Eating disorder awareness week is this month on the 21st to the 27th of february in which many can learn about this particular mental health issue as in 2021 alone a staggering 1.25 million people were diagnosed with eating disorders. However the question is why has this number increased over the years ?. 

 

This type of illness, like many mental health issues, can be invisible to many  and affect many people whether it be minor or major. The most common time in somebody’s life to develop an eating disorder is usually between 12 and 25 years old, however it can happen anytime and whilst 75% of these cases usually come from females this can also occur in males as well.

Many people criticise the media for setting unrealistic goals for young people, sites like instagram are extremely damaging as they promote unrealistic beauty standards and apps like photoshop can make someone online look completely different to what they look like in real life. Young girls seeing this type of content daily may feel pressured to alter the way they look as they have been made to feel as though their looks are all there is to them, they started setting this idealistic version for girls and now they are doing the same for boys. 

 

Many celebrities have been open about their eating disorders and try to offer guidance and support for their followers. Madelyn Cline is an actress and has 12 million followers on instagram and in an interview for Women’s health she stated :

“when i was younger, i did struggle with eating disorders” 

“It's an awful place to be especially when you are a teenager, when you are idolising a certain body type and you can't achieve it and there's nothing wrong with you, your just not built that way, and that's okay and that perfectly fine”

“I like my curves,  i like my hips and after a while i started to love my body and that was okay and i became so much happier”

 

This body positivity is helping the media become less toxic and try to give a more broad  overview on all types of bodies and this is definitely improving. Another celebrity that is extremely body positive is Lizzo she is a musician and promotes loads of body positivity on all of her social medias, she has stated on interviews that :

“They are selling you an idea of yourself that you haven't quite yet achieved, so your whole life you have been taught to blend in with people or buy this to look better, so you never feel complete and you never really feel happy completely about yourself”

 

This overall helps raise awareness for all types of eating disorders as there are many different types of eating disorders, for example :

Anorexia Nervosa.

Binge Eating Disorder.

Other Specified Feeding and Eating Disorders (OSFED)

Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID)

Rumination Disorder.

Unspecified Feeding or Eating Disorder (UFED)

And it is important that people start to feel more comfortable coming out and talking about this type of mental health issue as a lot more people suffer from it then we realise.

 

Websites used :

https://www.sociomix.com/diaries/beauty/does-instagram-promote-unrealistic-beauty-standards-on-women/1626553092#:~:text=The%20widespread%20use%20of%20Instagram,all%20that%20matters%20in%20life.&text=In%20those%20cases%2C%20the%20appearance,to%20life%20than%20just%20looks.

https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/psychiatry/specialty_areas/eating_disorders/faq.html

https://lordslibrary.parliament.uk/eating-disorders-awareness-week-2021/