Everyday when we go online or watch TV, or read glossy magazines, we’re bombarded with images of women and men who are considered to be the very embodiment of perfection. Finely toned bodies, perfect skin, hair and nails, not to mention their slim, pretty faces – the very description of beauty. It is little wonder that as we constantly have these pictures surrounding us – many of us feel inadequate, imperfect and inferior.
The media has a lot to answer for. Yes, it can do so much good when it chooses, but a lot of the time, the unattainable standards it sets for women and men alike, can cause untold damage to developing minds and bodies. At the current moment, in the USA alone, it is estimated that as many as 30 million young adults are suffering from some form of eating disorder – anorexia, bulimia or EDNOS (eating disorder not otherwise specified). Many more may be undiagnosed.
Speaking personally, as well as having long term depression and anxiety, I suffered from EDNOS throughout my teens and twenties. The vestiges of the illness remain with me and I often wonder whether I will ever have a normal relationship with food. My journey on the ED spectrum started after becoming obsessive about food. Not dieting, but only eating certain types of foods and feeling that many things I would have eaten normally and without fear, the year before, would now suddenly harm me in some way. Of course, I started to lose weight, and whilst this was a concern it didn’t bother me too much. However, after a while, I noticed that when I looked in the mirror I was saying to myself, “You’d look better if you could just shift that tummy a bit more…” or, “Your arms are too big…” and so it spiraled into starvation mode. Even when people commented that I was looking too thin, in my head I heard, “Keep going, you’re doing something right,” and so it continued. Now, I was lucky – lucky in the sense that I never lost my periods, nor did I get so slender that I needed hospitalization. But, I did need help. Talking to my doctor was one avenue, and I was lucky enough to be able to access talking therapy. Whilst my therapist said there was definitely an eating disorder there, it was more based in a dissatisfaction with my own image, and perceived ideas of what I looked like, than a desire to be thin.
For people suffering from conditions such as anorexia and bulimia, their illnesses are physical as well as mental. A negative image of one’s own body can cause body dysmorphic disorder, commonly known as BDD. This condition causes the sufferer to fixate on their own body to the extent they can cease to function in society, such is the self-loathing they endure due to an aspect of their appearance (such as body shape or physical feature). The relationships between BDD and eating disorders aren’t yet fully understood. Some researchers suggest that people with BDD may actually have visual defects, causing them to literally view themselves incorrectly. People who fixate on their body image may also share some mental traits with OCD sufferers. Whatever the root cause of the issue is, BDD – and eating disorders as a whole – can have a terribly detrimental effect on a person. Depending on severity of the condition, treatment can be two-fold: one to rectify the health issues caused by the eating disorder, and another to get to the psychological roots that led to the issue in the first place.
After leaving her job in the healthcare sector, Mel Davenport decided to try her hand at writing. She’s a busy working mom of two small girls and fits her writing around the demands and needs of her family. Mel also has experience of working as a volunteer for several local charities. She has suffered from depression and issues with addiction since her late teens. Now she tries to help others with the same problems.