Raising awareness, promoting change

A few days ago Merryl Bear, the clinical director of NEDIC, shared an article with us about an open letter written by an Equalities Minister sent to magazine editors in the UK to ask for a ban on the publishing of ‘miracle diets’ after the holidays. You can read the article here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20849476

I, personally, share the Minister’s view. As someone who is dealing with binge eating disorder and weight preoccupation, magazine covers speak so loudly to me. I will be shopping with my partner and I am instantly drawn to the magazine that promises me I’ll lose 10 lbs in one week. More recently, I saw the “8-hour diet: eat anything (yes anything) and still drop pounds. Fast!” on the cover of Women’s Health (January 2013) and I had to tell myself that I really don’t need another magazine so that I could put it back on the news stand and walk away. I get so conflicted with my thoughts when I have to hush ED and remind myself that if I want to lose weight, it is to be healthy rather than being skinny, and that healthy weight loss is 1 lb a week, and that I need to eat small, nutritious and balanced meals throughout the day when I am hungry. All this because I walked by the newsstand.

In a previous blog post we shared another open letter that was written by Elaine Stevenson, who has been touched by eating disorders in a very personal way. Elaine’s efforts were successful and the advertisements which she wrote to have banned and removed from circulation have been pulled.

Why’re we even sharing these open letters with you?

An open letter is a letter that is written with a public audience in mind, or to an individual with the understanding that the letter will be made available publicly to be read by others. People write open letters because they want to state their position or opinion on something, to draw attention to something and start a dialogue about it or to draw attention to something and promote change, for ‘something to be done’!

NEDIC is an information center for those affected by eating disorders, their families and their friends. Just as importantly, NEDIC’s goal is to raise awareness about eating disorders, to help de-stigmatize eating disorders and to promote change in how eating disorders are perceived by the medical profession, the media, and the general public.

The success of open letters means that people who can make change happen (local leaders, politicians, magazine content editors, etc) are listening and are willing to take our positions on various topics seriously for consideration. Even more importantly, they’re willing to act on our suggestions. This is a source of motivation for NEDIC, to continue to inform and raise awareness about eating disorders, to motivate the authorship of future open letters which may be successful in promoting change for the better.