Don’t Let Eating Disorders Eat Away at Your Life

In 2017, producer and screenwriter Marti Noxon premiered a film called To the Bone at the Sundance Film Festival. It starred Lily Collins as an incredibly underweight woman struggling with eating disorders. It wasn’t the best representative film for such medical conditions but it shone a light on how difficult it is to live with such kinds of illness.

Eating disorders eat away at your chance to live a normal life. They warp your mind, making you think that regardless of what you do, your body isn’t ideal. It’s not a diet fad gone wrong; it’s a skewed perception of controlling your body, how it looks, how you want it to be. These are serious illnesses with dangerous consequences for your body and your life.

A dangerous perception

Like any psychological condition, eating disorders vary. For those who have anorexia nervosa, they become too obsessed with monitoring their weight. They want to achieve a very unhealthy body mass. They’re relentless in their pursuit of being thin. On the other hand, there are also those with binge eating disorder, eat an unusual amount of food uncontrollably. Then, there’s those with bulimia nervosa, who purge everything they just ate out of fear of gaining weight.

Body image-or, rather, the skewed perception of it-plays a huge part on those with eating disorders, such as anorexia and bulimia. It’s what motivates anorexics and bulimics to shirk eating or purge the food they ate. Online communities and social media can exacerbate such views. There are now forums and websites promoting anorexia and bulimia as a lifestyle choice instead of an illness. The “pro-ana”/”pro-mia” movement sets a dangerous precedent to anorexics and bulimics, to the point that somehave died because of them.

However, sometimes it’s one’s own environment that pushes people to “change” themselves. Brazilian fashion model Ana Carolina Reston died at the age of 21 because of complications arising from anorexia. Karen Carpenter of The Carpenters died at 32 also because of eating disorders and body dysmorphic disorder.

Seeking help

Struggling with eating disorders can be difficult. Some don’t even notice that they’re suffering with anorexia or bulimia. Other people might only view people who binge eat as someone who’s really into food. Then, there are those who outright dismiss people with such conditions, asking why don’t they just eat or stop purging.

Seeking help for such conditions can be scary or difficult, but it must be done. Finding the right support system who won’t judge you for your illness and listen to you is important. Friends and family need to be vigilant in looking out for signs, no matter how subtle, and intervene before things get out of hand.

Afterwards, it depends on how bad the condition is. If found early, a mix of therapy and nutrition education can help. Some can be treated at home; those who are medically unstable are taken to the hospital. Doctors and experts who have studied nutritional therapy will do everything in their power to help you recover.

The path to recovery for eating disorders is a long and arduous journey. Some fall back off the wagon, others come back rising. Overcoming such conditions requires intervention, a huge amount of personal effort, and a significant change in one’s perception of their body. Get help and support as soon as possible.