While the focus these past few years has been on moving through the pandemic, a group of people seem to have been slipping through the cracks. As we posted and discussed the need for more mental health awareness, specifically regarding things like depression, anxiety, and obsessive compulsive disorder, we forgot a mental health group that is still struggling in it’s social recognition, eating disorders.
Eating disorders are slowly becoming talked about and the range of them is expanding. I remember in the early 2000’s there were references to eating disorders all over pop culture, be it jokes or completely serious scenes. And maybe it’s just me, but I also remember never being directly told that it was wrong. I find it amazing the openness I am seeing in people admitting, or creating space for conversation around the outer social stigma and inner social stigma of eating disorders.
Because control is a driving factor for many living with an eating disorder I was unsurprised to see that eating disorders were being exacerbated by a pandemic far out of anybodies control. Something that BuzzFeed recognized in an article they posted to their twitter feed.
This is not only a problem for those with an eating disorder but also for those who work with in patients at hospitals and other healthcare facilities. Because these patients programs were terminated and moved to video and phone calls many began to relapse in their treatment. Without specialized healthcare for their disorder patients were quickly losing the progress they had made and that weighed heavily on the medical personnel who worked with them and were also seeing an uptick in patients seeking help for eating disorders. Mentioned below by a U.K. Channel
With the end of the pandemic somewhat insight, the hope that patients will once again be treated as in patients and that the increasing degrees of control begin to soothe the urges the lack of control has been exacerbating. Hopefully this surge will lead to better support for those who need it and more awareness and open conversation and education for those who hopefully never will need it.