I had an eating disorder.

I thought I just couldn’t control myself around food.

I thought I was “being good” by counting calories and trying to eat less.

I thought that the time had inevitably come when I’d have to start worrying about my weight like I saw other people do, especially as they got older. I was 22. 

Eventually, it became clear that this was a problem, it was taking over my life, and I needed help. 

Even after I went through treatment, I still didn’t realize that my ED was sneaking up on me in ways I again thought were “good” or “healthy,” like skipping breakfast if I felt bloated from eating a lot the night before, or ignoring my hunger until I thought it was an “appropriate” time to eat or because I wanted to be hungry enough to deserve my next meal.

For this National Eating Disorder Awareness week, I want you to know that eating disorders don’t have a “look.” And the scary thing is that sometimes we don’t even realize we have one, because disordered behaviors like the ones aforementioned are often celebrated in our society. 

What can we do to bring more awareness to eating disorders?

Refrain from praising weight loss 

Weight loss is not always a good thing, even for larger people. Thin does not equal “healthy,” and we don’t always know the whole story. People in larger bodies can have eating disorders, but they are often overlooked because they’re not “thin enough” for the diagnosis. People can lose weight due to illness, including invisible illness, including eating disorders. Even if a person isn’t rail thin, complementing their smaller body could be reinforcing their disordered behaviors.

Actually, it’s a good practice to avoid commenting on people’s bodies in general. There are so many other things to talk about besides physical appearance, and by shifting our focus to other things, we can lessen the significance that our culture places on beauty.

Be mindful of the way you talk about food

Commenting on how much food is on someone’s plate can be really triggering for people in recovery. I’ve had people look at my full plate at a potluck and say in disbelief, “WOW! You’re really going to eat all that?!” Last time that happened, I just walked away. The response I really wanted to give is “mind your own fucking business and focus on your own plate.” 

Other things to be sensitive about in conversation are calories, moralizing food (and moralizing ourselves for what we eat – “I’ve been so bad!”), and “making up for” or “burning off” what we’ve eaten. You can’t always tell what people are struggling with, so awareness and sensitivity is important to employ when discussing food and weight with ANYBODY. 

We can change the cultural paradigm around these issues by changing our conversations.  

Set boundaries around diet talk

 You can bring awareness to people close to you by letting them know how diet talk affects you. It’s perfectly acceptable to say something like, “Hey, I’m working on healing my relationship with food, and this kind of stuff you’re talking about can really get in the way of that. It would be really helpful if we could not talk about it anymore.” 

Most of the time, I just ignore diet talk and quickly change the subject. It definitely can still get under my skin though, so I have to do a lot of self-talk and reframing to make sure I don’t get sucked back in. 

Talk about it

Talking about experiences with disordered eating or eating disorder recovery helps normalize the conversation. You don’t have to tell the whole world that you’re in recovery like me (ha!) but it can help others feel more comfortable talking about it. Eating disorders are often shrouded in shame; that’s why I didn’t talk about it for a long time. If more of us talked about it, perhaps it wouldn’t be so shameful because we’d know we’re not alone.