A Guide to Eating Disorders

Debunking ED Myths

This post was inspired by, once again, the lovely URNotALoneLostSoul. I am going to find some common eating disorder myths online, and then debunk them. This does go hand-in-hand with my last article, but I feel like a separate article is necessary to fully evaluate this. These are not in any specific order, besides the rate at which I came up with them.

MYTH #1: Eating disorders are not serious; they are a lifestyle choice or about vanity

Eating disorders, through and through, are mental illnesses/disorders. The definition of a mental disorder is "A mental disorder is a syndrome characterized by clinically significant disturbance in an individual's cognition, emotion regulation, or behavior that reflects a dysfunction in the psychological, biological, or developmental processes underlying mental functioning." What that means is that the actual brain chemistry of an individual changes as the mental illness 'settles in'. There are also some serious studies done that confirm that those with eating disorders may actually have a cognitive predominance towards an eating disorder. They are in no way a choice, and while BDD-influenced ones appear to be about vanity or appearance, most are about control.

Rewritten fact; Eating disorders are very serious; they are not a lifestyle choice or predominantly about vanity.

MYTH #2: Dieting is a normal part of life

Dieting, while it has been heavily normalized within Western civilization, is not actually a normal part of life. Dieting is usually started because of an insecurity about body weight and that is also the first warning sign of a BDD-influenced eating disorder. There are also cases where it is recommended medically to become healthier, but a large percentage is people wanting to become a different body type. Of course, it would be absurd to state that all dieting leads to an eating disorder, but dieting focuses on not liking one's body and trying to change that, which is basically the starting psychological process of an eating disorder.

Rewritten fact; Dieting has been normalized in modern society, but it is in no way normal.

MYTH #3: Eating disorders are a cry for attention or a person 'going through a phase'

Quite honestly, I could just copy-paste my answer to myth #1, which answers this as well, but I'm going to tackle this in detail too.

Similarly to when a person self-harms or is otherwise mentally implicated, eating disorders are not a cry for attention. Most will attempt to hide their disorder as long as they can out of embarrassment, a want for privacy, or other reasons. The only exception to this is people that "cry for help" online with images of flowers, spoons of peanut butter and soulful quotes. This is still a mental illness, and that's just the way of coping and expressing themselves. It's certainly not healthy, and deep down, it's still just a mental illness, not a cry for attention.

And again, eating disorders are mental illnesses. They are in no way phases--mental illnesses are not developed to be a phase, nor to be for anything. Certianly not a cry for attention.

Rewritten fact; Eating disorders aren't phases and those with them aren't trying to get attention.

MYTH #4: Families, particularly parents, are to blame for eating disorders

As I mentioned in one of my other answers, there is significant research that states that eating disorders, are, in fact, genetically influenced. While the nurture received in one's life may affect their likelihood of developing an eating disorder, it really comes down to the brain chemicals. I, as well as most scientists experienced in the field of eating disorders, agree that in this case, nature is predominant in the nature vs. nurture argument. Being told that you're too-this/too-that will affect you, but it can really only do so much.