Stereotypes about eating disorders hurt, maim, and kill.

Ask the family who thought their daughter was "too young" to have anorexia.
Or the family who thought their daughter couldn't be anorexic because she came from a "loving home."
Or the guy who wasn't diagnosed.
Or the African-American woman whose food concerns weren't taken seriously.
Or the mother who was discharged early from treatment- and then died.

Early diagnosis and treatment, as well as continued support for full recovery, is crucial. And if our blinders are on, we won't see everyone who needs our help and support.

A lot has been said about the new book "Going Hungry," by Kate Taylor, about how it "shatters stereotypes" about eating disorders. Why? It includes stories by women over the age of 30, women who aren't rich and white, and even by two men.

All of this is good, very good. However, my appreciation for the "good" ends there. Why? Because it still rejects a lot of the current science and goes back to the anorexia-is-about-control* or about-such-and-such, when I'm not sure that's the case.

Anorexia isn't about wanting to fit in. Can weight loss bring you attention and make you "feel" like you fit in? Yes. Can it make recovery harder? Yes. But that's not to say this is what an eating disorder is "about." And it is not about "Disappearing in order to be seen." It sure as hell feels that way, but there's something a lot more primal going on, something way deep down in your insula, in your hippocampus, in your synapses.

In the NY Times, reviewer Gina Bellafonte writes:

The happy family is, of course, rarely the anorexic’s breeding ground. Anorexia is considered a disease of control, but it is also, notably, a disease of differentiation as the anorexic tries to occupy a separate and autonomous emotional space, as if the act of shrinking will ease the fit.

Yet another harmful stereotype. Because no one, really, has a happy and perfect smiling family. My family didn't go to pot until after I got sick (and quite possibly, because of it). If you have a family member with a deadly illness, is happiness even called for? Hope, yes. Happiness? Not as much.

Says Kate Taylor (editor of the anthology) in an interview with the New York Sun about the genetic influences on eating disorders:

I think the research so far is very preliminary and doesn't show much — certainly not as much as some popular articles have suggested. Clearly, genes are a significant contributing factor, just as they are for depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and other mental illnesses. But whether there is a specific gene for anorexia — frankly, I doubt it.

Well, the last part is correct. It's highly unlikely anorexia--really almost any illness--is going to be controlled by one gene. Because genes don't cause disease. They just make proteins. But the research isn't preliminary, either. Is it as good as we would like? No, but if a family member has an ED, you are twelve times more likely to develop an eating disorder. Which is quite a ways from "preliminary" if you ask me.

Anorexia and bulimia have a cultural context, no doubt. But they're not a cultural illness. Which is another harmful stereotype, and certainly contributes to men and minorities being overlooked.

Taylor also referred to Hilde Bruch as founding the "modern" perspective on anorexia. If modern was the 1970s, then maybe. But the twenty-first century perspective belongs to other people, using science and compassion to break down those stereotypes that continue to be built.

I've read the book, and the essays are well-written, but they're not particularly novel. Maybe the book isn't particularly meant for people with eating disorders- I don't know. But I didn't walk away with a better understanding of eating disorders. And despite all of my reading and researching (which borders on the compulsive at times- shocker, I know), I don't know everything.

It was the same stereotypes (parents, control, society), just dressed in new clothes.

*I have conflicting thoughts on the "about control" part, but that's fodder for another post.