Science Could Erase Stigma of Anorexia

Science is going to do that, eh? By… vaccinating the public for anorexia stigma?

Sorry, it’s early in the morning and I haven’t had any caffeine yet. But my first thoughts were really along those lines. Misleading headline — although I did click on the link, so it served its purpose.

Too bad the title was better than the article. It’s a really short article so you should just go and read it, but to sum it up:

Results:

Conclusions:

“It opens up new horizons for accurate information campaigns to help the public understand that people with anorexia nervosa are not to blame for their illness and that biology plays a role,” Bulik said.

While I feel bad critiquing this article without being able to read the actual study, based on these results, these are not the conclusions that I would make! Nowhere in the results did it say that the students who received more scientific information were less likely to blame anorexics than control subjects–just that those exposed to sociocultural factors were less understanding than those with scientific knowledge. Thus, I wouldn’t conclude that scientific knowledge is helpful, but that non-scientific media exposure is harmful. So media perpetuates (or increases) the stigma of anorexia. How revolutionary.

Now, let’s say that we did go along with their published conclusions. How exactly would you publicize science in the media, without sociocultural factors? Certainly not with a documentary like Thin. You’re going to see vanity, poor living habits, relationship issues, the “thin ideal”… you’re not going to see the science. Are you going to publish a lot of psychiatric papers? That’s probably not going to “erase [the] stigma of anorexia.”

Besides, while there definitely is a large biological/genetic role, and people with anorexia are not to blame for their condition… they’re still involved! I don’t think you can choose an eating disorder, but I think that further down the path you have some choices. And yes, parenting and lack of social support are contributors to anorexia — that’s why so many inpatient treatment programs require family therapy…

Tags: anorexia stigma, biology of eating disorders, eating disorder, university of north carolina