This week is Weight Stigma Awareness Week. Weight Stigma is a bias based on a person's weight. As a person in a bigger body and one who has struggled with an eating disorder, I have experienced weight stigma for over 30 years.
I have been praised by medical professionals for years when I have lost weight in a bigger body. They never questioned that I was starving myself and was malnourished. They just saw the numbers on the scale and never recognized I had an eating disorder. When I gained weight, I was told to lose weight. Even told to get bariatric surgery, which I did. I was the one who finally, after 30 years, explained to the doctor that I was struggling with binge eating. He did listen and referred me to treatment. The weight stigma did not end there.
One I got to treatment, the weight stigma was then given to me by the insurance company. I was sent home from residential treatment twice and had to stop the PHP (partial hospitalization program) twice due to the insurance stating I was "not sick enough." In translation, the scale did not show me being "sick". Again, I was still struggling with the binge/restrict cycle. Even though I was in treatment, the doctors still recommended bariatric surgery. You can still have bariatric surgery and still have the eating disorder thoughts as I will write about in another post.
Weight stigma is everywhere in diet culture and it needs to end so treatment will not be determined by the number on the scale. Let's end weight stigma and Kick ED's Butt.❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️