A New View of Eating Disorders

TW: This article may contain sensitive content or information

Since people across the globe were forced indoors due to the coronavirus pandemic, there has been an influx in women claiming to have “gotten fat”. This past week at work, I was helping some women in the dressing rooms. While they were trying on outfits, I heard them mention how much better the clothes would look if they lost weight. There was even a moment when the women went around and shared how many pounds they had gained over the past year. 10 pounds. 20 pounds. 30 pounds. It seemed as if hearing about other women’s weight gain was comforting to hear. Although, while all those women were talking about something that seemed so normal, I remained silent. Not because I had eaten healthy and tried to maintain my pre-covid weight. But because I had stopped eating almost entirely. 

I have always been a healthy eater. Hell, I love food. I look forward to my next meal and may think about dinner while eating lunch. I never skipped a meal. It wasn’t until I noticed some results from working out that I started rethinking my eating habits. I began skipping breakfast entirely and waited until lunch to have something to eat. Previously, I would have a banana or a 100 calorie granola bar to tide me over until I could eat something. As I got busier with work and classes, I started to skip lunch as well. Honestly, I think I blamed school work for a reason not to eat. In reality, I liked how skinny I was getting by not having anything. Eventually I got to the point where I would eat a small portion of food for dinner and call it a day. I knew it wasn’t healthy, but I did not care. I was looking better than I had in years. I soon started to worry about putting all that weight back on by eating again. It was not until I came home that I realized I may have developed something I thought I would never develop: an eating disorder.

An eating disorder is defined as conditions related to persistent eating behaviors that negatively impact your health. Three of the most common forms of eating disorders are anorexia, bulimia, and binge-eating disorder, and most of these disorders involve too much focus on body shape and weight.

Before developing an eating disorder, I think I was very ignorant about how other people developed them. It seemed like something only the popular girls in my high school would do so that they could remain thin and beautiful. Everyone looked down on those girls for having them, yet it was almost expected that that group would have them. It is interesting that we would expect a group of people to have eating disorders, yet when they had them, we looked down upon them. As if people have the choice to have an eating disorder or not. That is not the case at all. Anyone can develop an eating disorder. It can simply begin from the loss of a couple pounds and the enjoyment of looking thin. 

Developing an eating disorder is not something someone can control. They are not doing it for attention. It is something that can alter the way anyone looks at themselves. The stigma surrounding eating disorders is something that needs to be fixed. If you are currently suffering from an eating disorder, seek treatment. Many people do not see changes in eating patterns as a sign of an eating disorder. It can vary in extremity, but it is important to treat any disorder, no matter how extreme.