Why don't people understand that you don't have to be skinny to have an eating disorder?

A common misconception about eating disorders is that those with them are very underweight. Typically, the people who believe this don't have experience with or around people with eating disorders.

Most people see the pretty side of mental disorders. The thin girls, with cuts on their arms, who throw up over a toilet and cry. But it's not pretty. There's nothing great about it. But people associate thinness with beauty, and they mostly see people who have eating disorders as thin. It's what most people see, so it's going to be more thought of.

Unfortunately, the cultural stereotype of an eating disorder is the one that most people think of. Most people don't have a lot of personal experience with an eating disorder so they go to their most immediate frame of reference: pop culture. If you know someone who is having a hard time understanding that eating disorders don't necessarily all look the same, one of the best things that you can do is simply give direct examples and explanations of what an eating disorder really is, underneath all the stereotyping.

Stigma. All they know is that eating disorder equals skinny, skinny equals eating disorders. They don't know that some eating disorders started when the sufferer is at normal weight or even overweight,

Well, I can't answer for everyone, but I think it's because a lot of people have stereotyped eating disorders so much that they instantly imagine a severely underweight girl. (Which is completely just a stereotype, boys can have eating disorders too.) A lot of people don't realize that eating disorders can also come in forms such as "binge eating disorder", which actually is more likely to make someone obese. Bulimics usually (but not always) tend to be normal or even slightly overweight. This is because they binge AND purge, and a lot of the calories are still digested. But the act of purging still causes great damage and is very dangerous. When it comes to anorexia, a lot of people imagining someone who is already at a normal weight (even slightly under) and starving themselves, making them look skeleton-like. But anyone at any weight can develop Anorexia. I'm going to share a bit of personal info here, but I want you to know that I'm now healthy and recovered. One year I started at 200 pounds (I'm only 5'2) and in less than a year I got down to 115. I probably was around a healthy weight for my height and age at the time, thus no one who'd meet me for the first time suspected anything. But the people around me saw how I shrunk, and they were very worried. Really someone could start at 300 pounds and end up at 200, still being overweight, but if they're behaviors to reach that weight still matched the restriction of food and whatnot it would still be anorexia.

Becuse media made it that way. you can be at a normal weight but hate it and also want or feel the need to starve youself or eat more and people ony beleive what thy see

People are visual and most of us don't understand what is going on inside a persons head. Eating disorders have been portrayed in a particular way in the media, and frankly, the only answer is that they don't know better ! :( treat them with compassion and treat yourself with compassion. Hope this helps

People are customed to think of stereotypes when it comes to eating disorders and when these eating disorders are represented to them, it is the end result of anorexia, or the end result of eating disorders that people see. Nobody thinks about what they may have looked like when the eating disorder started. You don't have to be at an extreme weight to have an eating disorder.

There is currently a lot of stigma surrounding eating disorders. A lot of people do not realize that an eating disorder is a mental manifestation/ behavior and does not always present itself in a physical form. Many people think that it is always the extremely thin people who have eating disorders when that is not the case. Eating disorders also range further than just anorexia and bulimia. Binge eating disorder and compulsive over eating are also eating disorders that would not necessarily cause a person to be very thin. However these disorders are usually brushed aside and forgotten about because of lack of understanding.

Associating pre-information with a rational mind gives us ability to judge correctly. people are often fed common pictures by the media and adverts for marketing purposes best suit the target market. Thus it is common incorrect pre-information with a bulged figure to having to much food and vice versa. let people have the facts they will learn to judge correctly. I am with the people in this case. Defending their right to know the TRUTH about something and others should come forward to stand against gross marketing policies.