Breaking The Silence

This blog post is going to be a little different than most, so here's your early disclaimer and apology in advance... but there's a silence within the world of athletics that needs to be broken. 

This week is an important week, and most people aren't even aware of its existence. This week is Eating Disorder Awareness Week. This is an extremely personal topic to me, and also a sensitive one. However, with that being said, after having struggled for quite some time, being an advocate for these disorders is extremely important to me. Eating disorders, specifically anorexia, have the highest mortality rate among all mental illnesses. ALL OF THEM! This means that more people die per year from eating disorders than depression related suicide, manic episodes, and more. Yet NO ONE talks about the severity, and also the frequency that these occur. Eating Disorder Awareness Week serves as a reminder of the silent struggles that many individuals face in their relationship with food, body image, and mental health. The goal for this week is to shed light on the prevalence of eating disorders, break the stigma around them, and help gain a compassionate understanding of the challenges that people with eating disorders face.

I think that the biggest part of this week is to promote awareness in order to break some of the stigmas around eating disorders. Contrary to common misconceptions, eating disorders are not solely about food or vanity; they are complex mental health issues. Another common misconception is that you can always tell if someone has an eating disorder simply by their appearance. Eating disorders can occur at any weight, and individuals with eating disorders may not exhibit extreme thinness. People struggling with these disorders may maintain a "normal" weight or even be overweight. Eating disorders are not always about these outward, physical symptoms, but more the psychological struggles that these people face.

As a female in the running world, eating disorders are something that we have grown way too familiar with, and to some extent almost glamorize as a good thing, or as an essential to being fast. There are girls who are promoting being as skinny as possible, promoting unhealthy diets and habits. Quite frankly, that makes me sick. So many times, female runners, or any athlete really, are told that the skinnier you are, the better you perform or the faster you may be. Or that you can't be fast unless you "look like a runner." What does that even mean?! These things are drilled into our heads from such a young age and have some of the most detrimental impacts on our lives in the future. One of the myths surrounding female runners and eating disorders is the misconception that all athletes must have a specific body type to excel. The truth is that bodies come in various shapes and sizes, and success in running is not solely determined by appearance. Getting rid of these myths is essential in promoting a more inclusive and supportive

environment within the running community.

Eating disorders can cause long-lasting, detrimental effects that are not talked about. People can have major bone health complications because the lack of nutrition weakens your bone density, making your bones extremely fragile. Eating disorders can also strain your cardiovascular system, including an extremely low heart rate, which can ultimately lead to death. Women with eating disorders also have an extreme likelihood to not be able to have children in their future, because eating disorders disrupt menstrual cycles and cause hormone imbalances.

Again, I know this post kind of strays from what you probably expect to read, but this is a topic that I am very passionate about, and what better time to spread even more awareness than this week. So, if you didn't know that National Eating Disorder Awareness Week existed, I challenge you to tell someone about it, share what you learned with one person. It sounds cliche, but it could save a life.