Content warning: eating disorders, disordered eating

Thalia Groucott (Coordinator for Glasgow University Environmental Sustainability Team (GUEST)) talks about Eating Disorder Awareness Week.

The 28 February to the 6 March is Eating Disorder Awareness Week in the UK. This is a very important week in terms of raising awareness about eating disorders and funds for eating disorder charities such as BEAT (who provide helplines and online chat rooms), but by focusing on diagnosable eating disorders, we might miss the more subtle behaviours which are present in our lives.

In this section of the newsletter I’ll be talking about disordered eating - what it is, why it’s important but difficult to recognise, and what to do if you’re worried about disordered eating habits for yourself or someone else.

What is Disordered Eating

While eating disorders are diagnosable conditions with specific characteristics, disordered eating is eating which is more broadly affected by mental factors. Disordered eating can mean eating more or less than you need, and can manifest in a number of complex ways. As a rule of thumb, if you find yourself eating less than your body needs or more than you want to, this may suggest disordered eating.

Disordered eating can be particularly hard to identify for this reason: it might look slightly different for everyone. There is no one right way to eat, and so we can often dismiss concerns by claiming our habits as uniquely our own. At University, we’re mostly away from those who know us best, and so it can be difficult for others to identify when we might be struggling, and easier for us to justify our behaviour.

On top of this, disordered eating is largely normalised in the way we talk about food. Diet culture means that eating in a 'controlled' manner is celebrated rather than flagged as a concern. It’s pretty average to say that you’re on a diet, or that you’re trying to eat 'healthier'.

And while these can be valid pursuits if done with proper attention to health and how you feel, they can often disguise restrictive or disordered eating habits. When we talk about health and food, it’s easy to forget the importance of mental health. Food can bring pleasure and togetherness and satisfaction when properly enjoyed, and depriving yourself of this is likely to bring unhappiness.

As well as diets being normalised, disordered eating itself might be something that goes unproblematised. From my experience and research, disordered eating is something that affects a lot of us. When food is such an obvious outlet for other problems, and so many of us use it as such, it becomes harder to identify when our, and our friends’, behaviours are problematic.

What to do if you are worried?

So, if you’re worried about disordered eating in your own habits or in someone you know, what should you do? The line between disordered eating and an eating disorder is often a blurred one, so if you think professional help is necessary, you should certainly seek it.

Often it’s easier to label behaviours as disordered rather than as related to a particular diagnosis, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t serious or don’t require proper attention. Below there are some options both for professional help and for some things you can do on your own. 

Eating in a disordered way might feel like the most natural thing some of the time, and not something that you need to overcome for your own sake. When this is the case, it can be useful to find some reasons beyond yourself to work towards more sustainable ways of eating.

The Beauty Myth Book

 

These other reasons can often come from books - finding out about the insidious root of disordered eating and eating disorders can help motivate us to overcome them. An example is The Beauty Myth. Though 30 years old at this point, in The Beauty Myth, Naomi Wolf examines how women have been taught to present a certain physical appearance.

As a feminist, reading about how women have been taught to confine and restrict themselves was enough to make me angry at the society which would encourage and normalise disordered eating. When our bodies are controlled and confined, disordered eating feels like a submission.

If you don’t feel like having a healthy relationship with food is achievable for your own sake, do it as a rebellion against the society that created this disordered atmosphere. The Beauty Myth is only one example, and Glasgow University Food And Body Society have a small library of books anyone can borrow from, found here. Of course, this is only possible when our behaviours are still manageable, and often external help can be useful.

Need to Speak to Someone

If you need to speak to someone, you can contact BEAT here. The UofG Counselling service offers sessions for six weeks if you’d like to try chatting to someone in a more consistent way - sign up here. SupportED also run support groups, some on zoom and one once a month on campus - you can find all the dates and information here.

If you need to speak to someone, you can contact BEAT onine.

The UofG Counselling Service offers sessions for six weeks if you’d like to try chatting to someone in a more consistent way. 

SupportED also run support groups, some on zoom and one once a month on campus - you can find more information online.

First published: 25 February 2022

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