Families Don’t Cause Anorexia
Gisele Bunchen made a claim last week that families were responsible for causing eating disorders, not models
Gisele blames families for causing anorexia
The heat from the media and the public lately towards models and eating disorders has been great. Gisele lashed out last week that it was families who caused anorexia, not runway models and celebrities.
But researchers have bit back with the opinion that her comments are damaging.
"An uninformed opinion such as Bundchen's causes harm on a number of levels. By contributing to the stigma, it drives sufferers underground and creates obstacles to seeking help. It damages attempts at advocacy and hurts parents who are desperately fighting for their child's recovery," said Allan S. Kaplan, M.D.
"Such thinking also misinforms third party payers who may not want to pay for the treatment of these biologically-based illnesses if they think its primary cause is family dysfunction."
Bloggers around the world are also upset that Gisele, who has no authority on eating disorders, has made such a comment that millions of people will be listening to.
Dr. Walter H. Kaye, M.D. says, "We often hear that societal pressures to be thin cause many young women and men to develop an eating disorder. Many individuals in our culture, for a number of reasons, are concerned with their weight and diet. Yet less than half of 1 percent of all women develop anorexia nervosa, which indicates to us that societal pressure alone isn't enough to cause someone to develop this disease."
"Our research has found that genes seem to play a substantial role in determining who is vulnerable to developing an eating disorder. However, the societal pressure isn't irrelevant; it may be the environmental trigger that releases a person's genetic risk. Families should not be blamed for causing anorexia. In fact, they are often devastated and suffer from the consequences of this illness."
