UnEDucated

Eating Disorders have too many myths for me to count, and these myths are incredibly frustrating for those who are suffering; we're often left feeling misunderstood and invalidated. This blog post is aimed at debunking just a handful of the uneducated beliefs about eating disorders.

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Eating disorders are mental illnesses that, as a result, have physical consequences. Too many people believe that you can 'see' an eating disorder, but just like you cannot 'see' depression or schizophrenia occurring within a person's mind, you cannot see every eating disorder, and certainly not at every stage. I have been at very low weights and been eating adequately, and equally, I have been at higher weights and been restricting so much that it was terrifying to those around me.

Eating disorders have no specific number; they are a feeling inside your mind that strangles your happiness and health.

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A common misconception is that eating disorders only fit the demographic of the malnourished 16-year-old girl. However, eating disorders manifest in men and women at all ages. I became unwell with an eating disorder at only 9 years old, and I've been in treatment with both men and women who were ages between 15 and 70. Yes, the range was this wide. I believe more people would seek recovery and aid if the landing were softer. This soft landing could occur in the form of nurses, doctors, and other treating health professionals being educated about who eating disorders actually affect, how to determine how unwell a person is beyond the BMI, and removing the stigma and triggering comments that exist alongside that.

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There is an all-too-common misconception that all people with eating disorders are promoting it online by simply existing in a thin body. Everyone, regardless of how their body looks, has the right to have an online presence, to connect with their friends, family, and followers on social media, and to exist in both the real and digital worlds. I have been receiving comments online for years that are hateful and presumptuous on all of my photos, even ones purely showing my hands.

A person existing is not a person promoting.

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I could go on for days, and weeks, Dolls, about this topic, but I won’t. For now, what I can recommend is that you listen to the people who actually go through an eating disorder and not allow the presence that eating disorders have in the media to sway the only voice that really counts, and that is the voice of a person who has an eating disorder.

Kisses,

COS x