Padlet

https://padlet.com/cuerpoundefined/cuerpo-undefined-221g26tn4767tvtd

While I was trying to set up different focus groups and activities with different groups of people I found out that is was very difficult to set up a time to get different people to meet and some of them did not want to meet in a group however there was the fact that a lot of them were willing to participate in a pallet it honestly started as an activity I was going to use in the meetings. Still, it ended up being one I could use in general when people didn’t have time for a meeting. This was a pivot I had to make because it is not okay to wait until the time is right; I actually have to do something, and I got a lot of different and interesting comments from this Padlet. In the Padlet, I asked two questions and then gave people the opportunity to share what they wanted. The first question was “What is the most common misconception you see around eating disorders?” The second was “How do you think we can create a safer environment so there are not so many people suffering through body image struggles?” and lastly, I gave people the option to write “Any other thought you might have on eating disorders or body image struggles” 

One of the main things I found interesting about this exercise is that people were more willing to do this than to speak to me directly when the idea of focus groups came up. This may be because they are anonymous, and no one will ever know who did it. This is definitely a factor to consider because when I tell people it is anonymous, they are happy to help me, but when it is more of a person-to-person activity, they find it harder to accept. 

For the first question, I had 15 different responses; for the second one, I had 13 responses, and for the third one, or the last one, which was if they had any comments, I had 10. The fact that the one where I did not ask a direct question still got so many responses is interesting, because maybe it means I was not asking the right questions. Because of the number of comments in this section, maybe I should have asked more questions. There are a lot of themes that keep on repeating themselves for the different questions, starting with the first question, which is about the stereotypes related to eating disorders. Many of them spoke about the fact that it is only about the body and about feeling pressure when it comes to the body they express the fact that it comes from emotional control and having issues with not knowing who they are and needing an identity and needing to deal with psychological issues issues such as trauma and when they are looking at all of this they use food as a tool to deal with this no matter what type of disorder it is that they are dealing with. For example, other mental disorders are also an effect of this but are dealt with in different ways. Secondly, they talk about the fact that it is something that can be controlled and that it is a choice that people decide to be sick because of the way that they look or many others. There is also the fact that it was never a choice; it might have started with a diet and seemed to grow from there, but there is a lot more going on mentally that is uncontrollable and takes a lot of time. Thirdly, there is the fact that the identity or how bad an ED is based on the way a body looks, and this is completely false since ED’s can look very different on different people. This stereotype also suggests that if someone looks well on the outside, they must not be sick, but in reality, if they are sick, they need the same amount of help, and it is bad for everyone no matter how they look. Another thing that came up a lot in the wander of this question is the fact that eating disorders are treated all the same. There are a lot of different eating disorders that one does not even realize exist; for example, there was talk about AFRID, which is sometimes described as a person being a picky eater, and doctors and people think that this is a disorder which is used to mask anorexia. Still, in reality, many people have this disorder, and it mustn’t be confused with others. Lastly there was the way in which now people are glamorizing extreme thinness in the media which leads to people assuming that people with eating disorders but what they must really be thinking is about the people that look extremely thin is the fact that they are seen as good or even at times as if they are not really a disorder that people choose to do it which is ridiculous and this are all really assumptions that people have in the outside world when it is not something that they live with in their every day life. When I see all these responses, I start to think that no one really knows what an eating disorder feels like or looks like for one person, because there are always changes, and not everything looks the way one might think. Another thing that was really emphasized was how a lack of education affects this, and how understanding the effects a disorder like this has in the long or short run is important. 

For the second question, there was a lot to consider. I think that some of the things that they expressed are things that are already in the media but that sometimes it is hard to see, for example I think one thing that really should be seen more is about how people are at times paying attention to other peoples habits when it comes to food and exercise as well as people bodies and this are two subjects that should not be discussed people would have their choices and not be judged on them. The media also has an effect because the trend now is to be thin. People compare the thinness that celebrities and public figures have with people who are actually suffering from this disorder. This connects to the need for change on social media because thinness and being as fit as possible are extremely glamorized. Since it’s on entire platforms, people need to see that it is not just something you show online. Still, it is something you must live with forever because you cannot change or buy a new body; you have to take care of it, and this is the message that should be spread. We should also put a stop to diet culture because it has become so normalized. Some people thought that it is possible to see this change in our society, but that it is something that has to start from the top: having people that we admire or we think have incredible qualities and making sure that they are spreading a positive message. We also need more education about what an adult says to a child and what the effect is, because as an adult you might think you are helping someone lose weight or look better by your standards. Still, the comments you make about a Childs body are comments that might stay with them for the rest of their lives and this is something you really have to think about (are you comfortable with being the one who made a comment which might affect someone for the rest of their life and lead to a mental disorder) you don’t have to say everything you think it is impotant to actually think before you start spreading messages specifically when it comes to this subject. The last point in this answer, which I think is important to look at, is how everyone is glamorizing GLP-1 nowadays. I do think they are important and necessary for some people, but I don’t think people should make comments like, “You should go on a GLP-1 to see if you can finally lose weight.” Finally, what most of them say is that we need to start showing real bodies; however, I don’t want this to be interpreted as bodies that are on the larger side. This also means including bodies that are shorter or taller, as well as slimmer, because even though we assume slim bodies do not face criticism, that is not reality. Hence, it is important to have all types of bodies because people have such different forms that no single body should be seen as wrong or unreal. 

Lastly, in the last column about comments people might make about this subject, there was still a lot of talk about assumptions people make regarding these disorders. One example of this is how people sometimes assume recovery is easy you just have to eat but the reality is that when your body is so malnourished and going through so much it is impossible to just think that if you eat you will recover because this is not a weight illness it is a mental illness and a lot of times people do not realize this for example in Colombia when someone is so sick that their heart is no longer working and their brain is shrinking they are not put into a hospital that is specialized for this they are hospitalized not for mental health but for malnourishment and when you gain a little weight you are sent home but they don’t treat the underlining part of it then it is also important to look at the treatment centers and how a lot of them are not always positive and there is a lot of abuse going on around it at times it is also something that can come back or that you might not fully recover from for a lot of people it is an every day struggle and it is not as easy as just going to a clinical hospital to get help it takes a lot more than that. The point that got a lot of attention was that EDs aren’t always about one body. Still, it is always assumed as this at times it is a coping mechanism (One part that is very important to look at as well is the fact that at times there is a direct correlation for example with the ED of Bulimia and binge eating with ADHD when it is not diagnosed because people were not taught that their brain was different and given help with leads to them looking for a new way to control or to regulate their brain and emotion and this is something I learned in one of my visits to a ED treatment center in Barcelona). Lastly there is talk about GLP1 and how this is something that can really affect people that are going through recovery and not just that but there are also a lot of people that triggered an ED when they started using a GLP1 because they got addicted to the fast weight loss and staying small and this is something that must always be looked at as well because this is truly and lines and when given a drug such as this people can get sicker or triggered because they must conform to this new standard.