health lab by amy simpson, behavioural health counselor at eating recovery center
EATING DISORDERS
As LGBTQ-identified people, we are taught
from an early age to ignore and/or attempt to change the signals our body gives us. When our bodies experience attraction to somebody of the same sex, we have already internalized the message that “You don’t really like him/her, you just want to be like him/her.” When this training about ignoring our most basic of physical needs and instincts, is combined with the genetic predisposition for an eating disorder, the consequences can be dire. The prevailing cultural narrative on eating disorders, would have us believe that this is an illness largely impacting only young, white women and is thereby a disease of the “privileged” and not a “real problem.” This thinking is not only inaccurate, it is dangerous. In fact, eating disorders are the most lethal mental illness, due to the combination of medical complications and depression that often accompany diagnosis. With this harrowing knowledge we must acknowledge that, as with other mental health issues, the number of LGBTQ people struggling with eating disorders is dispro- portionate to our actual population size. It is reported that 42 percent of men with eating disorders identify as gay. Rates of eating disorders in LGBTQ-identified women are similar to rates in cisgender, heterosexual women . In contrast, one figure from the Williams Institute of UCLA puts the adult population of gay, lesbian and bisexual people in the United States at 3.5 percent of the total population (or around 9 million people). The same study states that approximately .3 percent of
U.S. adults identify as transgender. Put in this light, it is apparent that LGBTQ people are particularly vulnerable to all forms of eating disorders. As an LGBTQ person working specifically with patients struggling with eating disorders, I have learned a few things. Eating disorders are, generally speaking, a metaphor. Food becomes a representa- tive, or a mechanism to control other struggles and stressors. When we recognize that LGBTQ people have an instilled tendency to question the body and its motives, it isn’t that far a leap to recognize that this tendency can and does easily inform how we relate to the rest of our body’s needs. Cameron Esposito, a lesbian comedian based
in L.A., has begun to openly discuss her own struggles with anorexia and bulimia, sharing that her sexuality, eating disorder and body image struggles are inextricably linked. As a pre-teen girl, her peers recognized her “differentness,” what she later discovered to be her lesbian orientation. She believes that her peers mocked her body size and shape because they did not have a better word for what they were noticing. As a result, she began restricting her food intake, believing that a “normal” body would solve this problem. She had relationships with men, but felt disconnected from all her physical encounters with them. As a result, rather than restricting her food intake, she entered a binging cycle in order to fill the gap left by that disconnected feeling. A sense of connectedness is vital in eating disorder recovery, regardless of gender or sexual
RECOVERING CONNECTIONS
identity. Eating disorders thrive on isolation and the more connected somebody is to a support system, the better chance they have at recovery. For LGBTQ people, this also means feeling connected to others who identify the same way. According to the National Eating Disorder Association, “A sense of connectedness to the gay community was related to fewer current eating disorders, which suggests that feeling connected to the gay community may have a protective effect against eating disorders.” When we know that our experience of sexuality and gender is not simply a ‘different’ thing about us, but a real experience shared by nine million others in this country alone, we can once again learn to trust our bodies and the messages they give us, rather than feel betrayed by them.
ABOUT EATING RECOVERY CENTER Eating Recovery Center (ERC) is the only national, vertically integrated, health care system dedicated to the treatment of serious eating and related disorders at any stage of the illness through an unmatched network of multiple locations across seven states. ERC offers best-in-class treatment programs for all patients, no matter their age or gender, struggling from: Anorexia, bulimia, binge eating disorder, eating and weight disorder, unspecified eating disorders, as well as comorbid, co-occurring and dual diagnoses.
For additional information, call 877.789.5758, email info@
eatingrecoverycenter.com or to speak with a Master’s-level clinician, go
toeatingrecoverycenter.com.
38
RAGE monthly | NOVEMBER 2016
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64