Eating Disorders--Not Really About Food

Considering the umbrella term, it is hard to understand how “eating disorders” are not really about food. With a single Google-search, an individual is bombarded by information relating eating disorders to a “culture of thinness” and “fear of fat”—although these are certainly factors, societal misperceptions of bulimia nervosa, anorexia, and binge eating disorder both marginalize and stigmatize victims.

The over-abundance of information related to eating disorders contributes to the cultural misunderstandings of the disease; while access to information is key to recovery, not all sources are good sources. A lack of reliable and well-circulated information has hidden the fact that an eating disorder is really a relationship disorder—relationships with oneself, and with others.
An individual suffering with an eating disorder uses weight, food, and fat as a manifestation of other deep-seated issues, and utilizes this “superficial” problem to cope with the trauma of underlying factors. Thus, feelings of sadness, anxiety, anger, depression, shame or guilt are not dealt with, but redirected through the funnel of food. While familial dysfunction or traumatic experiences such as rape or abuse may be hard to overcome, weight/food obsession provides a problem that is "treatable", and results that are attainable—at the expense of one’s body, mind, and life.

In this mind-frame, food becomes an avenue to punish oneself. A victim may feel that she or he does not deserve to eat, and thus the disorder becomes a masochistic avenue of self-discipline. One recovering anorexic shared that by starving herself to the point where she could only think about food, she did not have to deal with the recent and painful death of her father.

As eating disorders continue to be pushed to the sidelines as “vain,” “silly” or “superficial,” both victims and survivors are silenced by shame and criticism. This gross misunderstanding and unwarrented stigma cultivates an environment where it is difficult to find relief, difficult for friends and family to help, and difficult for survivors to vocalize personal experiences and mentor others. As one recovering bulimic shared, “There is nothing vain about throwing up into a public toilet.”

To understand the nature of eating disorders, one must take a deeper look—there is more to the story than a snap-shot perspective. The shame associated with anorexia, bulimia, and binge-eating only exacerbates the problem; eating disorders are heard of predominately through Hollywood and the entertainment industry. In order to create an environment of healing, we must first create an environment of understanding.