If you could send a message, to spread awareness of Eating Disorders and the challenges individuals face, what would it be?

it would be that its a real thing, you dont just say oh i have an eating disorder. its a real struggle. not everyone willl get a diagnosis. that doesnt mean they arent struggling like a person diagnosed with an eating disorders.... actually people were saying how can someone be anorexic or throw up their food? honestly its not like one day you think oh well i dont want to eat anymore and i want to weigh myself everyday and count all of my calories. It isnt like that for many.Struggles are real. eating disorders need to not be romanticized. you can actually die. it is never funny or a trend. to not joke about it. sorry for a long response..

That eating disorders rarely have anything to do with wanting to "be skinny". Yes, they start out that way but it manifests into something so much more controlling and scarier. Wanting to "be skinny" suddenly becomes one of a hundred symptoms of an eating disorder and not the reason. The restricting, the purging, the counting, the obsessing, it all becomes part of compulsions that just HAVE to be done. These horrendous compulsions become something we have to do like how we have to breathe or we have to sleep. They become in grained into our daily lives. This is why recovery can take so long.

Saying "just eat" or "just stop eating" is not nice at all. When we have an eating disorder is not as simply as just stop the disorder in one day, it's a process, it hurts and we're gonna relapse sometimes, that doesn't mean we aren't trying.

It's a serious issue and addiction and you don't have it in order to get attention.

trying to guilt people into recovery isnt a good course of action and can make it worse sometimes.

I think the biggest message I'd send is that you can't tell someone has an ED by looking at them - you can be any shape or size and have an ED.

Eating disorders are more than just anorexia. Eating disorders look different on everyone, and manifest differently for everyone. A lot of the time, eating disorders don't even have a specific name. There's a massive junk drawer of EDNOS (eating disorders not otherwise specificed) that so many people fall under, and it sucks when someone invalidates your experiences because you don't fit the stereotypical understanding of what an eating disorder is, not to mention the personal struggle of fighting with something that doesn't have a name and is hard to explain to people who don't understand.

If I may send a short message.

"It is not fun."

It's not about beauty, it's not about wanting to look like models, it's not about being skinny. It's a mental illness centered around control. It's serious and can be deadly. It's not vanity.

Eating disorders have a physical part that people might see (the restricting, binging, or purging), but also a really big mental and emotional part that they don't. Just because the physical gets better in recovery doesn't mean support isn't still needed for the rest.

Its not easy and your 'just eat' or 'just stop eating' makes little to no difference. :3 We would have if it was as easy at people make it sound.

There are many different types of Eating Disorders, you may know something about one type but each and every individual experiences it differently. Please don't assume you know people's troubles just because you know about one person's experience with an Eating Disorder

Eating disorders are more common in women, but they do occur in men. Rates of binge-eating disorder are similar in females and males.

@Windflowers

Over a 10-year period, about half of those with anorexia nervosa recover fully, a small percentage continues to suffer from anorexia nervosa, and the rest develop other eating disorders. Even among those individuals who recover from an eating disorder, it is common for them to continue to maintain a low body weight and experience depression.

@Windflowers

Source(x)

@Wonderfloofie - Yay! Source cited!!!! Good job :)

@Wonderfloofie

oh my... i wonder if I belong to the group that will never be able to recover... or develop other disorders

I want people to understand that it is about so much more than food.

It is estimated that 0.1% to 4.2% of women have suffered from anorexia in their lifetime. Anorexia, also has the highest fatality rate of any mental illness.

@helpfulShip8154 Forgot to tag you :p @windflowers

Actually among eating disorders, the disorder EDNOS (now renamed to OSFED), is the most deadly of all eating disorders.

I do not know the stats among mental health disorders in general.

*EDNOS: Eating Disorder - Not Otherwise Specified

*OSFED: Changed or renamed in the DSM-5. I don't even know what they changed it to, though I've read the new acronym several times - it doesn't stick in my head. ~ Platy

@cyanPlatypus6370 That's my source where I got the information from >> https://www.eatingdisorderhope.com/information/statistics-studies And oohhh I see :o I thought there was a possibility that these were old stats (the ones which I wrote in the post) so I looked it up on Google and anorexia is the most lethal psychiatric disorder, carrying a sixfold increased risk of death- four times the death risk from major depression.Although, anorexia is by far the deadliest eating disorder, death rates are also higher than normal in people with bulimia and "eating disorder not otherwise specified (EDNOS). ^-^

https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/eating-disorders/anorexia-nervosa/news/20110711/deadliest-psychiatric-disorder-anorexia@helpfulShip8154 Fixing link, sowwie D:

@cyanPlatypus6370 And to answer your other questions, I am also a participant of the game Snakes and Ladders from the RS team :p And I deactivated my account which is probably why my username is cited as unknown everywhere.Hope that clears it up! <3

The National Institute of Mental Health reports that 2.7% of teens, ages 13-18 years old, struggles with an eating disorder. @windflowers

Nearly half of Binge Eating Disorder (BED) ​​patients have a comorbid mood and anxiety disorders. @Windflowers

Eating disorders were more than twice as prevalent among females (3.8%) than females (1.5%). The lifetime prevalence of eating disorders is estimated to be about 2.7%. @Windflowers

Huh? you said more than twice as prevalent among females than females.

@windflowers do you know who this is? How does a person post without his/her username?

@cyanPlatypus6370 I sincerely apologize, I meant twice as prevalent among females than males.Smh I should have read the post before posting it. Also, thank you for taking the time to read my facts :'D Appreciate it! <3

Anorexia is the third most common chronic illness among adolescents, after asthma and obesity. @windflowers

About 70% of sufferers tend to not seek treatment due to stigma, misconceptions, lack of education, diagnosis and lack of access to the appropriate healthcare facilities. @windflowers

For me, it would be that Eating Disorder is much more than not eating - usually, people underestimate other things that we face. Food is being discussed on daily basis, food is something we are seeing in many jobs, in many shops, food jokes are very popular - and for someone with ED, they can be pretty triggering as well.

So, I would say, be aware of people's emotions, even when you talk about something that seems very basic to you, as you don't know how it's affect them

That it can affect anyone and that it is can be hard to battle even after recovery. I would say that recovery doesn't mean that the problems are entirely gone and it's not some magic cure. It is a long, hard and painful uphill battle that you fight for yourself against yourself and it can have lasting consequences. I would say that you may not always know someone has an eating disorder and that there are many types of eating disorders and they are all dangerous and that the people who fight them are amazingly strong and just because you don't understand that it is there doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

From my anorexic/bulumic days:

it is not about attention.

it is not about weight or what we look like ( only in the beginning)

the more weight we lose - the fatter we feel.

i dont see me the way you see me - i am always the largest person in the room - you say it is riddicolous - it is my REALITY

i dont regognize myself

i scare myself

i cant ask for help bc i am not " thin enough"

every time you comment about what i ate or did not eat - i critizice and judge myself more

i cant hear what you are saying - it automatically twists in my brain on the side of the ED

i didnt blow you off and stay home bc im a bad friend/family memeber - i am hiding my ugly shameful body image

i dont remeber why i started doing this but i know everything will be okay if i just continue

it has nothing to do with food and weight - food and weight are safer to talk about and thnk about

if i obsess over food and weight and diets - i can keep my mind from thinking the painful out of control things

From my binge eating days:

its not about food - i dont even want the food

each time you comment on what i am eating - i am ashamed

eating is the sole coping skill i have that i feel actually works in the moment

yes, eating DOES fill many roles: comfort, friendship, self care, filling boredom, stuffing anger.....i am aware, i am also aware that it makes it all worse but i cant stop

i am too ashmed of my weight and eating behaviors to ask for help

i feel i am too large to get help " i can ask for help when i am thin"

this is a way of pushing life off until later - that ellusive day that never comes

food does not let me down like the rest of the world does

i HATE eating like this

my life is shrouded in shame

yes, i am super aware of when you look in disgust at my fat body and judge me

you dont have to tell me what to eat or to go on a diet - i am hyper aware of this already

talking to me like all i need to do is diet is shaming - it is an emotional ilness and mental health is not fixed by going on a diet

Its not about food but the main issue is always something else. ED is a symptom of a much bigger underlying issue.