In the United States, 30 million people will struggle with an eating disorder at some point in their lives. More than half of teen girls and nearly a third of teen boys are engaging in unhealthy weight control behaviors. Given these startling numbers, we at NEDA believe that early intervention and prevention is crucial, which is why we recently launched an eating disorder prevention and early intervention program: The Body Project.
At Proud2Bme, we're tired of narratives that portray young people with mental illness as helpless victims. We're tired of one-dimensional characters and after-school specials.
So when we heard about Gren Wells's directorial debut film, The Road Within, which comes out this Friday, we were immediately excited by this refreshing take on an issue we've seen mishandled time and time again.
Last week, a study was published in the International Journal of Eating Disorders stating that people who struggled with eating disorders and disordered eating behaviors during adolescence earned less money later on in life. These results are interesting, but more work can be done to explore what these results might really mean for individuals who have struggled with eating concerns.
About the Study
France Bans Skinny Models from the Fashion Industry
Last Friday, April 3rd, the lower branch of the French Parliament, the National Assembly, passed legislation that would ban dangerously thin models from the fashion industry. As part of a wider health care bill expected to become law this week, the fashion industry is targeted to help change the perception of body image in the fashion world. The bill is currently awaiting approval from the Senate.
The bill has multiple provisions, including the following:
My first blog post. How exciting! I’m Iskra, a JAG fashion model, an ambassador for the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) and creator of the NEDA Inspires Seal of Approval, which we launched at NEDA’s recent gala fundraiser and awards program in New York City.
NEDA is proud to announce that we awarded Aerie with our first NEDA Inspires ‘Seal of Approval’ for their dedication to unretouched, natural beauty in their advertising. This recognition comes just after the celebration of the one year anniversary of Aerie’s #aerieREAL campaign—their corporate commitment to body-positive advertising.
Struggling from an eating disorder is difficult enough without the stigma that it is a feminine disease. Being a male in the world of ED is difficult in different ways; from diagnosis to treatment. Before DSM-V, one of the ‘requirements’ of being diagnosed with anorexia was the absence of your menstrual period. This ‘requirement’ in itself was sexist and fell into the feminine stigma of EDs.
Today we are working on breaking the old view of eating disorders and having people understand the true nature of these diseases.
The Butterfly Foundation, an Australian organization that provides support for Australians who suffer from eating disorders, recently released findings from their report, Investing in Need: cost effective interventions for eating disorders.
If the images you saw in magazines, on television or on the internet looked more like you would you feel more confident about your body?
Does every woman really have an eating disorder? Of course not. I wrote my book, and started the blog that inspired it, to shed light on the incidence of subthreshold eating disorders, now called Other Specified Feeding and Eating Disorders (OSFED) and subclinical presentations, commonly referred to as disordered eating. One thing I had noticed in fifteen years of working with patients with eating problems was that just because someone didn’t meet full criteria for anorexia or bulimia (or now binge eating disorder) didn’t mean that her struggle wasn’t real.