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…
