When Recovery Looks Too Easy

A study published in the March 2007 issue of the International Journal of Eating Disorders (reported at scientificamerican.com) suggested that there might be some unintended effects of eating disorder education.

After showing high school students videos of women who have recovered from eating disorders, researchers found that some students focused on the appearance of the women. When students saw that these women had strong personalities and seemed attractive, they concluded that recovering from an eating disorder "might not be that hard."

Researchers suggested that eating disorder education should be evaluated before offering it to students.

It should. It's important to note, however, that those with eating disorders are extremely aware of body image. Seeing strong, recovered, attractive women on video could actually be a trigger for eating disorder behaviors. It's not difficult to imagine how such visual images could make eating disorders seem less dangerous.

It would seem that using video to educate about eating disorders should be evaluated against other methods to see whether those methods have the same effect. Writing off all eating disorder education in light of a study like this one would be premature, leaving us without vital tools in the struggle to raise eating disorder awareness. Unfortunately, recovery is hard enough as it is.