I'm obsessed with getting my figure back after becoming a mother… Could I have an eating disorder now?

Yes, body dissatisfaction itself is considered a risk factor for developing an eating disorder . I encourage you to ask yourself: Where does this dissatisfaction come from? Do you desire this specific body? Or do you desire what you think you'll gain with that body?

With this I want to show you that dissatisfaction and the desire for a certain body type have their logic in a culture that does not show body diversity , that praises thinness ("congratulations, you look great"), that punishes and makes fatness invisible, and demands that we remain unchanged over time ("Wow, you look fantastic, you can't tell you've been a mother").

During pregnancy, a certain amount of permission is given to change, to gain weight ("eat calmly, you'll have time to lose it later"), but after childbirth this permission disappears and we are again urged "to recover", to erase any sign that shows that we have been mothers.

If you're experiencing this discomfort and fear developing an eating disorder, it's very likely that your life choices are already heavily influenced by this dissatisfaction. I recommend you seek help now . The sooner we address this, the better.

During pregnancy we are given some permission to gain weight, but after childbirth we are again urged to erase any sign that shows that we have been mothers.

Likewise, as I said, it would be good if we reflected on beauty ideals and how they function as a control mechanism . And instead of wasting energy, time, money, and risking our health to fit into socially constructed molds, we should invest our efforts in breaking them.
As activist Magda Piñeyro says: "Living in the desire to be someone else, in the perpetual possibility of inhabiting another body, means that you don't inhabit this one you have, this one you are."

Pressure to conform to beauty standards can trigger eating problems

Read more