The importance of preventing and accompanying eating disorders
Read en Español Every year, on June 2, we join a very important cause: making Eating Disorders (ED) visible and acting for prevention, information and awareness. Today more than ever, we need to question the prejudices that are still alive in our society and open real conversations, where the body is not a measure of…
Why World Eating Disorders Action Day?
By Amy Cunningham, Tanzania I write as a person who fought and has survived an eating disorder, as a parent of two children who developed anorexia, and as a public health professional. As an affected person I developed anorexia at the age of about 16. I recall a period of depression, then a desire to lose weight…
Don’t ‘watch and wait’ – ANZAED’s message
By Beth Shelton, President, Australian and New Zealand Academy for Eating Disorders (ANZAED) Eating disorders affect more than 3 million Australians and 400,000 New Zealanders of all genders, ages, nationalities, abilities, sizes, and racial, ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds. These serious, treatable illnesses result from a complex interplay of genetics, biology and environment and have the highest…
Pregnancy and motherhood a minefield for recovering women
By Linda Shanti McCabe, PsyD, USA Pregnancy and early motherhood can be a minefield for women recovering from eating disorders. The hormone changes, body changes, mood changes, sleep changes, and learning curve of early motherhood may be triggers for relapse, even for women who desperately want a glowing experience. Years ago, when I worked in an…
Denmark ED society strives to meet objectives
By Laura Winkler and Ulla Moslet, Denmark The Danish Society for Eating Disorders was founded in 1998 and currently consists of 150 members. The mission of the society is to develop and systematize the knowledge about and improve the treatment methods for anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and other eating disorder and co-morbid conditions. These objectives are worked…
Call to policymakers to include eating disorders on mental health agenda – the United States perspective
By Rachel Presskreischer, MS, LMSW, USA The US mental health policy agenda is dominated by issues of gun safety/gun rights, and the shortage of available psychiatric services around the country. Generally, the mental illnesses addressed in these discussions are; psychotic disorders, such as schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder; bipolar disorder; and major depressive disorder. While all of these…
I am gay, and I have an eating disorder
By Maxim, Russia My name is Maxim. I’m from Russia. I’m gay and I have anorexia nervosa. I am in my 20s now and I want other guys to like me. I think that if you are fat, nobody will love you and nobody will want to build a family with you. I don’t like overweight…
I want the ‘luxury’ of recovery from an eating disorder to be available to all
By Carrie Arnold, USA On World Eating Disorders Day, I will probably not be thinking very much about eating disorders. It sounds odd to celebrate a day by doing your best to ignore it, so let me explain. For the past two decades, most of my life has been consumed by eating disorders, mainly my own…
Sierra Leone to Canada to save a daughter’s life – a family’s quest
By Hanaan Kambo, Sierra Leone As a mother of a child who suffered from Anorexia Nervosa, I know all too well the frustrations, anxiety, anticipation, fall-backs, disappointments, blaming and complete chaos that a family experiences when a loved one is suffering from an eating disorder. Nothing prepares you for how to manage and control this deadly…
A father speaks – as a child I learnt to hide my eating problems
By James Carey, UK I have had eating issues since being a five year old, my earliest memories are being force fed at primary school because I wouldn’t eat my greens, or certain fruits, yes I was a picky eater…. a really picky eater. Ok that was the 1970s, knowledge was severely lacking about disordered…
Share Your Truth, Share the Nine Truths
By Jenni Schaefer, USA One thing is for sure: Ed (aka “eating disorder”) wants to silence you. He might say that your voice doesn’t matter, that you can’t possibly make a difference. But, no surprise here, he is lying—again. The truth is that we need your voice added to the eating disorders advocacy efforts throughout…
Where do we go from here? A futurescape of the care of eating disorders
By Eric F. van Furth, PhD, FAED, Netherlands The Problem Both the US and the Dutch healthcare system are rated among the best in the world. However, both mental healthcare systems are systematically flawed. In the US healthcare system, patients with psychiatric disorders and patients with physical illnesses are not treated equally (lack of parity). Health…
Education and access to basic eating disorders information saves lives
By Lizabeth Wesely-Casella, USA One of the biggest, and possibly most dangerous, misconceptions about eating disorders is that they are only active in young, thin women who are succumbing to a ‘vanity’ illness. The implications being that eating disorders must make people thin, that having one is a choice and that people outside of this narrow…
Stop the silence, not a life – plea from Croatia
By Hrvoje Rendulic, Croatia My journey in helping people with ED started in 2000 after I learned there was not a single qualified medical professional nor a clinic specialized in treating people with ED who could help my 15-year-old daughter on her journey to recovery. Croatia is a small country in the heart of Europe with a…
Look beyond society’s obsession with the ‘thin ideal’ to a biopsychosocial perspective
By Nikki Cook, USA “Wow, you look great!” “You have had three kids?” “Whatever you are doing, it’s working!” I have heard this, and similar comments, countless times throughout my journey with anorexia. Looking back now, I can see comments such as these not only are indicators of the beliefs that society has internalized about…
Finland’s message: Communication and openness vital to thrive in Eating Disorder field
By Rasmus Isomaa, Finland Finland is undergoing a huge social welfare and health care reform. It is one of the biggest ever administrative and operational changes in Finland. It will impact the jobs of hundreds of thousands of people and affects the services of every citizen in the country. Somewhere in this package lies eating…
Awareness, Understanding, and Action: Call to the Jewish Community on Eating Disorder Awareness Day
By Temimah Zucker, USA The day I accepted that I had an eating disorder was the day it was made clear to me that I was not the only Jewish person in the world suffering from this mental illness. I was eighteen years old, scared and fatigued, having been diagnosed with my eating disorder months…
Gap in Services a Major Issue in Hong Kong
By Daisy Wu, Hong Kong Eating Disorders Association, Hong Kong Hong Kong is a well-developed city which provides relatively well developed healthcare system to guard the basic needs of citizen. The recurrent expenditure on medical and health in 2016-17 is $57 billion, accounting for 16.5 per cent of the recurrent government expenditure. The budget allocated…
How to complete a culturally sensitive feeding and eating disorder assessment
By Deborah R. Glasofer, PhD and Evelyn Attia, MD, USA Eating disorders have long been recognized as ‘culture-bound’ to Western traditions, and thus increasingly well identified and classified in North America, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. However, the 21st century has brought with it the understanding that these devastating illnesses are, unfortunately, an equal opportunity…
Why Eating Disorders are more than a “Western” problem
By Kira Rakova, USA A year ago, while I was in Morocco, I asked a Moroccan woman about eating disorders in the country. After spending time trying to explain what I meant by “eating disorder,” the woman replied this was not something that happened in Morocco. Sure, there was dieting, she said, but eating disorders?…