Putting a face on it

HOLLYWOOD — Jessica Weiner is a public face for a series of stigmatized disorders — eating disorders — and living proof that recovery is possible.

Eating disorders can affect anybody, the activist said in a phone interview Friday. “We need to humanize this issue. It doesn’t exist outside ourselves. It exists in the people we love,” she said.

Anorexia (deliberate, extreme self-starvation) and bulimia (purging food through vomiting, laxatives or exercise) are recognized as mental disorders. A third illness, binge eating disorder, or BED, is not yet formally recognized as a psychiatric disorder, but activists like Weiner know it exists. She was diagnosed with “EDNOS,” eating disorder not otherwise specified, and worked hard at treatment. It’s worth noting that during her illness, Weiner did not appear visibly unwell.

“I have to stay diligent about it, because it’s my recovery. It’s my sanity,” she said.

All of the disorders can be deadly. And anorexia has the highest mortality rate of any mental illness, according to the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Eating Disorders (ANAD).

Weiner, a motivational speaker and columnist for “Seventeen” magazine, is also the author of “A Very Hungry Girl” and “Do I Look Fat in This? Life Doesn’t Begin Five Pounds From Now.” She helps the Seattle-based National Eating Disorders Association spread the word about the severity of eating disorders. On Friday, she was helping to highlight National Eating Disorders Awareness Week Feb. 22 - 28 (see related story).

Eating disorders are tricky, in part because many sufferers are good at concealing them, but also because, in a dieting- and appearance-obsessed culture, others have trouble recognizing that something is wrong.

A girl whose anorexia first manifests as the shedding of a few pounds is likely to win praise — often, regardless her body size. A boy who works out all the time will be viewed as dedicated. But sometimes, he is obsessed with “looking right.” (An estimated 1 million males suffer from eating disorders).

“I think we have to be really careful in tracking the way we talk about appearance,” Weiner said. “Jessica Simpson just became national news when people were speculating about a weight gain for her. It doesn’t necessarily link one to another (weight speculation with eating disorders), but it continues to put pressure, on women in particular, to conform to a particular size.”

Such pressure can underly an eating disorder, she said. (Weiner and others said, however, that an eating disorder is not just about the food.)

“The pressure in our society to be thin is enormous. As our TV sets get bigger, the people on them get smaller,” Lynn Grefe, CEO of NEDA, said. “It’s troublesome there’s so much focus on the physical appearance of people rather than people’s character and virtues.”

Some of the signs of anorexia, such as a preoccupation with calories and tracking every morsel eaten, is exactly what many commercial diet programs exhort their customers to do.

Plus, Americans tend to practice what is called “disordered eating.”

“You label food as good or bad. It’s assigning emotions to food. It’s skipping meals. It’s maybe overeating, but it’s sporadic and it has an emotional impact,” Weiner said.

“An eating disorder is when it is the first thing you think about when you wake up and the last thing you think about when you go to sleep. If the thoughts of food, weight and body image control your life, impact your relationships, that, to me, is a sign of having something more severe.”

Weiner called for better, earlier education, including among pediatricians — and for balance. So many people communicate in what Weiner calls “the language of fat,” that the bombardment is constant.

“What you think about grows. If you think about it all the time, it becomes your reality. If the nation is focused on fat, we become fatter. If you focus on balance, health and well-being, you have more options.”

Weiner is not alone in her call for more education. With eating disorder awareness incorporated into school curricula at an early age, the chances of preventing the illnesses grow, Grefe said.

“Would you let a child go into a medicine cabinet and take any prescription medicine? Yet parents let their (average weight) children go on diets when they don’t need to. I don’t understand why parents don’t take children dieting as seriously as they would if the child were taking drugs.”

Despite the challenges eating disorders present, recovery is possible, Weiner said. “You can recover from them. ... It’s about shining a light in these dark areas and letting people know they are not alone.”

For more information, visit www.nationaleatingdisorders.org or www.anad.org.