How Eating Disorders Create an Illusion of Body Positivity

An eating disorder is a serious and potentially life-threatening mental illness. This disorder can be identified as disturbances in an individual's behaviour, thoughts, beliefs, attitude towards food, eating habits, body weight, size and shape. Eating disorders have adverse effects on a person’s life and it gets worse as it progresses. It has the ability to impair one’s physical, social and emotional life and make it difficult for them to carry out their daily tasks. Some common eating disorders are Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia Nervosa and other Binge eating disorders. Individuals suffering from any of the mentioned disorders could be described as having a distorted body image and an irrational fear of being overweight, obsessing over their body shape and size leading them to indulge in harmful behaviours. Prolonged exposure to such behaviour makes the individual susceptible to anxiety, depression, poor social support, frequent hospitalization and in rare cases, suicide.

The body positivity movement came as a blessing for all women as it challenged the unrealistic beauty standards within society. The flat stomach, high cheek bones, clavicle showing and big-eyed women were the most accepted body type around and women started to subject themselves to brutal ways to attain this perfect body. In the current times, the body positivity movement aims to empower everyone to accept themselves while ignoring what popular culture expects of them. It tries to create a healthy relationship between an individual’s self and body, including how they feel about food, exercise, clothing, health, identity and self-care. It hopes to build confidence in people by helping them focus on the positives in their body rather than the perceived imperfections. Lastly, it encourages individuals to be comfortable in their own skin.

As body positivity aims to bring about positive changes to the attitudes surrounding different body types among men and women overtime these notions have been misconstrued in ways that have proven to be harmful. Some of the common misconceptions of body positivity are:

1. Loving oneself 24/7 and having no insecurities.

2. Body positivity is for those who are overweight or plus sized individuals.

3. Lastly, that you let go of the rigid rules and expectations and do as you please.

As a result of these common misconceptions, individuals have developed an unhealthy lifestyle.

Masked by the notion of body positivity, some serious eating disorders can go unnoticed, putting the individual at risk of developing health concerns. As it aims at helping people accept and be content with the way their bodies are, it ignores how being a particular weight can have detrimental effects. Sometimes an individual can be extremely underweight or overweight which can be unhealthy but those can go unidentified as one will not show any signs of distress as they so strongly believe in being positive and compassionate towards their body and having confidence in their own skin. As a results, binge eating habits or binging and purging which are symptoms of eating disorders, could go unnoticed. Body positivity also suggests to love oneself no matter what, which could in turn, send the message that they support the unhealthy habits that one indulges in and motivate people to continue their patterns.

Therefore, as body positivity has its benefits one must be careful and not let this overshadow serious health conditions such as eating disorders that could pose a threat to the individual's life.

Disclaimer: This blog post is meant for awareness/entertainment purposes only. It is not medical advice and one must refrain from self-diagnosing. It is in no way a substitute for therapy with a mental health professional and it is not meant to be clinical. To consult with a psychotherapist on our team, you can contact us on fettle.counselling@gmail.com.