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I’m a Psychologist. There’s a Better Way to Talk About Eating Disorders Online.
Analyzing societal pressures and trends that contribute to unhealthy habits is important. But more mindfulness is needed.
The self-optimization behaviors — such as intermittent fasting — of Silicon Valley CEOs, like Twitter head Jack Dorsey, has become the subject of much recent internet gossip and coverage. There are clear dangers in prominent figures publicly discussing their intensive fasts and claiming it’s good for people’s health. I also feel it’s irresponsible for the media to get into the business of declaring people have eating disorders.
As a psychologist who cares deeply about global well-being, I think there are better ways to have public discussions about eating and disordered eating. Feeling bad about personal appearance is an unfortunately common experience among Americans. I hear too regularly from people who want to weigh less, and who try extreme fad diets to do so. Many people have, at least at one point in their life, dedicated an unhealthy amount of time overthinking their eating habits or what their body looks like. People often assume that struggles with eating are problems that afflict teenagers. While the peak age of onset for such difficulties is between 15–25 years — and there is an especially high prevalence of problem eating in college-aged men and women — the truth is that disordered eating can happen at any age. Excessive concern about weight, body image, and restricted eating/fasting can continue for people into their 60s and even 70s.
Eating disorders are severe medical illnesses, typically marked by inaccurate beliefs about one’s body shape and weight and biased attention to appearance-related stimuli. Eating disorders are not lifestyle choices about food, weight, vanity, or willpower. They are often chronic, severe, and potentially life-threatening.
Public figures are used to high levels of criticism, due in large part to the fact that they have influence, and therefore naturally enter a space where that influence will be analyzed. But it’s important to be mindful that there are many people who are also practicing these “trends” and who are also consuming the same criticism of these behaviors. Many…
