Stigma

Stigma is a big threat to the recovery of persons with eating disorders.  Chances are you know someone who has or has had a mental health problem like an eating disorder, anxiety, depression, drug and alcohol misuse, dementia they can affect anyone and can cause more suffering and disability than any other type of health problem.

First Steps feel that addressing stigmas of eating disorder is important for two primary reasons: Firstly, stigma can prevent on the person who has been diagnosed with an eating disorder to get worse. Secondly, concerns about stigma may delay the seeking of and continuing in treatment.

Hyped Young People’s Project DVD 2009
 
Our young people identified that there is a lot of stigma, myths and stereotypes surrounding eating disorders. They would like to break some of this down because believe that this stops a lot of people coming forward for help. They have helped us to record a DVD doing just this. Members of our steering group interviewed young people at the YOF event to get their views on eating disorders; appeared on the DVD themselves describing their own experience; went into schools to run training sessions to raise awareness about eating disorders and challenge misconceptions. This DVD has been distributed throughout Derbyshire to schools, youth clubs, statutory and voluntary organisations as a training aid.