This week is Body Image and Eating Disorders Awareness Week (BIEDAW)

Body Image and Eating Disorders Awareness Week (BIEDAW) is a national week to raise awareness of body image concerns and eating disorders, celebrated annually 6-12 September. It calls upon the community to acknowledge that all bodies are important, and all bodies deserve politeness, honour and care from ourselves and from others. It highlights that this is true in all circumstances, but particularly in spaces where people are affected by eating disorders.

Here in the Lived Experience Forum, we are making space this week for those of us who have struggled with body image and eating disorders.

The theme: Rejecting diet culture

This year, the Butterfly Foundation along with the Eating Disorder Alliance Australia, aim to raise awareness of the impact of diet culture and spread the message that all bodies are good bodies, and that we don’t have to subscribe to diet culture’s limiting beliefs.

Our forums centre on sharing stories and supporting our communities, and this week we encourage safe respectful conversation on this thread and for you all to reach out to the people in your life and keep the conversations going.

Not sure where to start? Here are a few key ways you can get involved with BIEDAW:

1. Reject diet culture; for eg:
   - saying no to fad diets
   - embracing body neutrality
   - removing moral value from food (“cheat” or “bad” foods vs “good” foods)
   - reframing the way you think about exercise
   
   
2. Support the diversity of people that are impacted by eating disorders; for eg:
   - showing yourself compassion
   - educating family and friends about the diversity of people who experience eating disorders (ie explaining that you can’t tell if someone has an eating disorder by looking at them)
   
   
3. Embrace and advocate for “Health at Every Size” principles; for eg:
   - weight inclusivity/ reject the idealizing or pathologizing of specific weights.
   - eating for wellbeing (ie hunger, nutritional needs, pleasure) rather than for weight control
   
   
4. Share your story and experiences of vulnerability and strength to empower others