Written transcript of video on Ramadan and Eating Disorders

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assalamualaikum everyone my name is

00:01

maliha and i'm a licensed therapist who

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loves sharing information about mental

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health

00:06

ramadan is around the corner and while

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it comes with its own set of blessings

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and challenges

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this time can be especially difficult

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for muslims who are struggling with

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eating disorders

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today i invited naji han who's a

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therapist that specializes in working

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with eating disorders so that she can

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shed some light on this topic thank you

00:23

so much for joining us najiha

00:25

thank you for having me of course i'm so

00:27

excited to talk about this topic because

00:29

i feel like

00:30

it's going to be very beneficial for a

00:32

lot of people one of the first things i

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kind of wanted to start off with was

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talking a little bit

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about the prevalence of eating disorders

00:40

in the muslim community

00:41

yeah you know it's unfortunate that

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there's just not a lot of research

00:45

at all on muslims and i mean mental

00:48

health in general in muslim communities

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but

00:51

um eating disorders especially there's

00:52

not a lot of numbers in the us

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on what that looks like however there's

00:56

no reason to believe

00:58

that it isn't just as prevalent if not

01:00

more prevalent

01:01

as compared to the general population so

01:03

with the general population you know

01:05

the numbers vary depending on the type

01:07

of eating disorder it could be anywhere

01:09

from

01:10

one to ten percent of people that are

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living with an eating disorder

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there is research that suggests that

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minorities tend to have higher rates

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of eating disorders and especially

01:21

racial and ethnic minorities and so

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you know we can safely assume that a lot

01:25

of muslims might be experiencing eating

01:27

disorders at higher rates the numbers do

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show that minorities tend to be under

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diagnosed

01:32

with eating disorders so clinicians

01:35

therapists

01:36

people just aren't as likely to notice

01:38

these behaviors in people who are

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minorities and so

01:40

the numbers again might be high in

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muslim communities but

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it might just be getting missed there

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was actually a study done in the uae

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that showed that

01:49

teen girls had higher levels actually

01:51

twice

01:52

twice the number of cases of anorexia

01:56

than teen girls in britain what are some

01:58

of the common misconceptions that

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muslims have about eating disorders the

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biggest misconception might be that it

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doesn't even exist

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in our communities people tend to think

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that you know if you have a good

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relationship with god then you're going

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to be able to feed yourself and to

02:14

to just not have these struggles and

02:18

obviously that's not true right those

02:20

things are not correlated

02:22

and another big misconception is that

02:23

eating disorders

02:25

only happen to women or that they only

02:28

happen to teenagers and that's also not

02:30

true we have people who have a lifetime

02:32

of eating disorders that they're dealing

02:34

with we have men who have eating

02:35

disorders and that's

02:36

that's way more common than we might

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think another one is that

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i think because a lot of muslims come

02:43

from more collectivistic cultures here

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in the us

02:46

they might think that we wouldn't have

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eating disorders because we live in

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these

02:50

family groups that would protect us from

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that and that

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people would be able to pick up on it if

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you have an eating disorder and that's

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also not true because

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eating disorders can very easily be

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hidden they can very easily fly under

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the radar

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a lot of people they don't lose an

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immense amount of weight as you might

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think they might just be around their

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regular weight so

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you wouldn't be able to see that on

03:12

somebody and also just diet culture

03:14

that somebody who is restricting their

03:16

food intake who is over exercising

03:19

that those things are celebrated so you

03:21

know and

03:22

that's really unfortunate they associate

03:24

eating disorders with

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being very thin or looking a certain way

03:28

and so

03:29

it can go under the radar when we don't

03:32

know what to kind of

03:32

look out for right right and that's yes

03:35

and there's

03:36

several different ways to have an eating

03:38

disorder you know there's

03:40

people who might be experiencing

03:41

anorexia there's people who might be

03:43

experiencing bulimia and folks with

03:45

bulimia

03:46

again their weight may not fluctuate

03:49

that much

03:50

if they may not be any drastic changes

03:52

they might look the same as you've

03:54

always seen them

03:55

even though there's a lot of changes

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going on internally in their body

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um due to the purging binging cycles

04:02

that they're in

04:03

and then there's folks with binge eating

04:05

disorder who might be experiencing

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weight gain

04:08

or no weight gain um you know everyone's

04:10

bodies are so different

04:12

and then there's also our fed which is

04:15

avoidant restricted

04:16

food intake disorder yep and with that

04:19

you know it's not even about body image

04:22

folks with arfid are not

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refraining from eating because they want

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to lose weight but it's something

04:28

out of their control and so sometimes

04:29

those two things might get conflated

04:31

that oh if you're not eating then you

04:32

must not be happy with your body which

04:34

is not always true either

04:35

also i think helpful to look at what um

04:38

influences your loved one is a part of

04:41

so like athlete culture sport culture

04:43

eating disorders are highly prevalent

04:46

there um

04:47

just because it's the environment that

04:49

they're in right already over exercising

04:52

being told what they should or shouldn't

04:54

eat how much they should weigh

04:56

and so i think that's also a

04:57

misconception that if someone is

04:59

over exercising and they're an athlete

05:00

then it's okay but that's not

05:02

necessarily true

05:03

i've noticed this happening in the uh

05:05

they see brown community that

05:07

conversations surrounding weight

05:09

especially for women is something that's

05:11

discussed quite a lot

05:12

right and conversations those can be

05:15

very detrimental

05:17

for someone who is recovering from an

05:19

eating disorder or experiencing that

05:22

but it's really unfortunate that

05:24

although those conversations are so

05:25

prevalent

05:26

the conversations surrounding recovery

05:28

and

05:29

healthy eating habits and all of that

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that's something that's

05:32

that's not talked about at all you

05:35

really hit the nail on the head

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i think that in our cultures like people

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almost feel like they have a right to

05:40

your body and

05:41

they can just make these comments about

05:43

you and how you're looking these days

05:45

and oh you look like you haven't been

05:46

eating much

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like that's such a common thing for us

05:49

without realizing that that's not

05:51

helping that individual it might

05:52

actually be really harming them

05:54

what are some of the challenges that

05:56

muslims face in ramadan

05:58

when they're struggling with eating

05:59

disorders a lot of cultural practices

06:02

during ramadan

06:03

can really trigger the same eating

06:05

disorder behaviors that people are

06:07

trying to heal from so

06:08

a good example of that is when you know

06:10

like you're expected to not eat anything

06:12

all day and then come sunset

06:15

you most of us have a whole feast in

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front of us that we're expected to eat

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and for folks who are trying to heal

06:21

from binging behaviors

06:23

or from restricting purging cycles

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that can really you know light up that

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part of themselves that they're trying

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to heal from

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because it just puts their brain back in

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that spot that they're trying to grow

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from

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part of healing from disordered eating

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is to get back in touch

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with the natural cues your body gives

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you for hunger and fullness

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and in ramadan you're you know you're

06:45

expected to kind of ignore those cues

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and just not

06:48

eat and not listen to your body not

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listen to your stomach when it grumbles

06:51

and so that can also kind of set

06:52

somebody back

06:53

and throw their healing off course that

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offset and somebody's schedule can

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throw off their healing as well and i

07:01

think you know one big one

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that we don't talk about enough is just

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the guilt that people feel for not

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engaging in this religious obligation

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that's just a very unique thing that

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people with eating disorders deal with

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in ramadan that everyone around them is

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fasting and

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they can't participate in it not because

07:15

they don't necessarily want to

07:17

but because of an illness that they

07:19

can't even always verbalize to the

07:21

people around them

07:22

when we're trying to help people to eat

07:24

again after

07:25

a period of restricting themselves we

07:27

want them to get back on

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a schedule that they can regularly eat

07:30

and monitor their eating

07:32

and it's again really hard to do that in

07:35

ramadan when

07:36

you don't really have an eating schedule

07:38

most people will just

07:39

not eat when the sun's out and then eat

07:41

when the sun's down and there's no real

07:43

schedule to that

07:44

and that can make it really tricky so

07:46

how does someone decide if fasting in

07:48

ramadan

07:49

is the right thing for them when they're

07:50

in recovery talk to

07:52

your recovery team so if you know people

07:55

with eating disorders

07:56

will probably have a therapist a

07:58

dietitian a doctor they'll have all

08:00

kinds of people on their team

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so you know pick one of them whoever you

08:04

you feel like you can have this

08:05

conversation with

08:06

and talk to them about this when you're

08:09

in the midst of your own

08:10

eating disorder you might miss certain

08:13

things you might not

08:14

know the full context of what's going on

08:16

around you so it can just be helpful to

08:18

get a second opinion

08:20

a professional opinion on what can be

08:21

healthy for you

08:23

some questions that they might ask you

08:24

to help you figure it out is

08:26

um are you at your goal weight yet

08:29

if you're not yet at your goal weight

08:31

then they may not want you to fast yet

08:33

they may want to get a feel for what

08:34

your coping skills are like so if you're

08:36

planning on fasting during ramadan you

08:38

might get triggered by the people around

08:40

you you might get activated and so it's

08:42

going to be

08:43

really important to be able to cope with

08:45

those negative

08:46

emotions that will come up and so um

08:49

just making sure that your coping skills

08:51

are set before ramadan starts will be

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important

08:54

if you've been through an eating

08:55

disorder it will be difficult to

08:57

separate that part of yourself that

08:58

that used to fast for other reasons from

09:01

fasting for god

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and so if there's a part of you that's

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feeling like you're not going to be able

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to separate those things

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then it might be a good idea to take a

09:09

step back how can

09:10

friends and family help their loved ones

09:12

when they're going through

09:13

so i think malia you mentioned it really

09:15

well earlier when you said like just how

09:17

we comment on other people's weight

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and bodies so really to refrain from

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doing that it could really trigger

09:24

someone even if you think you're helping

09:26

um but you know even a comment that you

09:28

think is harmless like oh it looks like

09:30

it looks like you've

09:31

put on a little bit of weight or you

09:33

know you look good you lost weight

09:36

all those things can be really harmful

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for people and one thing people

09:40

also don't think about a much more

09:42

insidious way that this happens

09:43

is commenting on your own weight and

09:46

your own body

09:47

so saying things like i i need to get

09:49

back in shape

09:50

i don't want to eat eat this cookie or

09:52

something because it's

09:54

unhealthy so refraining from commenting

09:57

on yourself is also really important you

09:59

know you may think that it's just

10:01

if i'm just talking about myself like

10:02

how can that person be impacted by it

10:04

but it is getting internalized for them

10:06

so so not asking invasive questions so

10:09

like i noticed i noticed you were not

10:10

fasting today or

10:12

um you know how come you're eating that

10:13

much or asking these questions can be

10:16

really hurtful and just puts that person

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in a painful place that they're trying

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to heal from

10:22

so don't force conversations onto people

10:25

but

10:25

be there for them when they are ready to

10:28

talk about it my final question for you

10:30

was what are some resources that people

10:32

can utilize

10:33

and i'll go ahead and i'll link that

10:35

information in the description box for

10:36

the video so that

10:38

people can keep coming back to it if

10:39

they need to the national

10:41

eating disorder association crisis text

10:43

line is is

10:45

really a great resource to use um i

10:47

think you can just text

10:48

neda 2741741

10:51

so the alliance for eating disorders um

10:54

there's eating recovery center erc

10:57

that does great work and they have

10:58

locations in texas

11:00

um and then for people who want to

11:02

educate themselves there's also

11:03

something called

11:04

edie catalog you can find a lot of

11:06

different books online

11:07

that are really great for just body

11:09

image disordered eating

11:11

the social justice impacts of eating

11:13

disorder

11:14

and yeah there's a lot of great

11:16

resources on there as well

11:17

that's awesome i think that could be so

11:19

helpful for a lot of family members too

11:21

because

11:21

i feel like in our community especially

11:24

information about mental illness or

11:25

eating disorders

11:26

it's just not talked about so people

11:28

don't even know where to start

11:29

and if they can have somewhere to go to

11:31

where they can learn about hey how do i

11:33

help my loved one

11:34

you know cope with what they're going

11:36

through it could be something that's

11:37

very helpful

11:38

i wanted to say thank you so much for

11:40

for doing this video with me i think

11:42

it's going to be so helpful for a lot of

11:43

people who are who are

11:45

struggling with an eating disorder or

11:46

loved ones who don't even know kind of

11:48

where to start

11:49

with this whole process so i'm really

11:51

happy that you were able to make time

11:53

and enjoy today yes thank you this is

11:56

really lovely thanks for having me

11:57

if you found this information to be

11:59

helpful make sure to share this video

12:01

like it and subscribe to my channel so

12:04

that you can learn more information

12:05

about mental health

12:06

don't forget to share this video on your

12:08

social media platforms so that more

12:10

people can learn and benefit ramadan

12:12

mubarak and i'll see you in the next one

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