Eating disorders - Image is the problem, not reality

IT is an unfortunate but entirely illustrative irony that Eating Disorders Awareness Week began yesterday, just as half the world sat up agog at the chemically and surgically modified waif-women who high-heeled it up the red carpet to the Oscars ceremony at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angles or at London Fashion Week.

Can it be any wonder so many of our children and young adults have “issues” with their “body image” if we put such a huge value on what the fashion of the day decrees the ideal of human physical beauty. Especially if that ideal is far beyond the reach of the vast majority of humanity, even if they undergo bizarre surgery carried out by bizarre perma-tanned doctors or the latest vanity starvation regime. How can we expect our children, so easily influenced and so perceptive and vulnerable about how they are viewed, to be happy in a world where 100-pound stick insects are the template?

Well, too many of them are not.

Bodywhys, the Eating Disorders Association of Ireland, tells us that children under the age of 10 are contacting them, sometimes through their parents, seeking help for problems with eating disorders.

What have we created? A society where national school children feel that they need to conform to a body ideal? Even in a world gone mad, where economies collapse and bankers lie and cheat on a spectacular scale, this is a truly sad reflection on our mores.

Bodywhys said the incidence of pre-teen callers to its helpline was a “relatively recent phenomenon” — and one they have serious concerns about. They also point out that there is no dedicated mental service to help these children. Nor is there likely to be, despite the 2006 Government blueprint, A Vision for Change. This document recommended a dedicated unit for the treatment of eating disorders in children and adolescents. The suggestion remains no more than a proposal, a high-minded aspiration from prosperous times. The reality is that any family with a child in need of help in this area may well find themselves alone and dependent on their own resources. As in so many other special needs areas the terrible and deepening reality of our current situation means that what might have been possible a few years ago is no longer conceivable.

As the other extreme of eating disorders — obesity — becomes ever more common, it may be time for a little more parental responsibility and support for parents caught up in this dreadful situation.

Of course this won’t be the answer in all cases but it may be in a significant number. After all, we can’t be surprised if our children end up as wheezy flab-monsters if we feed them on pizza, ice cream and great heaps of “snack food”. It is almost five years since a revolutionary smoking ban was imposed. What a wonderful next step it would be if junk food advertising was constrained — for all sorts of reasons.

Neither can we be amazed if we put a premium on being size 8 when our size 12 or 14 daughter is disappointed and feels less cherished than she really is.

This is a complex and fraught area and there is much we can do to help our own children and help friends and relatives whose children are struggling with these modern curses. If we can do it, we should do it.