The Big Interview: Eating Disorders, The Inside Story. Her.ie Talks to BodyWhys…

In recent years, the eating habits (and the waistband sizes) of the public have been firmly in the spotlight. We’ve been continually told that obesity is becoming a major health problem on our little island.

When we turn on our televisions, we’re bombarded by advertisements from the Government telling us to watch what we eat. We can’t go out our front door without seeing various posters warning us of the dangers of eating too much. And, hey, do you remember that time they sent a tape measure to every house so we could see how many inches we carry around our waist?

The awareness was something we sorely needed (even if the tape measure was a little insulting) because for so many of us, food is a private thing. And that’s not necessarily healthy.

We don’t like to be watched when we’re eating, we struggle with emotional eating, we binge on the weekends, we use food as a reward. We don’t think or talk about it. This lack of dialogue is having a seriously negative impact.

Obesity may be one of Ireland’s biggest health issues, but worryingly enough, eating disorders such as anorexia, bulimia and binge eating are also becoming a problem. And while the Government is trying to open a dialogue about obesity, what about the thousands of people who are suffering from eating disorders? Where can they turn to for help?

Her.ie sat down with Harriet Parsons, a services co-ordinator for BodyWhys – the Eating Disorders Association of Ireland to talk about eating issues, disorders and where people can turn for help.

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What is BodyWhys all about?

We’re the Irish eating disorders association and we provide support, information and understanding for people affected by eating disorders, their family and friends, health professionals, teachers, youth workers and anyone who comes across the issue during the course of their life and their work.

How many Irish people are affected by eating disorders?

It’s estimated that there are around 200,000 people in Ireland affected by an eating disorder at the moment.

What would be the most common eating disorder in Ireland?

Binge eating disorder affects up to 4 per cent of the adult population, so that would be the biggest group. There’s a category that a lot of people don’t know about called ‘eating disorders not otherwise specified.’ So you have anorexia nervosa which is one category, you have bulimia nervosa which is another category and you have 'eating disorders not otherwise specified' and binge eating disorder falls into that category.

What are the tell-tale signs that someone is suffering from an eating disorder?

It’s very difficult to know, with anorexia, it’s very obvious because the person becomes very underweight and you can see it. With bulimia, it’s much more hidden because usually a person who has bulimia remains at a normal weight, and the behaviours that they engage in are very hidden, like the purging behaviours and that, so people don’t notice it as much.

It’s much easier for a person to hide the fact that they have an eating disorder if they have something like bulimia. Whereas anorexia is very, very obvious.

Who tends to suffer from eating disorders more: adults or teenagers?

The average age of onset is between the ages of 15 and 24, so an awful lot of contacts would be in that age group, but an equal number of contacts would also be in their late twenties to early thirties. Often when a person has an eating disorder, it can go on for a number of years. You might get people coming forward in their thirties who are talking about it for the first time, however it’s not unusual at all for us to get contacts from older people who are in their forties, fifties and sixties.

While the average onset would be ages 15 to 24, we wouldn’t think of that as the only age when people would develop an eating disorder. It can happen at any age really.

It is estimated that there are 200,000 Irish people currently suffering from eating disorders

There’s a common misconception out there that eating disorders only affect women. Do many men contact BodyWhys for support?

Yes, about 1 in every 10 cases would be a man.

Is this because eating disorders are starting to affect men more or is it just because they’re becoming more open about admitting that they need help?

It’s hard to know. It’s a huge stigma for men coming forward. It’s really seen as, you know, a women’s issue and men have a huge problem being able to acknowledge that they have a problem around food and their body.

I don’t know if it’s just that more men feel comfortable talking about eating disorders now or whether there are more men developing body issues, but certainly there is an awful lot of pressure on men, and women, to look a certain way and have a certain physique. And that is what we see coming through – men suffering from the same issues, the same triggering factors, as women.

Often when it comes to eating disorders, the media is blamed for portraying an unrealistic body image to people. Do you think the media plays a big part in triggering these illnesses in people?

It doesn’t help. It can be very problematic for a person. If you ask somebody who has an eating disorder, they’d probably say no. There are lots of different causes and it’s usually an accumulation of various different factors.

Where the media really plays a role is in perpetuating this disordered thinking. If you think about it, the message out there is always ‘Eat less, exercise more, be thinner and you’ll be happier.’ So if you have somebody that has an eating disorder, they’re really good at doing all of those things and they’re trying really hard but still feeding into that kind of thinking.

Where the media can really be problematic is when a person is going through the recovery process, because they’re trying to let go of all of those things, but they’re still being bombarded with images and messages that are saying, ‘Actually no. It’s better not to eat so much.’

A lot of people with eating disorders say that getting better actually feels like getting worse because they feel like they’re struggling against something that’s being promoted out there. The media doesn’t cause an eating disorder, but it doesn’t exactly help either.

And what about awareness? Do you think there’s a lack of awareness about eating disorders in Ireland? Are people still afraid to speak up and ask for the help they need?

I think it’s one of the last mental health issues that still has a huge stigma attached to it. People don’t want to talk about it, people don’t want to say that they have an eating disorder. And what we find is that the stigma will stop a person from telling someone that they have it, but also the stigma about it perpetuates the disorder as well.

But there’s a huge misunderstanding about eating disorders. People think it’s just teenage girls wanting to look a certain way or be a certain way. That it’s a choice in some ways – that if they wanted to stop it they could. It’s none of those things. It’s a serious mental health issue.

A person doesn’t choose to have an eating disorder and it’s not just a matter of a person making a decision to eat properly. It’s much more about their sense of themselves – how they’re able to deal with their own feelings, how they’re coping in their life. Unfortunately the stigma stops people from coming forward because they often get so locked in and entrenched in the disorder that they get really bad, and that’s why there’s such a high mortality rate.

In recent years Orthorexia has become a problem in Ireland. What is it?

Orthorexia is where people only eat pure food. On one end of the spectrum you have disordered eating and everyone engages in disordered eating at some point. We don’t always eat the way we should all the time. How we feel and our mood affects how we feed ourselves – that’s perfectly normal.

However, on the other end of the spectrum we have eating disorders. Where you cross from normal disordered eating to an eating disorder is where compulsion comes in. This is where the person has to keep doing something in order to feel okay – where it feels like the end of the world if they don’t over-exercise or eat less, whatever it is.

Orthorexia is where people are using the method of only eating certain types of food as a way of controlling their lives, their bodies and themselves. You can see a progression sometimes. First someone becomes a vegetarian, then they become a vegan, then orthorexia develops. It starts as a choice, but then when a person gets into the eating disorder part, it’s no longer a choice for them. They have to do it. Their whole being depends on it. Their whole sense of themselves depends on it. That’s when you’ve gotten into a real issue.

In Ireland there is still a massive stigma attached to eating disorders

What advice would you give to someone who has a friend that they think might be suffering from an eating disorder?

The first thing I would say is read up on eating disorders. Try and understand what they’re about. If you look at our website, there’s an awful lot of information there. There’s also information about how to approach somebody. Try and get an understanding of it.

If you want to talk to somebody, pick a time when you’re both relaxed, where it’s quiet and where you can have that conversation without feeling pressure. Don’t focus on what the person is eating or not eating, try and take the emphasis off food. Don’t go in saying, ‘You’re only eating this. You look this way,’ Try to avoid this. If you have concrete concerns, say what they are but don’t linger on them; instead ask them how they are coping and how they’re feeling. Do they feel okay? Do they need help? Do they need to talk about something?

It may be that nothing out of that initial conversation changes, but if you don’t go into it from the perspective of food and weight and what they’re doing, you will leave the door open for them to come back to you and talk to you when they’ve thought about it a bit. They’ll feel better about coming back to you because they won’t feel like their eating disorder is going to be threatened by you and that’s really important.

You’re not going to be able to change somebody. You’re not going to be able to make them get help if they don’t want it, but by accepting them where they are in that initial conversation, you can go a long way to establishing a trust that can really have benefits down the road.

If anyone does need any help about how to talk to someone, give us a call, send us an email. That’s what we’re here for.

If you need help, support or information you can get in contact with BodyWhys by emailing info@bodywhys.ie or visiting their website here.