1. MYTH…

Eating disorders are just about food and weight.

TRUTH…

Eating disorders are about real underlying issues --- a combination of social, psychological, interpersonal and biological factors.

2. MYTH…

Only people who are apparently overweight or underweight may have or will have eating disorders.

TRUTH…

Individuals struggling with eating disorders come in all shapes and sizes. In fact, people with bulimia usually maintain an average or above-average weight. Eating disorders do not discriminate and exist at every number on the scale.

3. MYTH…

Only women have eating disorders.

TRUTH…

Although most individuals with eating disorders are female, men also suffer with the disease and account for approximately 10 percent of all cases. As many as 1 million males in the United States have an eating disorder.

4. MYTH…

An eating disorder is about vanity; it is the "attention-getting" disease.

TRUTH…

Eating disorders are serious, life-threatening diseases that should never be taken lightly or thought of as a "phase" or a diet. Eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of any psychological illness.

5. MYTH…

A person with an eating disorder needs to just eat more, just learn when to stop eating, or just not eat this or that specific food.

TRUTH…

Eating disorders are not about food. Eating disorders are about constant self-criticism, painful unrelenting perfectionism, and low self-esteem. When a person with an eating disorder hears someone say, "just eat," it only contributes to his or her already low sense of worth.

6. MYTH…

People who have eating disorders are weak-minded.

TRUTH…

Unlike alcoholism and other addictions, recovery from eating disorders is especially challenging by the fact that sufferers must come into contact with food daily and cannot survive without it. It takes a very strong person to constantly be in contact with a substance and to try to lead a normal life around it.