I was pleased when a national television current affairs program sought to film an ‘exclusive’ segment on the release of my book My Kid Is Back – Empowering Parents to Beat Anorexia Nervosa.  The program producer wanted to film one of the 10 Australian families who tell their story in the book.

One family came forward and all was going well until the producer asked for photographs of the child, now 16, during her most ‘anorexic’ state – the producer presuming this meant when the child was most skeletal.

I responded that My Kid Is Back contains no photographs or weights.

I suggested that filming of the family-of-four take place around their dining table, sharing a meal. This was a great chance, I said, to portray a positive message about fighting eating disorders – to show that child and adolescent sufferers have the best chance of successful weight restoration and recovery when surrounded by a supportive and understanding family guided by family-based treatment professionals. The family’s around-the-clock love and commitment is vital in challenging the illness on behalf of the child until they regain the strength to fight it themselves and be free to resume their lives.

But this producer wanted to ‘shock’ viewers with a ‘sensational’ visual. A family sitting around the dining table, sharing a meal, was not it.

The segment was dropped.

I am disappointed that this television program wants to perpetuate distorted images, misconceptions and myths about eating disorders; that it wants to shock, shock and shock again, in the same damaging way, over and over.

You don’t need pictures to visualise the real story – the 10 families in My Kid Is Back are testimony to this.

The media is not to blame for eating disorders. Far from it. But it can do much to raise awareness, tell the truth, and ease the suffering caused by these hideous, deadly illnesses.

Last week, a Brisbane woman, 36, suffering a relapse from her childhood anorexia, overhead a new nurse say outside her hospital door: “You would think she would be over IT by now, wouldn’t you?”

We have to forgive the nurse, because her comment was borne of ignorance. Even in our hospitals, the views and knowledge of eating disorders in 2009 remains distorted, and extremely damaging. The 36-year-old is now being kept alive on a nasal gastric tube; she is clinging to a thread of her identity. Her anorexia is squeezing out her life.

Hear her plea: it’s time for a media makeover of anorexia nervosa.

Start by putting an end to the promulgation of unflattering images of emaciated girls on our TV screens and in pages of glossy women’s magazines. Such misleading images are likely to convince anyone with anorexic thoughts that they are not thin enough - more weight must be lost. Anorexia nervosa is an illness in the mind, and manipulates perceptions with deadly intent.

When anorexia nervosa rages, the sufferer does not want to eat or get well – because the illness is more powerful than their will. Small wonder then, that anorexia nervosa is difficult to treat and has the highest death rate of all psychiatric illnesses.

At a time when body image is being trumpeted, and we are shocked with images of people either emaciated or obese, the media is ignorant to the point of irresponsibility in depicting eating disorders. We need to look beyond the grossly damaging distortions of ‘thin’ and ‘fat’.

We need to stop treating sufferers of anorexia nervosa as some macabre catwalk and sideshow alley attraction for people to stare at, be repelled by and dismiss, saying ‘Crikey, all she has to do is EAT!’

Let’s set the record straight.

Instead of gawking at thinness, treat anorexia nervosa with the same degree of compassion as cancer. Do we gawk at or make derisive comments about a woman whose body has become emaciated due to cancer? No.

Eating disorders are not fads, phases or lifestyle choices. They are complex and devastating illnesses. Their exact cause is unknown but have a biological, genetic and environmental base. They affect people of all ages and can seriously affect physical and emotional health, quality of life and relationships. I know, because I developed anorexia when I was 11.

If you have imagined hell, anorexia is worse than that. The illness takes over the sufferer’s mind and robs them of their personality. Being ultra thin is only part of the suffering. Remember, this illness is in the mind. I took more than 40 years to recover most of my sense of self. Members of my own family often unwittingly fed my illness by making comments such as ‘you have Satan in you’, ‘you think about yourself too much’ and ‘there’s something wrong with your head’. At times, especially in my 20s and 30s, I was suicidal and almost joined the death statistics.

Anorexia’s mortality rate increases with the duration of the symptoms.

According to The Butterfly Foundation, Australia’s peak body on eating disorders, the outlook for those suffering from eating disorders in Australia is grim and statistics are alarming. The mortality rate is up to 20 per cent with many dying from suicide.

Eating disorders have been diagnosed in children as young as eight with an average age of onset at 17 years.

We don’t need shock-horror emaciated-grossly obese images in our homes. Families want to be supported by medical professionals and informed on how to help their children develop into happy, confident and secure young adults. The media can play a big role in this by feeding self-esteem instead of budding eating disorders.

Adolescents often develop bulimia as a consequence of their anorexia. Many sufferers continue to have anorexic thoughts for years after they have resumed a healthy weight. Haunted by food thoughts, they suffer low-self belief, self-doubt, have relationship problems and feel socially isolated. Not knowing where to turn for help, or if they can be helped, they feel ashamed and try to hide their illness, even from their partner and best friends. They are a prisoner of their mind.

Mass media such as TV and fashion magazines can help enormously in creating a healthier and more empowering culture and society.

With breast cancer, for instance, we are not subjected to shocking images of affected breasts; rather, we are encouraged as a community to purchase pink ribbons to raise funds for research and to treat sufferers and their families, their carers, with compassion. Let’s treat those whose lives are affected by eating disorders with the same respect.

Hit the delete button on images of emaciated bodies ravaged by anorexia nervosa. Treat eating disorders with sensitivity and reveal their complexity. Promote awareness of symptoms and strategies, and encourage early intervention. Promote preventative measures such as the building of self-esteem in children and families. Push for more training of clinicians and medical students in Family-Based Treatment, also known as the Maudsley Approach. And call for more funding into eating disorder research.

The establishment this year of the National Eating Disorders Collaboration in Australia is a welcome step in the right direction in addressing misconceptions, and the fragmented, disjointed and inadequate eating disorder services and support systems.

* For details on symptoms of eating disorders and where to get help in Australia go to: www.thebutterflyfoundation.org.au

* Such details are also listed in My Kid Is Back