Eating a balanced diet is important.
Every so often, I'll have a client come to me sharing that they're "so fat they can't look in the mirror anymore," "I wish I looked like that girl next door from the movies," or sometimes even "I can't focus with my jeans this tight." Some of these statements we make daily and many of them are a cry for help. The environment vastly affects the way we think, and it's no wonder then that as we scroll through the world of "What I eat in a day" vlogs and "carb-free recipes for the soul," they can cast a shadow that impacts the way we think and talk about our bodies.
Also Read: Eating Disorders Aren't What You Think; Experts Bust Myths
So why do we develop eating disorders?
As conflicting as this may sound, eating disorders serve a purpose. They may have helped someone get through a hard time when the only thing they had control over was their food intake - and that's okay. However, living with an eating disorder is not safe or healthy, and recovery is essential for a fulfilled life.
How does the eating disorder cycle continue?
Even more so, the "Ozempic" culture is on the rise, and the misuse of this drug by known celebrities makes children, teens, and adults more prone to 'thinspiration.' We then fall into a toxic eating disorder cycle. I often see a cycle where individuals restrict food intake as a way to lose weight, which then causes them to feel hungry and eat more than they usually would, leading to feelings of guilt and shame, which, in turn, leads to clients eating more and exacerbating the cycle.
Also Read: 'Clean Eating' May Lead To Eating Disorders, Says Study
Eating disorders can be caught and managed.
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What are the signs of eating disorders?
There are various types of eating disorders, and here are some signs to be aware of:
Anorexia Nervosa:
Food restriction, overexercising, or trying to lose weight by the use of laxatives or drugs originally used to treat diabetes.
Bulimia Nervosa:
Eating a large amount of food in a small time frame, a lack of control over eating, and behaviours to prevent gaining weight such as vomiting, laxatives, and excessive exercise.
Binge-Eating Disorder:
Eating an abnormally large amount of food in a given time frame and a lack of control over eating. Episodes include eating quickly, in private due to embarrassment, and feeling disgusted after.
Does the "just lose weight" approach work?
Although our go-to as a culture is saying, "You need to lose weight!" - shame is not the answer to how to get someone to lose weight. Telling someone "needs" to lose weight is never the right way - scientifically, we feel shame when we do something wrong, and internalizing shame can lead us to binge eating as a coping mechanism, therefore exacerbating an eating disorder.
What are ways that you can heal from an eating disorder?
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) has proven to be the most clinically effective treatment for all eating disorders. Since struggling with eating disorders is characterised by negative, unrealistic thoughts, identifying unhelpful or distorted thinking patterns and modifying them with more effective thinking is one of the strategies CBT uses. An example can be changing the thought "I am going to be fat if I eat a dessert" to a more flexible one, such as "Eating one dessert probably won't make me put on a whole lot of weight overnight." Other helpful strategies CBT uses are improving self-esteem to trust our internal body cues of hunger - an example is helping clients trust that their body knows what it needs and will tell them when they need it.
Recovery is a challenge, but certainly less so than continuing to live with a critical voice in our heads telling us to hate our bodies and the amazing functions they serve for us.
About the author: Aanandita Vaghani is the Founder and Mental Health Counselor at UnFix.
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