Halloween might be a great time for fun and gore, but many people are dealing with the fear of facing candy and costume celebrations.
Many experts say Halloween can be challenging for people struggling with body image issues or eating disorders. According to Dr. Anna Tanner, Halloween is an occasion to dress up, eat candy, and experience peer pressure. “What should be fun and worry-free might trigger eating disorders.”
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Several national leaders in eating disorder treatment, awareness, and recovery, including Veritas Collaborative and Emily Program, have told Yahoo Life that there are many different types of eating disorders, and each has other behaviors and restrictions. There can be issues for all of them at Halloween.
According to Dr. Kimberly Dennis, a NEDA’s Clinical Advisory Council member, diet culture perpetuates food fears and struggles with food.
She said, “During Halloween, the focus is on candy. And the messages we get about candy in our society can be toxic. i.e., ‘it’s bad, bad food, not healthy, you’re bad for eating it.’
Registered dietician Marissa Meshulam agrees, citing diet culture’s labeling system as a cause of disordered eating. She said, “People with eating disorders develop a fear of foods they perceive as ‘bad,’ including candy and Halloween treats.”
Social settings that integrate fear foods into our culture force us to engage in specific unpleasant discussions and fear foods. Candy obsessions might also be indicators of disordered eating to parents and peers whose attention they might not have been paying.
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The emphasis on body image in Halloween costumes can trigger reactions from people struggling or recovering from eating disorders. Tanner said, “It can present many challenges and worry about shape and weight and size.” It may just be another event where people worry about their shape and size, where they’re driven to be the perfect body, to meet expectations for Halloween costumes.
Even though Halloween can be a group mentality, Meshulam recommends people pick out costumes based on their preferences. She said, “There’s a lot of work, there’s a lot of preparation. There’s a lot of work at the moment. There’s a lot of work afterward as well.”