Wellness That Matters: Black Health News & Community Care
- Kerry Washington candidly describes living with binge-eating disorder and calls recovery an ongoing, active process.
- Eating disorders are psychiatric illnesses that can cause severe physical harm, from brain fog to dangerous cardiac events.
- Stereotypes cause underrecognition of disordered eating in Black women, despite similar or higher rates of binge eating.
- Treatment includes psychotherapy, medical monitoring, nutritional counseling, medication, and culturally competent care for Black women.
Disordered eating impacts thousands of individuals, including actress Kerry Washington. The Scandal star and author shared details about how she copes with the urges associated with eating disorders during a luncheon Equip Health held in honor of National Eating Disorders Awareness Week last week. Washington is serving as a strategic advisor for the startup that seeks to expand access to treatment for eating disorders.
“When we think about mental health and behavioral changes there, I’ve always thought it’s so complicated, because my substance is not something that I can put down,” said Washington.
What Are Eating Disorders?
“Eating disorders (ED) are conditions characterized by abnormal eating behaviors and excessive preoccupation with food, body weight, and shape,” according to Advances in Psychiatry and Neurology. They are classified as “psychiatric illnesses.”
This does not mean they are not physically dangerous. Eating disorders can obliterate long-term health and put individuals at immense risk for adverse side effects. These can range from brain fog and lightheadedness and go all the way up to severe cardiac events and even death.
What Kind of Eating Disorder Does Kerry Washington Have?
Washington struggles with binge-eating disorder. Unlike other substances, food is not something one can abstain from completely. You can avoid bars and clubs, but the refrigerator is another matter. This makes managing an eating disorder uniquely challenging. Washington acknowledged the difficulty of needing to interact with the subject of her binge-eating disorder frequently. “I have to take this tiger out of the cage and pet it three times a day,” she said.
“That idea of perfectionism is impossible in this recovery, because you can’t perfect something that’s ever evolving,” Washington continued. “I have to just be willing to continue to be curious and loving and show up.”
This is not the first time she has publicly shared about her experience. She described it in her 2023 memoir, Thicker Than Water. “By the time I got to college, my relationship with food and my body had become a toxic cycle of self-abuse that utilized the tools of starvation, binge eating, body obsession, and compulsive exercise. I would, when seeking to stuff my feelings, stuff my face, secretly binge eating for days at a time, often to the point of physical pain, sometimes to the point of passing out,” she wrote. She explained how she exerted control over her body, adding, “My drive toward perfectionism directed me toward control, either by not eating for days at a time, or by exercising for several hours, all in an attempt to right the wrongs of the bingeing.”
Compulsive exercise is masked more easily than the induced vomiting that is generally associated with bulimia nervosa. High-achieving people, like Washington, are expected to exercise all the time.
She considers recovery an active process and not a passive one. “When I’m in recovery, my disease is outside, doing push-ups waiting for me,” she said at the luncheon.
How Do Eating Disorders Impact Black Women?
Eating disorders affect all different kinds of people with all different types of bodies and skin tones, but they often get missed in Black women due to stereotypes.
“Eating disorders are stereotypically believed to affect skinny, white, affluent, cis-gender women,” according to a 2023 article from Current Psychiatry Reports.
Washington is not the only Black woman in the spotlight to share her first-hand experience with an eating disorder. Actress and Be Happy director Gabourey Sidibe recalled her struggles with disordered eating and bulimia in the pages of her 2017 memoir This Is Just My Face: Try Not to Stare. Zoe Kravitz told Complex and Nylon she developed an eating disorder due to societal pressures in 2015. “I put my body through so much, and at first it was really hard to even have a conversation because I was so lightheaded all the time,” said the Blink Twice director and Big Little Lies star.
Supermodel Beverly Johnson described relying on bone broth and champagne to make it through days without eating in her 2015 autobiography, The Face That Changed It All. Thandie Newton opened up about her bout with bulimia in a 2020 interview with Vulture.
The International Journal of Eating Disorders reports that “Although Black women have similar or higher rates of BE than White women, most research on BE and BED has focused on White women, with Black individuals underrepresented in clinical trials.”
What Kind of Treatments Are Available For Eating Disorders?
Eating disorders can be treated using individual, group, or family psychotherapy, medical care and monitoring, nutritional counseling, and medication, according to The National Institute of Mental Health. Experts recommend that treatment for Black women be culturally competent.
Recovery for disordered eating is an ongoing process and can look different for everyone. Some with more severe cases may require in-patient treatment to prevent their disorder from posing an immediate threat to their safety.
Resources
Advances in Psychology and Neurology
Psychology Research and Behavior Management
The International Journal of Eating Disorders
National Institute of Mental Health
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