February is a big month for social and health awareness. With Black History month, Eve Ensler’s VDAY to end violence against women and girls, and American Hearth Month being represented, it's pretty jam packed. Although less publicized, February is also Eating Disorder Awareness Month, with its specific awareness week being held from the 21^st to the 27^th.

Most of us remember being taught about Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa back in eighth grade health class, but there are several other types of eating disorders that they never seem to cover in schools. 30 million people in America suffer from an eating disorder, but only 1/3 of them suffer from either Anorexia or Bulimia. The remaining people suffering from these diseases have what is classified as EDNOS, or Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified. EDNOS is a catchall category for people who have an eating disorder, but do not meet all of the criteria, oftentimes weight, to be diagnosed with either Anorexia or Bulimia.

But there’s a problem with this somewhat lack of a diagnoses for people suffering from EDNOS. It's an invisible disease, so much so that sometimes not even the person suffering can see it fully and clearly. EDNOS can present itself in a multitude of different ways, so oftentimes the individuals who have the disease don’t have thigh gaps, look frail, or even appear to be underweight at all, which makes it more difficult for others to see that their loved ones are suffering, and makes it easier for the individuals with EDNOS to hide it.

It’s similar to how when you were little and afraid of the dark. You knew something was there, and while maybe you couldn’t see it, you knew it was scary and dangerous. Your parents came into your room and told you it’s not real, and that monsters are pretend. They even turned on the light to show you with your own eyes that nothing was there. What they didn’t realize was that sometimes even when the lights are on and everything looks normal, you’re still in danger. That's what it's like for people suffering from EDNOS.

In a 2010 article from Stanford Medicine, Dr. Rebecka Peebles explains that most people just patted individuals with EDNOS on the back for their weight loss, and because of that it often took months or years for others to realize that what they were doing didn’t seem healthy. We are trained through media portrayals and social constructs that there is a specific body type individuals suffering from an eating disorder have to have, but that just isn’t true.

This can lead to people suffering to feel unheard, unseen, and unimportant. Sometimes it can even lead to people suffering from EDNOS to feel like they aren’t sick enough, and that to actually have an eating disorder they need to meet the criteria for Anorexia or Bulimia, which can have horrifying consequences.

One of the most shocking statistics on EDNOS is that there are close to none available. There haven’t been any studies to find a treatment either. Oftentimes patients will be treated with the same protocol that someone with Anorexia or Bulimia is, but if someone's case of EDNOS doesn't match, it won't always work.

Some experts suggest that EDNOS is ignored because it’s difficult to study a heterogeneous group. If that were the case, it would make sense for researchers to pull out groups of homogenous disorders within the EDNOS category, because many are drastically different from one another, and break it up into more manageable research studies. But there is no information suggesting that is going to happen.

So as of now, EDNOS, and more specifically the 20 million people in America suffering from it, don’t have diagnoses or any hopes of a specialized treatment in sight. Awareness of this issue is so imperative because it’s time sensitive. Since no one can see that the people suffering from EDNOS are sick, and the people with EDNOS are under the influence of a disease that makes them believe that sicker is better, they’ll just keep getting worse, and no one will even notice. Eating disorders are isolating, silent, and have the highest mortality rate of all mental illnesses. We can’t just stand by letting these people suffer, because scientists and researches don’t know where to start. The answer is somewhere. Just start somewhere.

If we wait, we’ll wait until it’s an even greater nationwide epidemic and researchers have no other option than to try. The people sick right now can’t wait that long. They need people to stand with them and make sure they know their voices are heard.

This month is Eating Disorder Awareness Month. Say something.

For more information on EDNOS or where to find help please visit The National Eating Disorders Association or The Alliance For Eating Disorders Awareness.