Myth Busting on Eating Disorders

{image credit :: jeredb}

Eating disorders are serious, life-threatening mental and physical illnesses. I repeat: Eating disorders are serious, life-threatening mental and physical illnesses.

Got it?

With all of the tireless advocacy work that organizations around the globe are doing, I am hopeful that this message is being transmitted. Being tuned in to the efforts of such organizations as NEDA, ANAD, Generation Mirror, Eating Disorder Network of Maryland, and more, I see champions of this cause fighting endlessly to spread awareness about these disorders.

But we’re not there yet.

Myths about eating disorders abound. Perhaps most prevalent is the notion that eating disorders only impact young, white females, and that they are disorders of vanity. People won’t say this, at least not often and typically not to my face, but I see the vestiges of these old beliefs everywhere – insurance companies that won’t recognize eating disorders as the potentially fatal medial conditions that they are, tee-shirts sold by major retailers that paint eating disorders as a fashion statement, and even eating disorder campaigns that focus solely on a small segment of those affected.

Again, I am hopeful that the tides are turning and that reality of these illnesses are becoming more apparent. Today, over half of Americans know someone with or have an eating disorder. To be a better parent, co-worker, cousin, son, or friend, shouldn’t we know the truth?

Here are five of the lesser talked about myths that I come across regularly:

MYTH: Eating disorder treatment is too expensive and insurance won’t help.

FACT: The best eating disorder treatment is individualized and often includes a combination of psychotherapy, nutritional therapy, medical monitoring, and other types of treatment (such as family therapy, expressive therapies, and more). The cost of such treatment varies somewhat by such factors as geographic location, the licensure of the clinicians, and the availability of services in an area. However, treatment for an eating disorder is vital for full recovery, and most treatment centers will work with an individual to help them get the services that they need. While we often hear tragic stories of insurance companies denying payment, there are many insurance companies who do regularly pay for treatment, especially at lower levels of care (e.g. intensive outpatient services). The only way to know whether your insurance company will cover treatment is to speak with them directly. One’s doctors and other providers can also advocate for payment, and there are also actions one can take to appeal a decision of an insurance company. To learn more about this, visit NEDA’s page.

MYTH: Eating disorders are caused by bad parenting.

FACT: People with eating disorders often have difficult relationships with family. People without eating disorders also often have difficult relationships with family. While history has been full of accounts of how narcissistic, hypercritical, and unloving parents have pushed their children into eating disorders, today most experts agree that parents do not cause eating disorders. This is not to say that familial influence does not play a role in the way that an eating disorder is expressed, but we also know that the development of an eating disorder is multi-faceted. It involves a complex combination of genetic predisposition, temperament, learning, stress, and more. In fact, most individuals rely on their families for support during a battle with an eating disorder, and family can be one’s biggest champion.

MYTH: People who binge eat just need willpower.

FACT: Binge eating is part of both Bulimia Nervosa and Binge Eating Disorder, and is also often a part of other disorders as well. Binge eating can occur in response to a period of restricting food intake, emotional stress, or for other reasons. It does not, however, occur in response to a lack of willpower. Individuals who struggle with binging are from every age, gender, ethnic group, sexual orientation, and faith. They are also of every size, shape, and weight, and it’s not possible to tell whether someone has this issue by looking and him or her. You also cannot tell how much of this mythical “willpower” that an individual possesses simply by looking at what they eat. Binge eating is a serious and often very distressing issue, and one that requires both compassion and persistence to treat effectively.

MYTH: Everyone who has an eating disorder has been abused.

FACT: While our intuition or even clinical experience tells us that those individuals with eating disorders are more likely to have experienced trauma, research generally does not support this. Data usually shows that approximately 50% of the population have experienced trauma, a number that also holds true among individuals with eating disorders. Trauma can be a somewhat subjective idea, however, and the impact of events can differ greatly among individuals depending on many factors — age, supports, and resiliency, to name a few. When a trauma has occurred and is determined to be entwined with an eating disorder, it is often the case that an individual will need to address this as part of their treatment.

MYTH: To recover from an eating disorder, one just needs to start eating normally.

FACT: If only this were the case… Too many individuals have been told this by loved ones who they themselves were desperate for a way to help the person suffering. While developing “normal eating”, as defined by eating an amount appropriate to provide necessary calories and nutrients, is a vital part of the recovery process, it is not the only part. Individuals in recovery often have to start by recognizing their disordered eating patterns and even develop a sense of what normalized eating is. For some, eating issues have been part of their lives since being a young child and they have only a vague idea of what constitutes a healthy meal. Eating disorder treatment also often involves other important components, like developing alternative means of expressing one’s self, building self-esteem, andreconnecting with relationships.

For more myths, and the truth behind them, check out Generation Mirror.

What eating disorder myths have you heard?