- Hey everybody, happy Monday.
Now today we're gonna talk about some myths
and misconceptions about eating disorders.
But before I get into that,
I know we have a lot of new people here.
If you have questions or concerns,
if you're wondering if I've talked about something before,
just hop into the search bar on YouTube,
put in my name, Kati Morton,
and then add in some keywords for your search
like anorexia, bulimia, depression, stress,
whatever it may be.
I have almost 1,200 videos so chances are,
I've talked about it already.
Now if you haven't been following me for a long time,
you may not know that I actually specialize
in the treatment of eating disorders.
Much of my private practice and my training back in the day
is dedicated to treating those with eating issues.
And over the years I feel like I've heard all the myths
and misconceptions surrounding them.
But if you think I left any out,
please feel free to share it in the comments down below
so we can continue to learn from one another.
Now before we get into the myths,
I just want to quickly share
that there are many types of eating disorders.
Diagnostically speaking,
they put all feeding and eating disorders together
and there are eight total.
You know, each of these disorders
have different diagnostic criteria you must meet
but the DSM puts them together
because they all, and I quote "are characterized
"by a persistent disturbance of eating
"or eating related behavior that results
"in the altered consumption or absorption of food
"that significantly impairs physical health
"or psychological functioning."
Now I know that the DSM
isn't the end-all be-all for mental health
but it just gives us an idea of what feeding
and eating disorders they recognize right now.
And the ones that they list are PICA
which is when we eat things that aren't actual food items,
like let's say, I'm eating cotton balls for example.
Two, rumination disorder
and this is when we repeatedly regurgitate our food.
Three, avoidant restrictive food intake disorder,
otherwise known as ARFID,
which is when we struggle to eat enough food
to give our body the energy that it needs.
This can be due to the texture of food
or worry about feeling sick after eating.
Next we have anorexia nervosa and this is an eating disorder
that is characterized by us restricting our food intake
leading to a significantly low body weight
and we fear gaining weight more than anything else.
Next we have bulimia nervosa and this is when we binge eat
and feel out of control while we're doing it
and then we engage in compesatory behaviors
to quote unquote "make up" for the binge.
Those behaviors can be things like using laxatives,
purging by throwing up, or exercising excessively,
there's a lot of others, but that just gives you an idea.
The next one is binge eating disorder
and this is when we binge eat and we feel out of control
just like we talked about with bulimia nervosa.
However, we do not do any compesatory behaviors afterward.
And the final two disorders are the sort of catch-all
for when we don't quite meet the criteria
for the other ones I just mentioned
which is why the DSM isn't the end-all be-all.
But these two are otherwise specified feeding
or eating disorder which is when we meet
like almost all the criteria for a certain eating disorder
except let's say one of them.
And the second is unspecified feeding or eating disorder
which is when we have an eating or feeding disturbance
but we don't meet the full criteria
for any of the disorders listed.
Okay now that we're all on the same page
and we're all aware of all the different eating
and feeding disorders out there,
let's get into the most common myths or misconceptions
about eating disorders.
And the first one is that everyone
who has an eating disorder is underweight.
As I'm sure you can see
by the different diagnosis out there,
there's only one eating disorder, anorexia nervosa,
that has a weight component to its diagnosis.
All the other ones do not.
And so if you find yourself assuming
that someone underweight has an eating disorder
while someone else who is of a normal weight
couldn't possibly have one,
remember this myth and do your best not to perpetuate it.
It's my belief that together we have the ability
to end the stigma and stop the spreading of misinformation,
so if you hear someone perpetuating this one,
feel free to kindly share
that there are lots of eating disorders out there
and not all who struggle are underweight.
And actually, a vast majority are not.
I also think that this myth
has been perpetuated by insurance companies
because when calling in
to get coverage for patients of mine,
they always ask about their weight
and what their ideal body weight is.
And in my experience,
it has been so much harder to get coverage for my patients
who aren't underweight and that needs to stop.
Having binge eating disorder added to the DSM,
I wanna say it was back in 2013-2014,
but that's definitely helped.
But like I said, only one eating disorder
requires a low body weight, just one.
So insurance companies
need to get their heads out of their asses
and recognize just how varied those who need help are
and stop discriminating.
Myth number two,
that eating disorders are all about the food.
Now I've talked about this one a lot on my channel
because even those who struggle with an eating disorder
can often forget this fact.
Eating disorders do focus on food
but they're really there just to numb us out
or distract us from what's really going on.
If something is feeling
completely out of control in our lives,
let's say a parent or a spouse is an alcoholic
and we don't really know what to do about it
or how to get out of that situation,
we can try to control our body instead
because if we think about it,
the only thing we really do have control over is ourselves,
no one else, we can't make anybody else change, you know?
Does that make sense?
And also I had patients in the past
who were sexually assaulted or abused
and the abuser said that they liked that they were soft
or they enjoyed the fact they were bony or whatever,
and so my patients will force their body
to look the opposite way either by gaining or losing weight,
kind of as a sort of a protective mechanism.
And that's why eating disorders are not about the food,
they are coping skills for other issues
that we have going on in our lives
and I see eating disorders as a sort of symptom
of something else going on.
So if we find ourselves controlling our food in any way
or thinking about food like 90% of our day,
be curious about what triggered it
or what we're trying to avoid dealing with
because that's the real reason
that we have the eating disorder.
And the real thing that we're going to have to work through
in order to heal and recover.
Myth number three,
that only teenagers have eating disorders.
I cannot tell you how many parents
I've spoken with over the years who believe that their child
will grow out of their eating disorder
or self-harm struggles.
Mental illness isn't something that we grow out of
or into for that matter.
Just like physical ailments, they can come up at any time
and stay and sometimes until we treat them.
I have had patients who suddenly
had eating disorder behaviors
for the first time in their 40s
and I've even treated children with eating disorders,
some as young as nine and 10 years old.
So eating disorders don't care how old you are,
it's more about what's going on
and why are you using food to cope with it?
Also as a side note, really recently,
a colleague of mine came to me
because she suspected one of her elderly patients
was suffering from an eating disorder.
And so she asked me some questions
and after much conversation, we decided that she was
and this patient, what kind of what was going on in her life
is this patient's children had started fighting
about what to do with her.
Put her in a home, get in home care, et cetera.
And all that fighting made things so tense and upsetting
that this patient began to exhibit
eating disorder-like behaviors.
She was 86, so no,
eating disorders don't only happen to teenagers,
they can affect any of us at any point in our lives.
Myth number four, that eating disorders only affect women.
This is one that I feel was perpetuated by the DSM
back in the day.
And if you don't know what I'm talking about,
one of the diagnostic criteria for anorexia nervosa
was loss of your period.
Well, most males do not have a period
and therefore they couldn't be diagnosed
or treated for anorexia and that's just not right.
And like we talked about before,
eating disorders don't care who we are,
we can be any age or gender, and we can still struggle.
Sure, I've seen differences
in the way eating disorders present themselves
but that really has more to do with the person
that it's affecting, not what sex or gender they are.
I also feel that treatment centers need to change
in order to stop this misconception from spreading
because many eating disorder treatment centers,
even the ones I worked at, you guys,
they only treat women.
That's just not right.
We need to push for better treatment for all,
not just for one gender
or certain types of eating disorders.
And fifth and finally, my final myth
is that eating disorders are a choice.
Now this one just like angers me more than any of the others
because it places blame on the person
who's already struggling.
I hate it but if you think back to myth number two,
you know that eating disorders
are just a way to cope with something else that's going on.
Just like people hide in their work,
we can use drugs or alcohol to numb out
or overspend to distract ourselves,
we all have ways that we cope, good ones and some bad ones.
And in all honesty, eating disorders do serve a purpose
for those who have them
because it's a way to get through something, keep going.
But they quickly run out of a purpose
and then hold us back, hurt our relationships,
and threaten our physical health and our life.
Eating disorders are like a virus,
they can slowly take over our thoughts and our life,
but with the right treatment and fight,
we can overcome them.
I hope you found this helpful.
I know there are so many misconceptions out there
and I just wanna make sure that we're doing our best
to spread helpful and caring information.
Like I said at the beginning, there are so many of these,
so feel free to share any others
that you hear all the time down in those comments below
so that we can keep working together
towards a healthy mind and a healthy body,
and I will see you next time, bye.
(soft jazzy music)