For the majority, passing school, getting a decent job and pursuing a successful career is what will gain them a happy, fulfilled life. Sadly for hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders, according to Eating Disorders Association of New Zealand (EDANZ), recovering from their eating disorder is more important than anything else. Imagine a person with long dark hair, freckles on their face, big brown eyes, and in the opinion of many, has a nice slim body. This person has an unhealthy, underweight BMI but they are applauded by society for maintaining an ‘attractive’ body image. Or imagine someone with short blonde hair, blue eyes, who is overweight and gets taunted constantly by people purely because of their size. Both of these people have an eating disorder, but in society, one of these eating disorders is more well-known than the other. I believe that there isn’t enough information about eating disorders for people to understand what it is and what effects it has.
Stereotypically, majority of teenagers associate eating disorders as bulimia or anorexia. According to http://www.anad.org/ (ANAD), Binge-Eating Disorder (BED) joined the ranks with Anorexia Nervosa (AN) and Bulimia Nervosa (BN) as an “official” eating disorder back in 1997. It has been a near on 18 years since BED became an official eating disorder, yet not many people know about it. Why is it that eating disorders are perceived as losing large amounts of weight rather than gaining it? My opinion on this is that it is more socially acceptable to taunt an overweight person rather than a scrawny person and I think it is utterly disgusting that it is even acceptable to torment others based on their physical size. The truth is that anorexia, bulimia and binge eating are all the same types of eating disorders, only they’re on different ends of the spectrum.
On the other hand, I don’t blame teenagers for thinking anorexia and bulimia are the only two eating disorders. I blame the media. ANAD states that 47% of girls in 5th-12th grade reported wanting to lose weight because of magazine pictures. A further 69% of girls in 5th-12th grade reported that magazine pictures influenced their idea of a perfect body shape. What exactly is a perfect shape? Is it the tumblr boys and girls you see on your device? The Victoria’s Secret models that you see on billboards? I think that the media is at the heart and soul of promoting eating disorders and I despise people who have the audacity to claim a certain shape is the ‘perfect’ body size.
There are multiple cause and effects that eating disorders have. Eating disorders are very complex conditions that start from the long-established behavioral factors. The psychological, interpersonal, social and biological aspects of eating disorders are all behavioral factors that will damage a person’s physical and emotional health. According to ANAD, almost 50% of people with eating disorders meet the criteria for depression, and only 1 in 10 men and women with eating disorders receive treatment. Information about eating disorders isn’t something that our society likes to talk about in public and because of that, many people feel ashamed and have to hide their illness. Eating disorders are illnesses that can’t be resolved straight away and I don’t think many people understand that. You can’t exactly tell someone with an eating disorder to ‘eat more’ or ‘eat less’. It’s like telling someone with asthma that they should ‘get over it’ because there’s so much air in the world.
As you can see, eating disorders don’t always associate with losing large amounts of weight. Also, the media has an affect on those who want to have the ‘perfect’ body and the effects of eating disorders can’t be resolved instantly. Information about eating disorders should be more well-known so that our society don’t feel the need to hide and be ashamed of their eating disorder. It is time for us to band together and help those who are struggling with this illness.
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