Myths and Stereotypes
Myth: Eating disorders only occur in females
One in four children and one in ten adults with eating disorders are males – and recent research indicates that the incidence of eating disorders in males is increasing, particularly for eating disorders such as binge eating disorder. Preliminary research on Binge Eating Disorder indicates that this disorder occurs at an equal rate between males and females. Daniel Johns, the lead singer of Silverchair, is one example of a male who struggled with Anorexia Nervosa for years.
Myth: Eating disorders only occur in young people
Although the onset of eating disorders ifs primarily during adolescents, eating disorders can persist long into the adult years. It is also possible to develop eating disorders as an adult, or people my present for treatment for the first time as an adult – despite suffering for many years in secrecy.
Myth: Eating disorders are only serious when someone is emaciated
You cannot tell how serious an eating disorder is just by looking at someone and/or weighing them. Although weight loss is an obvious sign of anorexia nervosa – someone with bulimia nervosa or EDNOS could be of normal weight or higher and still have serious health complications. Other things to take into consideration include associated behavioural / psychological characteristics, for example depression and anxiety disorders are very common amongst sufferers of eating disorders. In fact, sufferers of eating disorders are 37X more likely to commit suicide compared to their healthy counterparts. Some types of eating disorders are associated with high risk factors, such as substance abuse or self-harm. So it is important to treat each case seriously regardless of the person’s current weight status.
Myth: Subclinical eating disorders are not serious
Even if someone doesn’t fit the full diagnostic criteria for an eating disorder they may well be on their way to developing full-blown disorder. Research indicates the earlier the eating disorder is treated – the better the prognosis. Eating disorders, even in subclinical forms, can have a huge impact on the family and early treatment is essential. It often takes months for someone to get up the courage to see their GP about their concerns – and an attitude like this could completely undermine their attempt to seek help.
All eating disorders have serious physical and psychological consequences. Subclinical eating disorders, such as Eating Disorders Not Otherwise Specified (EDNOS) describes the majority of sufferers. However this does not mean that their condition is not as serious as a person whose condition meets the strict criteria for Anorexia or Bulimia Nervosa. Rather, it reflects the difficulty faced by mental health professionals in organizing diagnostic categories that accurately capture the widely varying conditions in which psychological illnesses exist.
Myth: Dieting is normal adolescent behaviour and girls/boys will grow out of it
Frequent and extreme dieting is the biggest risk factor in the development of an eating disorder. Any attempts to lose weight by cutting out whole food groups, skipping meal or other risky behaviour should be taken seriously.
Myth: Eating disorders are only about food and weight
Eating disorders are serious psychological illnesses where dieting and eating behaviour and thoughts about body shape and weight become a distressing focus of one’s life; often as a way of dealing with underlying unresolved emotional and psychological issues. Telling someone to ‘just eat’ will only prove that you don’t understand.
The sufferer’s entire belief system often becomes skewed so that they come to believe that they are inherently worthless/defective, that they are “bad” and deserve to be punished, and believe that they are unable to cope with external stressors in a healthier way. Often they will have a strict set of internal rules which they live their life by, and have dysfunctional thought patterns which they do not recognize as such. It is also important to realize that often the person with the eating disorder will be battling more than one mental illness – because eating disorders share comorbidity with other psychological illnesses such as depression and anxiety disorders, it really does not make sense to tell them to “snap out of it” or to “just eat” – the person’s underlying and unresolved psychological issues will need to be addressed.
Myth: Eating disorders are caused by the media and are only about appearance and wanting to ‘look good’
Socio-cultural factors such as the ‘thin ideal’ do contribute to body image problems in men and women in our society. However, it is known that eating disorders are complex illnesses whose causes are multi-factorial and cannot be explained by exposure to unrealistic media images alone. Not everyone who is exposed to these images goes on to develop an eating disorder.
It is difficult to isolate a ’cause’ as eating disorders are complex and multi-faceted illnesses. A meta-analysis* of over 200 reports found dieting to be the biggest risk factor, while other common factors included thin-ideal internalization, negative affect, perfectionism, and body dissatisfaction. It is unknown how much dieting, socio-cultural factors, nurture, and genetic susceptibility contributes to the ’cause’. Unfortunately, this inability to isolate a cause means that currently there is no guaranteed ‘cure’ for eating disorders. Other factors that prolong recovery include patient-professional compatibility, health care access, financial status, motivation to change, etc. While early intervention improves recovery rates, recovery rates in general vary. However, research indicates that approximately 50% of people who experience anorexia nervosa do recover. Higher rates of recovery exist for sufferers of bulimia nervosa.
*Stice, E. (2002). Risk and maintenance factors for eating pathology: A meta-analytic review. Psychological Bulletin, 128 (5) pp. 825-848.
Myth: Most people with eating disorders have experienced some form of abuse as a child, even if they can’t remember it.
While it is true that some people with eating disorders have experienced childhood trauma, such as sexual, physical and/or emotional abuse, people develop eating disorders for many reasons and need not have experienced any major trauma and may still have a serious illness.
Eating disorders only occur in people of high socio-economic status (SES).
Eating disorders occur across all SES levels. Statistics on eating disorders and SES levels may reflect access to treatment rather than incidence.