Leaflets and Posters
Personal Comment - When looking for research on eating habits I thought the best places to look would be in public health facilities like hospitals and clinics. In any place I had went to there was no leaflets or posters available for me to take as research. When I had asked people about them I was told "They were out of season". I thought this was the stupidest thing i'v ever heard so I asked for more of an explanation. Basically posters and leaflets are taken down during periods like "Flu season". You always see posters and advertisements related to Diseases and charities which are ongoing all the time. We eat food everyday so how come Eating Habits isn't an issue? Maybe there isn't any posters or leaflets for Eating Habits?
Social Media
Example of a Pro Anorexia Site
One of the quotes found on the Thin Intentions Forever site:
"Wear a rubber band around your wrist and snap it when you want to eat. Food = pain."
Personal Comment - Social Media is a big problem when it comes to Eating Habits with people trying to emulate a famous persons look and lifestyle. People advertising there bodies to show off or to intimidate others through Facebook, Twitter and various social medial sites. "Look at me im fit and thin and here's how to change that". It really is amazing what lengths people go to to gain the perfect image. A lot of websites advertise specific diets or food supplements for gaining muscle or burning off unwanted Calories/Fat.
Personal Comment - This website gave me a very good insight to the impact social media has on Eating Disorders. In a way social media puts pressure on people to out do each other on looks. People get plastic surgery to look a certain way because they aren't happy with there own looks.
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Media Influences On Body-Image, Eating Behaviour And Self Esteem
It is hard to evaluate the relationship between the media and eating disorder without considering the multi faceted impact of media messages on body size, on food consumption, on the desirability of certain foods and their consequent consumption, and other matters relating to personal identity and status.
The media can have many influences in relation to food and eating including:
- It confers hidden meanings on food – nostalgia, sexiness, being a good housewife and mother, rewarding oneself, having uninhibited fun etc, and creates unnatural drives for food.
- The media can persuade us that wrong eating habits are right and natural. I cite the case of a MacDonald’s advertisement recently in which a young boy persuades both his parents to take him for a burger and chips rather than a healthy outing at the zoo.
- The media can create anxieties about being deprived if we don’t have what “everyone else” is having.”
- The media presents us with an idealised shape which is invested with attributes of being attractive, desirable, successful and loveable but which is unattainable without resorting to sinister or dangerous eating habits.
- The media perpetuates the feeling in people who do not have the ideal shape that their life would be fine if they were slim.
What Is Body Image?
Body image is an important part of self-identity and self esteem. We all have a body image which is defined as the physical and cognitive representation of the body which includes values about how we should look along many dimensions (age, size, height, colour, attractiveness etc) and emotional feelings connected to acceptance or rejection. Body image is closely connected to self-esteem. It is possible to have low self worth and a good body image if other aspects of functioning are important. On the other hand it is hard to maintain good self worth if one’s body image is disturbed.
It is believed that women and men configure an internalised ideal body and compare their actual or perceived actual shape against the socially represented ideal (Myers and Biocca). This presents a body image which is elastic in that it will feel different at different times and in different contexts, such as being on a beach in a swimsuit.
We have already explained both that the ideal body has become smaller, thinner and differently shaped over the past 20 years. The ideal body is now sculptured, pared of fat (with a BMI that would place most models firmly in the anorexic category), with narrow hips, a small waist and rounded breasts, a stature which can only be achieved by most women with the help of surgery since under conditions of weight loss breast tissue tends to shrink.
This may explain two factors:
- Why women consistently overestimate their weight, and
- why dieting behaviours are so prevalent. Over half of all dieters are not overweight, which means that of all people currently dieting, 1 in every 2 doesn’t need to. Dieters, especially young ones, tend not to be responsible in their eating habits. We define this as “normative discontent”, referring to the fact that poor body image is normal among women in today’s society. But what is worrying is that, responding to this low level of body dissatisfaction; women may be harming themselves with their responses. On a study of 869 Australian diets in 1998, one third were using extreme methods such as fasting, crash dieting, smoking or drugs, in the belief that these methods would be harmless.
It would seem that the media doesn't simply make the ideal body desirable, these dieting behaviours spring from an epidemic of low esteem, stress, guilt and depression about having a body that falls short of the cultural ideal. People who diet believe that they look bad, and that this will affect their ability to get a good job or attract members of the opposite sex unless they are thinner. This is true to a certain extent. Research shows clearly that OVERWEIGHT women suffer in a number of important respects. They are less likely to be accepted into higher education, they have lower salaries; they are less likely to date in adolescence and are less likely to be married in adult life. Conversely, graduate career women are more likely to feel guilty about eating than any other target group.
This finding reflects the conflicting pressures on women of today which are reflected in media. Women are supposed to be thin, attractive and successful in the workplace and in academia, while maintaining feminine characteristics of nurturing, maternal, warm, socially engaging and givers. It is thought that women who cannot reconcile these roles and who feel out of control of their lives may turn to the control of weight to regain a sense of coping. However this is just a hypothesis."
Personal Comment - What I found interesting about this piece of text is that men/boys aren't mentioned. Most of the time you hear women complaining about there weight but its never a man. A man would be afraid of being teased by others and therefore keep to himself, suffering in silence. When looking for help yes they can go online and look for information but what if they don't have the internet or access to it? It takes alot of gut to go and talk about there feelings and when someone has this confidence and is ready to talk about there issues they don't know where to go!
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What Power Does The Media Actually Have?
There is no doubt that the media provides significant CONTENT on body related issues to young women, over 50% of whom, (between the ages of 11 –15 years) read fashion and beauty related magazines. The exposure to ideal images coincides with a period in their lives where self regard and self efficacy is in decline, where body image is at its most fragile due to physical changes of puberty and where the tendency for social comparison is at its peak. Girls thus find themselves in a subculture of dieting, reflecting messages not only from the media but also from parents, peers, members of the opposite sex as well as the media.
Analysis of media content both provide a stream of articles on weight control, either through fitness or food control, and physical beauty, together with models whose curvaceousness has declined steady over the period from 1959-1978 (Guillen and Barr). In all cases, the emphasis on diet or fitness was designed to help someone become more physically attractive and thus acquire status.
In the late 1990s, there was a fair degree of comment from the media about Sindy dolls sold to girls under the age of puberty, with an impossible bust to waist ratio and impossibly long, lean legs. The accusation was that Sindy dolls would “encourage anorexia” by providing young girls with an adult body shape that they would aspire to but never achieve. Various experts appeared on radio and TV accusing the manufacturer of social irresponsibility.
It must be pointed out however, that while it is true that growing and adult women are exposed to thin images and many article on diet and fitness, this fact tells us little about how these messages are received by the audience or by parts of it."
Searching for information
Personal Comment - I was told by a woman in the hospital to go to the Old Bridge House as they have people who work with people who have eating issues. When I visited the Old Bridge House I noticed that it was a strange place. I got talking to Angela O'Neill who gave me a leaflet and some good research on eating disorders for my project. At last I got something! We discussed how I couldn't find any leaflets or posters on eating issues and she explained that they need to go through the government first and then sent out and that there isn't alot of places that deal with eating issues in Northern Ireland. I wonder why?
Angela's Document
Personal Comment - This document really opened my eyes into the different eating disorders, there causes and symptoms. I literally read through it going "I did that", "I do that", "I used to do that". This made me feel very worried about my own well being. Angela had given me some numbers of places to phone and search for online.
Eating Disorder Association NI
"Currently it is estimated that at any one time 1.6 million people in the UK will have an eating disorder, however it is suggested that these figures vastly underestimate the number of people living with these disorders due the high levels of stigma and shame. While no official figures are available for the prevalence of these disorders in Northern Ireland estimates suggest that between 18,000 and 20,000 individuals will be living with an eating disorder in Northern Ireland at any one time. Disorders include Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia Nervosa, Binge Eating Disorder and Eating Disorders Not Otherwise Specificed (EDNOS). Increasingly, presentations of muscle dysmorphia and body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) are being seen within local and national services.
While eating disorders are traditionally seen as illnesses that most commonely affect teenage girls, it must be remembered that eating disorders can and do affect anyone irrespective of age, gender, sexual orientation, race or ethnicity. It is also important to know that not everyone will have the same signs, symptoms and experiences. Some people will fit into one diagnostic category while others will have a mix of symptoms that make it more complicated to diagnose or spot their eating disorders. It is also important to know that you do not need to have all these symptoms associated with the diagnostic category to have an eating disorder. In this section about eating disorders we have provide a brief overview about what the different types of eating disorders are and how you might spot them however due to the complex nature of these disorders you might find it isn't as clear cut as this - that is okay, and entirely normal!
However, if you suspect that you or someone you care for may have an eating disorder, seek advice and support. The sooner eating disorders are addressed and treated the better the chance of recovery.
Recovery is possible, and you do not have to do this alone."
Derry Well Woman - Wouldn't apply.
Personal Comment - I was told not to get in contact with this group as they are strictly for women and I would get turned away even if its just for research. I was disappointed by this as groups should treat everyone the same.
The Lawrence Trust
"Pamela Nugent founded The Laurence Trust in 2012 after her youngest son Laurence passed away in 2009 struggling from Bulimia and depression for around 8 years.
Since Laurence's passing his family and friends have struggled to make sense of what has happened to Laurence, but they have found light and hope in the motivation to help other young men and their families who find themselves in the same position.
The Laurence Trust was founded on the basis that Young Men would be supported in their continuous daily suffering of eating disorders and depression, information and hope would be offered to living with through raising awareness of eating disorders affecting young men from the age of 19, with the aim of bringing to the attention of healthcare providers the much needed change in attitudes, the provision of the appropriate support; and the duty of care to living with and their families.
How we aim to move forward
Set up a website for men living with eating disorders and mental health issues, families and healthcare providers and the general public to access to raise awareness of eating disorders; provide a source of up to date information on eating disorders, share links to support agencies; and
Providing footsteps to good health including:
Providing footsteps to good health including:
- seeking help from the local GP in the first instance
- recognising the signs of an eating disorder
- getting information about eating disorders
- helping people living with eating disorders gain the confidence to share their feelings with their family, with the aim of building a greater support unit to help guide their path to better health
- providing helpful information to the family unit so that they actively support the sufferer"
"Why men?
Men typically find it more difficult than women to seek help for any ailment, be it physical or psychological, and thus it is easy to assume that only those who seek treatment for an ailment are those who are living with it.
This is often not the case, especially when it comes to eating disorders. Feelings of fear, shame and the perception of society that an eating disorder is a 'girl's condition' make it even more difficult for men to come forward and seek help."
Personal Comment - After exploring the website I decided to try and get in contact with the charity. Unfortunately I didn't get a response which made me feel sad. What if someone else in serious trouble tried to contact them but couldn't.
Mens Action Network (MAN)
Personal Comment - I got in contact with this charity but was told to go else where because it would take months for a meeting. I was only looking for research not to help myself. I was told to get in contact with Cunamh.
So far I have found some good research but places seem to keep passing me to others so I was going around in circles. How is someone in my position supposed to get help?
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