Eating Disorders- the other end of the spectrum.

WARNING: The following content is sensitive and may be found triggering to those suffering from, recovering from or those who have recovered from an eating disorder or mental health problem.



When we think eating disorders, we think skinny. We think sagging skin and jutting bones, two fingers down a throat forcing food to reemerge from our system. We do not often think of the other end of the spectrum- not the people who refuse to eat, but rather, the people who can't stop. Obesity effects between 16 and 33% of young adults and kills 300,000 people a year. Although it is one of the easiest medical conditions to diagnose, it is one of the most difficult to treat.

In comparison to anorexia and bulimia, obesity is not regarded as an eating disorder. Rather, people will look at a victim of obesity and think "they clearly eat too much" or "they're so fat it's disgusting". People don't often stop to think about why the victim may be eating too much. They simply assume it is plain greediness. However, they could not be more wrong. Whilst it is true that yes, some people do just like food, more often than not there is a psychological reasoning behind the weight gain. Some of these include lack of exercise, use of steroids, stressful life events or changes, a family history of obesity therefore implanting the idea of extreme weight gain as a normality into the victims mind, low self esteem, depression and other emotional problems. 

Looking at the list, you can see many of these problems are the same as people who suffer from anorexia or bulimia, the only difference being that a person struggling with obesity handles these problems in a different way. This doesn't stop it being a severe medical condition which also has severe side effects if untreated like any other eating disorder. Obesity can go on to cause an increase in blood pressure, breathing problems, increased heart problems and diabetes. The more weight you gain, the more sore you skin can become under the layers of fat. As a teenager, becoming obese can lead to lower self esteem and to being less popular among their peers, as well as anxiety and depression. So why don't we regard obesity as a serious illness? 

The media obviously plays a key role in playing down the seriousness of eating disorders. Whilst anorexia and bulimia are often wrongly glamorized by the media, we are frequently made to regard being overweight as humorous, or as a joke. Look at programs such as the Biggest Loser, or Secret Eaters. Although the idea of the program is really to help these overweight people lose weight and become healthier, we still have to sit and watch them struggle through their work outs, sweating like pigs, being tortured with smaller portions than they're used to and just being humiliated publicly. This is one thing people on the opposite end of the eating disorder scale do not have to deal with, and although people who rather than over eat, starve themselves, have to deal with comments such as "you need to eat something, get some meat on your bones!", they do not always suffer the absolute humiliation that obese people do. 

A lot of people find it easier to comprehend that anorexia and bulimia are a mental health problem, a disease of both the mind and the body. However, they find it harder to understand how someone just cant stop themselves from eating. What a lot of people don't realize is that obesity is often the result of a food addiction. Food addiction is much the same as a drug addiction- you crave the product desperately, you start to rely on it and it starts to take over your body with serious side effects. Food addiction even effects exactly the same area of the brain as a drug addiction. 

Food addiction is more common in processed junk foods and foods high in sugar and wheat. It is not about being weak willed but is all to do with complicated chemical reactions inside of the brain (please remember I am a writer, not a scientist and there is an extent to my knowledge!). Therefore, even if you wanted to try and control these addictions, ultimately, your brain has control over your body and will not let you. This indeed makes obesity a mental illness just like anorexia and bulimia, and we must not forget that obesity requires the same amount of attention as the latter diseases. 

People can die from obesity. A life can come to an end. Families can experience a loss. Just like victims of anorexia and bulimia. And still we spend too much time making fun of people that we close minded-ly regard as 'fat'. We laugh at their attempts to exercise, we criticize what they're eating and bitch about it with our friends when we see them doing so and we just don't stop to think about why this person is the way they are. When we ask why they're fat and they say "I can't help it" we laugh, or make a cruel remark about how all they need to do is eat less. We don't understand that, actually, sometimes they really can't help it. And with the lack of understanding from their peers, this sort of reaction only crushes their confidence and prevents them from wanting to seek professional help for fear of receiving the same reaction. 

As the human race, how can we be okay with all of this? Not only do we push people into eating disorders and then act so ignorant we don't even notice them in our every day lives, but we then choose to make fun of the people who suffer. How can the human race be so cruel and so narrow minded. 

I've said before that eating disorders are not glamorous, they are diseases and I will say it again. There is nothing positive about an eating disorder. There is nothing funny about an eating disorder. There is nothing humorous, unimportant, 'stupid' about an eating disorder. They come in all shapes and sizes with all sorts of reasoning's behind them. Every single victim deserves our full capacity of understanding, and every ounce of our help, comfort and support. 

Love from, 

Florence Grace