Your Body Is Not Your Enemy

Eating disorders affect over 30 million Americans of all ages, races, sizes, genders and backgrounds. This year’s National Eating Disorders Awareness Week (NEDAW) is February 23 to March 1, and the theme is every BODY belongs. Each year, NEDAW’s goal is to raise awareness, challenge stigma, and provide hope. “This year, we come together to fight for change, commit to change, and remind everyone that every body belongs.”

This article is written by Taylor Shay Ashton, a social worker, advocate, and coach whose work involves helping others process and heal from trauma, promote self-love and growth, and assist others to be able to live their happiest and fullest lives. She is in the process of getting a Masters and License in Clinical Mental Health Counseling.

Everywhere we look, whether in our daily lives or online, the body is framed as something to be conquered, disciplined, or overridden. Hunger is treated as suspicious, fullness as failure, and rest as weakness. Even well-intentioned recovery messages can subtly reinforce the idea the body is untrustworthy and must be managed through rigid rules or constant monitoring.

This framing misses a crucial truth: The body is not the enemy—it is the messenger.

Eating disorders are not simply about food, weight, or appearance. They are often adaptive responses to distress, trauma, shame, or a loss of control. For many people, the body becomes the battleground where unspoken pain is expressed. Restriction, bingeing, purging, or compulsive exercise can function as attempts to regulate overwhelming emotions, numb sensation, or create a sense of safety.

When treatment focuses only on symptom elimination without addressing meaning, it risks pathologizing the very strategies that once helped someone survive.

Social media frequently amplifies this problem. Diet culture disguised as “wellness,” moral language about food, “nothing tastes as good as skinny feels,” and algorithm-driven body surveillance normalizes disordered behaviors while rewarding self-punishment. Messages that glorify control, “discipline,” and aesthetic transformation reinforce the belief that the body must be fixed, rather than understood and supported. In this environment, eating disorder culture thrives—not because people are weak, but because they are responding to powerful social and psychological pressures.

A more humane and effective approach asks different questions. Instead of “How do we stop this behavior?” we might ask, “What is the body trying to communicate?” Rather than treating hunger cues as problems to manage, we can view them as signals of need. Rather than framing recovery as a battle against urges, we can frame it as a process of rebuilding trust with the body.

We need to heal from this, and healing involves reconnecting with ourselves, cultivating compassion, and understanding eating disorder behaviors within the context of a person’s history and relationships. When people are supported in listening to their bodies—rather than silencing them—recovery becomes less about control and more about care.

Reframing eating disorders requires challenging deeply embedded cultural narratives. It means rejecting the idea that worth is earned through restraint and that suffering is a prerequisite for health. Most of all, it means remembering the body has been trying, all along, to protect us.

The body is not the enemy. It is where healing begins.

If you or a loved one is experiencing an eating disorder, resources like the National Eating Disorder Association (NEDA), The National Alliance for Eating Disorders, or Eating Disorder Hope can help connect you with the help you need. Remember, managing and eating disorder can be a long-term challenge. Establishing a support system with people including a mental health professional, a medical professional, and trusted loved ones can help support your recovery journey.