Myths and Facts

Myth: Parents are the reason of eating disorders in their children

Fact: Parents are NOT the reason of eating disorder, but they are crucial to treatment & recovery.  However, there is no one reason for the development of an eating disorder, but a number of predisposing, precipitating and perpetuating factors resulting into risk individuals in a complex and dynamic interplay.  It is noted that eating disorders are an efficient means to cope with difficult life and developmental challenges.

Myth: Eating disorders are lifestyle choices.

Fact: No, one wishes to select to have an eating disorder, however, it starts as a reasonable plan to “get healthy” through diet and exercise get transform into an unhealthy and potentially life-threatening illness.  It often begins as a means of gaining a sense of control in one’s life which escalate into out-of-control behavior.  Its fact that no one wishes or select to get an eating disorder, however, recovery requires making determined decision to give up the eating disorder habits and replacing these coping mechanisms with healthy eating and exercise habits.

Myth: Only young female gets eating disorders.

Fact: Eating disorders tend to affect young adolescent or adult females, however, these conditions are devoid of boundaries—gender, racial, ethnic, cultural, geographic and socioeconomic—no ethnic group is immune.  In practice, males may not be identified as having an eating disorder due to this misconception.

Myth: Eating disorders patients are trying to punish their loved ones. 

Fact: No one decides to get an eating disorder, rarely are the behaviors spiteful or intentionally hurtful to others.  However, loved ones often feel hurt, guilty, embarrassed, perplexed and blame themselves for their child developing an eating disorder. 

Myth: Eating disorders are a way to get attention.

Fact:  Sheila MacLeod in her book The Art of Starvation reports that “dieting is a matter of vanity, but anorexia nervosa is a matter of pride”, most patients make effort to hide their bodies under loose or bulky or baggy clothes as they feel fat.  In the initial stage weight loss due to an eating disorder, there may be positive attention with comments from others about looking “better”, however as the illness progress, the attention turns as more unwanted and negative.

Myth: Eating disorders are features of “adolescent “, it should be ignored and will go away over time.

Fact: Eating disorders generally begin during teenage years as a means to cope with normal developmental tasks like identity formation and/or establishing independence.  Effective, targeted treatment is more likely to result in recovery than ignoring the unhealthy habit and waiting for spontaneous resolution. 

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Myth: Its often consider that people with a normal body weight do not have an eating disorder. 

Fact: In eating disorders the core principle is undue influence of body weight or shape on self-esteem or self-worth, distortion of body image, and pervasive thoughts regarding means to become thinner or to avoid gaining over weight.  A person with normal body weight may have these attributes. The normal weight individuals having these attributes often suffer more than those with an abnormal body weight, because their symptoms are often not validated by their appearance, accordingly there is lot of resistance to change.