Anorexia: why Asia isn’t talking about this mental illness, and the survivors and therapists battling ignorance of the eating disorder
- Eating disorders are not widely discussed or acknowledged in places such as Malaysia and Hong Kong, where there is pressure for people to be thin
- Because of the stigma about mental illness, anorexia sufferers often do not seek help – and where there is any, it is expensive. Survivors hope to change that
When Yong Jun Kueh was 18, she discovered she had gained weight over the course of her secondary school final exams, so she went on a two-day detox programme.
After 48 hours on a diet of juices, protein shakes and vitamin tablets, her trousers hung loose on her hips, and she felt satisfied. So she extended the programme for a few more days. Then, she extended it for a couple more weeks. A cycle had begun.
The young woman’s weight tumbled. At the height of her eating disorder, she weighed 35kg – less than an average 11-year-old girl. She was dying, but she felt carefree.
“I was conscious that I was sick. I wanted to use my willpower to overcome my body instincts,” she explains. “I felt a relief from the need to achieve something in my life.”
Kueh’s struggle is not uncommon. Eating disorders are a growing global health concern. According to a 2019 review of studies, the prevalence of eating disorders has more than doubled worldwide between 2000 and 2018, rising from 3.5 per cent to 7.8 per cent.
In 2007, researchers in Hong Kong found that 3.9 per cent of the city’s adolescent boys and 6.5 per cent of adolescent girls had experience of eating disorders. Another study that year found that about one in five secondary school students aged 12 to 18 were at risk of disordered eating – 26.6 per cent of girls surveyed, and 18.5 per cent of boys.