This is Eating Disorder Awareness??

This post is a little hard for me.  I have been thinking about this for the last few days and I am hurt and furious in so many ways.

Let’s back track a little…I have had an Eating Disorder for over 20 years.  I am in a great place in my recovery and I have spoken about my recovery journey for the last 10 years.  I have spoken at my share of Eating Disorder Awareness Events but the last two years I have not been as involved in Eating Disorder Awareness.  I have to say I miss it even though I tell people I have retired from that part of my life… but I guess you never retire… you always fight so that someone else gets the help they need or someone else might not have to fight so hard for what they need.

A couple days ago I fell upon the Renfrew Center (an Eating Disorder Treatment Center all over the East Coast of the US) Facebook page.  I have actually done a lot of advocacy and was an alumni consultant for the Renfrew Center in Florida for many years.  Anywhos…they have a tab called Barefaced and Beautiful.  So of course I was curious as to what exactly that was.

It is a campaign created by the Renfrew Center for Eating Disorder Awareness. Barefaced and Beautiful… Without and Within.  For their Eating Disorder Awareness on Facebook they are asking for women to go without makeup and change their profile picture to themselves without makeup to start up a conversation about eating disorders, body image and true inner beauty.

I am sure some of you are thinking… well this sounds great.

This would be great if their product was cosmetics and all of their consumers wore makeup.

But this is an Eating Disorder Treatment Facility who educates on Eating Disorders.  Educating people that Eating Disorders are not about the food or about ‘looking’ a certain way but they are an inner struggle felt by both men and women.

I have personally had a struggle with this basic understanding from doctors, friends, family and acquaintances  that my eating disorder was not about me wanting to be a super model but about a self hate so deep that I was punishing myself every minute of the day.  I was worthless and did not deserve food.  I wanted to disappear because I was not worth taking up space.

This campaign coming from a place where I went to heal is appalling to me.  This campaign is saying very loudly with no words at all:

1. People have eating disorders by choice and only to ‘look better’
2. Only women have eating disorders

I only wear makeup for extremely special events… so this basic awareness tactic is unaccessible to me.  With this campaign I feel that my struggle isn’t as important as someone who wears makeup.

With my advocacy I focused in on the soul and inner thoughts and stayed away from all numbers and physical attributes so that people can start to realize that Eating Disorders are emotions and that the food and body image are symptoms.  I feel with this campaign, Renfrew is going the complete opposite way and erasing all that I and so many others have worked hard to establish.

I also have a concern about this campaign for people in the midst of the struggle.  Social media is not always a safe, friendly space.  When you are in a treatment facility the concept of going without makeup can make a strong impact when you are with a strong support group but in social media this is not always the truth.  People are constantly making fun of the way people look and if you are someone who wears makeup regularly and all of sudden changes, this will bring a lot of attention your way… but is everyone ready for that much attention?   The attention will not be on Eating Disorder Awareness it will be on someone’s physical appearance.  Comments will be made on physical appearance which can be triggering to someone within the struggle of an Eating Disorder.  Someone might not realize this and follow this campaign because they trust the advice of the Renfrew Center… but the Renfrew Center is really feeding them to the hells of social media.

For me this campaign is using women’s bodies as advertisement.  This is also something my colleagues and I talk about when we present on Eating Disorder Awareness…. and here is Renfrew using women’s physical appearance to advertise for themselves.  Again, if your product deals with the face or body then this is something that could work… for instance the Dove Campaign… but the Renfrew Center is not Dove.

The amount of people who are unable to be a part of this campaign is also something that just does not make sense to me.  What about women and men who do not wear makeup… mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, daughters, sons, etc. who want to show support for someone they love who struggles with an eating disorder… who may not wear makeup.  All of these people are excluded from this campaign.

As I have been sitting here trying to figure this all out and really not feeling to fabulous about myself I decided to do my own Eating Disorder Awareness.

I personally do not read magazines, watch TV or listen to the Radio because of advertisements… I have tried going back every once in awhile forgetting that the standard of our body from the media is getting smaller and smaller.  I sometimes watch shows online but I am gradually pulling away from that also.  I love the older shows where people were all shapes and sizes… the perfect body wasn’t bones.  They still make their cracks about weight but we are all guilty of that… but seeing people with realistic bodies is really refreshing and now I have created an environment where I am not use to seeing these images of ‘what society thinks I should look like’… but lately I have noticed that what the media has been telling us for years about hating our body is gradually seeping into my Facebook home page from my friends.  People talking about how they hate their bodies, loosing a lot of weight in short periods of time, pictures and comments about strangers bodies, judgements about food… all things that when I was in recovery were never talked about.  Things I have taken out of my environment.

So my Eating Disorder Awareness is We Are Fabulous in February… (and all other days of the year).  I am asking my friends and Facebook/Twitter users to post 1 thing that is fabulous about themselves once a day in the month of February.  That is 29 Fabulous things about each person who participates.  I am hoping they will share with their friends and be able to help each other out on what is Fabulous about themselves.  My hope with this is that the Facebook home page starts to become more positive about our bodies and ourselves instead of a place of negativity about ourselves and other people.  The bonus of this is that for the rest of the year when you have one of those days where you don’t feel so fabulous… you can look back in the month of February or your friends can remind you of 29 Fabulous things about yourself.  Now how cool is that.