25 February 2013

national eating disorders awareness week

this week is national eating disorders awareness week. i've decided to honor it by doing a couple posts about eating disorders, body image, and my experiences in life with my own body image and working in an eating disorder facility. i also want to encourage you to love your own body more. today i want to give some general information and statistics regarding eating disorders (ED).
-eating disorders have the #1 mortality rate of mental illnesses. and yes, an eating disorder is an illness, not just something someone gets over. "they are not a fad, phase, or lifestyle choice" (NEDA website). 
- about 20 million women and 10 million men in the US will have an eating disorder sometime in their life. a study found that 80% of female college students struggled with disordered eating. 
- ED are affecting children and younger ages. 40-60% of elementary school girls express concern about their weight or body image. 
- body image is distorted by the media! the body type portrayed in the media is naturally possessed by only 5% of the population.
- the DSM eating disorder official diagnoses include bulimia nervosa, compulsive eating disorder, and anorexia nervosa.

eating disorders are serious! they steal life and the quality of life. they form a fallacy of friendship. they can cause biochemical, hormonal and neurotransmitter imbalances. they are a serious mental illness.

but, there is hope! if you, or someone you know, is struggling with an eating disorder (or even low body image) get help! if it's someone you encourage them to get professional help-- see a counselor-- or even just find someone they can trust to talk to. learn all you can about eating disorder (go here to learn more). be an example to them- love yourself! and probably most importantly- show love, encouragement, kindness and hope. 

i invite you to join me this week in learning more about eating disorders because i promise that you know someone who is struggling with this! and because as human beings we all deserve to love ourselves and be happy in our beautiful bodies.

2 comments:

  1. I like this. Just the other day my mom and I were discussing how prevalent eating disorders are and what a negative stigma they have attached to them. I think that a lot people would be pretty surprised to find out how many people in their lives are struggling with this.

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  2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jOhOB8MD7g&list=PLC3919215DCC6CBE1&index=5 This is a great video and I think it goes perfectly with this theme you are doing!

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