Experiences of marginalisation can also have an impact on disordered eating
“Due to my ethnicity/cultural background, I have suffered a lot of injustice throughout my life and so am constantly stressed. I eat rich food and sweet things to help me manage this stress. The culture that I come from lacks support, so I had no help around how to manage myself.”
“Being mixed and an atheist has socially isolated me, so I comfort eat. Also acting affects my self-image and being a parent whose kids are not very kind sometimes makes me comfort eat.”
Our individual backgrounds shape what we need from healthcare – it is not one size fits all
“I now know that I am also allowed to struggle with spicy food irrelevant of my south Asian roots.”
“For my relatives, as English is not their first language the health service staff didn’t fully understand their identity, because they are unable to express themselves and understand the system. It’s a very basic interaction without going into details or considering intersectionality aspects of their care.”
“I do feel that my cultural [background] and ethnicity have affected my eating disorder… For example, I was told by elder members of my family that I can cook and eat any time of the night.”
Parenthood can significantly impact experiences of disordered eating
“The biggest part in my identity that’s interacted with my eating disorder has been age and having a child.”
“Being a parent means I try to not express body issues so as not to influence my children”
“My children are my biggest cheerleaders and I never even understood that they were living this with me.”
“A significant part of my identity is as a mother. When I first became a mother, I thought that mothers have nice round bodies, I’ll try and be like that. But identity is not just one thing, so it kind of depends where I’m identifying myself."
