The Christmas period can be particularly challenging for those affected by eating disorders. The expectations around socialising and food can contribute to stress, pressure and conflicted thoughts and feelings.
The advice from BodyWhys for people affected by eating disorders is to ‘acknowledge that this time of year may heighten your stress around food and let others know this can be difficult for you. Try to speak to someone you confide in’.
Bearing this information in mind we ask journalists to:
- Signpost to further sources of support such as BodyWhys.
- Avoid using numbers, be it in terms of weight lost or gained, or in terms of calories consumed.
- Include stories of personal experience and recovery.
- Avoid providing specific details of behaviours engaged in by any one individual with an eating disorder.
- Provide accurate information about eating disorders and the symptoms of eating disorders.
- Avoid referring to typical profiles i.e. specific genders, social classes, ages.
- Include the view or advice of an expert.
- Avoid using low weight images and consider using images that illustrate the mindset of a person affected by an eating disorder, and the disparity between a person’s sense of themselves and the reality of the eating disorder.
To find out more information on reporting about eating disorders and mental health in general please contact us or visit the following pages:
https://headline.ie/media-info/guidelines-and-resources/eating-disorders/
https://headline.ie/media-info/guidelines-and-resources/mental-illness/
To find out more information about eating disorders please visit the BodyWhys website:
https://www.bodywhys.ie/
