Thread by @theshirarose

Eating disorder programs that treat eating disorders while promoting the abstinence model along with weight loss is yet another example of what is wrong in our field.

FOOD IS NOT POISONOUS AND ADDICTIVE. YOU CAN’T BE ADDICTED TO SOMETHING YOU NEED TO SURVIVE.

You know why you might FEEL addicted? Because you’re restricting yourself or feeling guilt every time you eat something our culture has deemed “wrong.”

And of course that food changes every single decade.

Today, I read on an eating disorder program’s website - and this a direct quote from the dietitian- “Find foods that you love but not LLOOVVEE.”

Gd forbid you have pleasure from food? Gd forbid you go overboard and actually truly enjoy the food you eat??

The irony is that we fully embrace & encourage people who meet the criteria for stereotypical anorexia (emaciated etc) to eat to their hearts content. But if you have an ED in a larger body, you are LITERALLY TOLD TO RESTRICT, the same behavior we try to stop in smaller bodies.

Fuck that. Fuck the state of our field. Fuck people dying every day because we can’t see past the rampant fatphobia in treatment centers and make the change needed to help people feel safe in all bodies.

I went to an ED treatment center with a supposed #healthateverysize philosophy last May, and I’m still trying to undo the messages where I learned yet again that my body needed to be micromanaged and that my body was a problem. Fuck, I am so tired.

My dietitian who is #HAES wants me to eat foods I LOVE. He wants me to feel pleasure from the foods I eat and live a FULL life where I am in charge & not listening to the million of rules of my ED. How sad is it that an ED dietitian is encouraging restriction and deprivation?

How heartbreaking is it that people seek help for their ED’s, only to be given treatment filled with more dieting, deprivation and sadness? And when they “fall off the wagon” it’s because they lacked the willpower. Ugh. 💔 I have no words.