May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and if there’s a single mental disorder I want to bring more awareness to it is eating disorders.
Yep. You read that correctly.
Eating disorders are mental disorders with physical side effects.
The National Institute of Mental Health reports that eating disorders have the HIGHEST mortality rate of any mental disorder.
Why do you think that is? Is it because eating disorders aren’t taken seriously until it’s too late? Maybe it’s because thinness and the extremes one takes to get there are heralded as achievements? Or is it because society judges someone’s sickness based on what they look like?
Maybe it’s because only 1 in every 10 people with eating disorders receive treatment (source: South Carolina Department of Mental Health)?
Whatever it is, it’s NOT okay.
People suffering from eating disorders need help. They cannot just “snap out of it” and start eating normally again. And offhanded comments like “Just eat a cheeseburger!” are more harmful than helpful.
Eating disorders are so incredibly complex and require specialized attention by a team of professionals.
Whether you or someone you know is suffering from anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder (BED), orthorexia nervosa, avoidant restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID), or other specified feeding or eating disorder (OSFED), there are resources I can direct you toward that will help.
Are you concerned that you or someone you love may be living with an eating disorder?
Here are a few things to look for:
- Intrusive and repetitive thoughts about food, food consumption, food planning, and/or food intake.
- Changes in behavior around food.
- Experiencing eating disorder behaviors (e.g. restricting, purging, using laxatives or diet pills, binge eating, using stimulants to control appetite, exercising with the goal to control weight or shape, drinking excessive water).
- Negative emotions surrounding food consumption.
- Physical changes (e.g. abrupt changes to weight and shape, fatigue, blood pressure abnormalities, and/or lab abnormalities).
The journey to recovery is long and hard, but recovery is possible. I can help. Contact me.
Want more information on eating disorders? Over in another blog, I discuss why there needs to be more awareness for Black women with eating disorders. You can check it out here.
You can also find me on Instagram @et.the.rd.