Promote Body Positivity and Greater Awareness of Body Image and Eating Disorders

The pressure to look a certain way can be too much for some people to handle. What these pressures can cause is a psychological problem; although, it has been known to cause various psychological problems ranging from Anxiety to Body Dysmorphia Disorder. But, what I’m focusing on is Eating Disorders.

The numbers of people, especially adolescents, suffering from eating disorder have been increasing over the years. It is more common now than it has ever been. From personal experience, I can tell you that if one family member has an eating disorder, it is going to cause inconvenience for the whole household. Not only will it cause inconvenience, but it also causes various health problems and can be deadly.

Research has shown that amongst all mental illnesses, Anorexia Nervosa and other types of Eating Disorders have the highest death rate (http://www.anad.org/get-information/about-eating-disorders/eating-disorders-statistics/). Who or what organisation that conducted the research was unspecified.

Other reasons are, “hidden” eating disorders such as Bulimia Nervosa and different types of EDNOS (Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified) are more common than Anorexia Nervosa, even if it’s physical effects aren’t quite as visible as Anorexia Nervosa (http://www.shape.com/blogs/shape-your-life/epidemic-hidden-eating-disorders). I would also like to emphasize the fact that eating disorders are not a body type, you do not have to be emaciated to have an eating disorder.

For centuries the number of people suffering from an eating disorder keeps on increasing according to the Eating Disorder Organisation in Victoria, Australia (http://www.eatingdisorders.org.au/key-research-a-statistics). This is mostly due to the near impossible standards set by the media nowadays, such as, thigh gaps and bikini bridges (https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/media-body-image-and-eating-disorders). As time gets by, older model gets smaller and so do celebrities (http://shamelessmag.com/blog/entry/why-models-just-keep-getting-smaller). For young people, famous people is a common group of people to look up to or to admire, it is also the media that covers stories about these famous celebrities.

I would like to raise awareness about different types of eating disorders and the negative effects of becoming overweight, underweight or pushing your body to be a bigger/smaller size than it should be, based on your bone structure. Another thing I would like to do is to educate people about the dangers of the size 0 trend and what the media’s contribution is with it, as well as, to show people what eating disorders are from a scientific and psychological point of view. But, my main purpose is to show people the dangers of having an eating disorder, as well as, extreme dieting that leads to disordered eating and how it affects biologically and psychologically.