Eating Disorder Triggers

I have seen a lot of disordered eating in the health and wellness industry. A LOT! So much in fact that I believe statistics around this issue are inaccurate. This is a provocative statement when you take a look at the already disturbing statistics from the ANAD (National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders). Here are just a few.

• 28.8 million Americans will have an eating disorder in their lifetime.

• 35-57% of adolescent girls engage in crash dieting, fasting, self-induced vomiting, diet pills, or laxatives.

• Less than 6% of people with eating disorders are medically diagnosed as “underweight.

I’ve been doing food education in the spirit of health for almost 15 years as I write this. In that time, countless people have sought me out as a way to either solve or feed their hidden eating disorder. It happens all of the time. As someone who also struggled with an eating disorder through much of my late childhood and through most of my twenties, this type of person is not hard for me to spot now. I understand how easily this behavior can creep in and take over. It manifests in many ways.

Most people with an eating disorder are not aware of it.

There is a full spectrum of disordered eating patterns and behaviors that fall before, after, and in between the extremes we talk about the most…..bulimia and anorexia. This includes but is not limited to, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) behavior around food, ongoing restrictive eating, long term elimination diets (fear of "unsafe” foods), compulsive over-eating, and many more.

Orthorexia is a big deal too. This is described as an unhealthy focus on eating in a healthy way. It’s extremely common among professionals in the health and wellness industry. In fact, many health professionals teaching about health have no idea they are demonstrating disordered eating patterns. As a way to feed this compulsive behavior, many will teach others their compulsive habits. It is a wild and unpredictable type of disordered eating that is extremely hard to self-identify with. This makes our industry fraught with well intentioned people inciting behavioral disorders in those they work with.

Here is what I understand about this topic as a whole:

1) We understand that repetitive societal messaging regarding ideals around our relationship with our bodies and food is a primary trigger. This is ongoing. Just like the propaganda for fake food will never end, neither will the expectation that we have to be thin while eating our fake food. It’s ridiculous. The change is not coming from the fake food industry. The change comes from the individual becoming aware of propaganda and turning off the messaging machines. The messaging machines are not just our smart phones. They are also the generations that came before us brainwashed by arbitrary food rules and bad science. Eating 3 meals a day, snacking every 2 hours, the notion of low-fat/no-fat, calorie counting, etc. are just a few examples.

2) Behavior disorders such as OCD and disordered eating come from the same place as addiction. That means that if you are prone to any of these, you are prone to other compulsive disorders too. These behaviors are coping mechanisms for dealing with anxiety…..anxiety from trauma, imprints from traumatized people, and/or as a condition of unnatural living. Most of us develop these coping patterns when we are too young to realize how and why these behaviors came to be part of who we are. Many of us are genetically predisposed to these patterns as well.

Unnatural living causes biological stress. We are often completely unaware of its impact on our behavior. What do I mean by unnatural living? Well I could go on and on. My posts about lifestyle factors focus on this and there will be future posts to come. Regardless of how willing you are to unwind anxiety naturally, understanding addiction transfer is a key to understanding how you relate to your food.

3) Working with a professional or as a professional in this field is going to trigger your disordered patterns. Your intention, or the intention of the professional is irrelevant here. If you have a history related to disordered eating, addiction, or OCD, any kind of therapy focusing on your behavior is loading the gun. This is not a suggestion to avoid getting help. This is a message of awareness. Only your level of awareness and the awareness of the professionals you choose to work with, will protect you from regressing into toxic patterns around disordered eating. Professionals who are unable to acknowledge this part of your story are not professionals you want to work with.

The Elephant in this Conversation

We have to start having honest conversations about this. I am exhausted with opinions from “experts” who fail time and time again to call out the most blaringly obvious reason why society as a whole has developed disordered eating. If we can’t call out ALL the industries effectively making everyone sick, we will never be able to find meaningful solutions to this problem that grows bigger with every generation.

Our industrialized food system and the government run institutions slinging its slop at schools and charitable programs is not solely to blame. Media, obsessed with over sexualizing our culture and targeting our youth shares the blame too. Wake up to this. These empires will not fall until the masses start dropping out of their programs. You get to decide how you participate in this diseased society we’re forced to live in.

Full disclosure

I do not have any special training in eating disorders other than my own experience. I have worked with ED trained professionals through varying compacities over the years. I have worked with clients who needed more than what I can provide and I refer them to professionals with these specialties. I have also worked with clients who find me after working with ED specialists claiming they did not get the help they needed to overcome their destructive habits.

Perhaps what these specialists are being trained to focus on with these disorders is like so many types of psychological therapy…. proving to be ineffective or actually agitating these disorders more in some types of people?

Regardless, Everyone is different when it comes to what works. All of this said, I have discovered one golden nugget that applies to all kinds of threats. Awareness is the key. When we simply become aware, we increase our understanding of any mystery, even if we don’t solve the mystery. Awareness automatically loosens the grip any threat may have on us. The awareness here is the knowledge and understanding that improving your relationship with food will likely trigger you first.

It will feel worse before it feels better. That is OKAY! You are not suppose to move through this world always feeling good. Everything is temporary, even times when we aren’t feeling good. The not feeling good is where the work is. But it does get better.