157. What People Got Incredibly Wrong About Eating Disorders

Understanding Disordered Eating: Eating Disorder Recovery and Body Image Healing

The media often portrays eating disorders as affecting ultra-thin, hospital-bed-bound college girls. While this happens, it’s not the majority of what we mean when we say someone struggles with an “eating disorder.”

In this episode, I’m talking about how the media’s (and beyond) portrayal is not only wildly inaccurate but also dangerously misleading. That “sick enough” myth? It’s real. And let’s be honest, it’s all kinds of messed up. I’m unraveling the reason why those 19-year-old, emaciated models aren’t the majority, and how most people don’t fit neatly into a category.

Tweetable Quotes

"Eating disorders are when food and emotions are kind of messed up."- Rachelle Heinemann

"The emotions are the crux of it. They're the absolute foundation of it. And if we neglect to look at the emotions part of it, then we are neglecting basically the entirety of the eating disorder." - Rachelle Heinemann

"Just because somebody doesn't have any medical complications at all doesn't mean they don't have an eating disorder." - Rachelle Heinemann

"The largest percentage of people that we see with eating disorders... is the category for the people who don't fit in the categories." - Rachelle Heinemann

"It's important to talk about what eating disorders actually are: a complicated relationship with food, and we have this continuum of where the symptoms lie." - Rachelle Heinemann

Resources

Grab my Journal Prompts Here!

Looking for a speaker for an upcoming event? Let’s chat!

Now accepting new clients! Find out if we're a good fit!

LEAVE A REVIEW + help someone who may need this podcast by sharing this episode.

Be sure to sign up for my weekly newsletter here!

You can connect with me on Instagram @rachelleheinemann, through my website www.rachelleheinemann.com, or email me directly at [email protected]