A student eats: lunch alone in Foy Student Union. It isn’t uncommon for people to fear eating while in the company of others. Pete Riley / PHOTO EDITOR
A rampant phenomenon, nicknamed the Scarlet O’Hara syndrome has become increasingly popular among adolescents and adults who are reluctant to eat in public. Some psychologists recognize this trend as one of the early signs of anorexia, a starvation eating disorder.
The eating disorder community has placed the name of shy eaters on those who distribute certain characteristics and classified the behavior as “EDNOS, eating disorders not otherwise specified.”
Shy eating can be perceived as a competition.
In most cases, success is attributed to the person who seemed to eat the least amount of food. Sometimes food is even qualified as a test by people who struggle with eating in public because they think how much they eat says something about them.
The most prominent idiosyncrasy of a shy eater is the temptation to avoid food in public.
Warning signs include abstaining from eating in a public place when one is hungry or when it is meal time.
Courtney Willis, a sophomore in physical therapy, can relate to dangerous effects of this social behavior.
“My cousin struggled with an eating disorder for awhile and had the signs of a shy eater from the beginning,” said Willis. She felt like everybody was watching her eat so, she wouldn’t eat a lot. Instead, to make it look like she ate, she would just move her food around the plate.”
People with shy eating problems tend to hide the symptoms with believable excuses.
In the world of eating disorders, shy eating tends to fall into the cracks because most believe they do not really have a problem.
Many have even placed the obsession in the same category as heavy dieting and intense exercising, which in our society, are the norm.
Chelsea Quinlan, a freshman in public relations, identifies with pressures society places on women and body image.
“If I don’t know a person well, I sometimes feel uncomfortable with what I eat around them,” said Quinlan. “Don’t get me wrong, I love to eat, but under certain circumstances it feels awkward to have people watching what food I eat.”
The media is a convincing influence on eating disorders through its impact on image standards accepted by modern society.
The general public has put a black mark on food intake and a distorted body image has emerged from popular celebrity tabloids, television and even outlandish diet fads.
“I don’t understand all of the controversy over eating,” said Logan Unruh, a freshman in chemical engineering. “When I am out to dinner with friends, it just seems natural to be comfortable with what you order. I feel food is nothing to be embarrassed about.”
